World War Two: Evidence of damage/stuff left over now.

[ecsrobin]

MBBlat said:

During WW2 the local beach was used to embark British & Canadian troops prior to D-Day as well as build sections of mulberry harbour.

To facilitate this a 2 story control tower was built - its still in use as a sailing club
http://www.stokesbay-sc.co.uk/history.php

The club still displays some invasion stripes

Thanks for pointing out the invasion stripes, I always pass it, read the sign and yet never paid attention to the stripes.

[mcelliott]

Observation tower situated on our south coast cliff top today. Bit imposing this one.

[DrDoofenshmirtz]

[wildcat45]

Celtic Dragon said:

I know who owns the woods we rent, it's the land owner that lives in the Manor House I mentioned. The land and house were returned to the family in 1948.

Don't think it's a water tower base, it's on a fairly steep but short slope and 10 feet from 1 of the buildings.

I take it the landowner wasn't about then so doesn't know. How about older locals? The tunnel sounds fascinating if potentially dangerous.

[williamp]

DrDoofenshmirtz said:

That great. I didnt know ayny pluto still survived (of course these days the interet would correct the use of the word Ocean...)

Very rare these days: bollards made from Trafalar cannons.

[Martin4x4]

Celtic Dragon said:

Has anybody got any experiance or tips on tracing WW2 buildings? In my archery club, we have 2 ww2 buildings and what looks like a base for an mast of some sort, or atleast a tether for 1.

Another possibility is anchor points for barrage balloons.

[Celtic Dragon]

ninja-lewis said:

The Defence of Britain project may have information. The data is a available as a KMZ download, which can be opened and viewed in Google Earth.

http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/...

Thank you for that it did show a few up in the area, but not in the area of the club and most have now been removed from existance Guess to return the land back to farm land.

[Celtic Dragon]

Martin4x4 said:

Another possibility is anchor points for barrage balloons.

That thought had occured to me, but I ruled it out with the proximity to the building.

Due to work and competition commitments at the club, I'm not going to be able get photo's for a couple of weeks. Once I have clear access (ie not likely to get shot), I'll grab pics of the tether block and buildings.

[ecsrobin]

DrDoofenshmirtz said:

Shanklin on the IoW?

[maxdb]

Whilst this was from a museum so it's kind of cheating, I thought it would be good to share. I've not seen an anti air craft gun before so was quite surprised on how big they actually are.



Edit - this may not be from WW2 but gives you an idea on size.

[Morningside]

PhilboSE said:

Morningside said:

Pillboxes are everywhere. There are some at Southwold, Walberswick and Blythburgh.

At Southwold there are also some very large concrete tank traps and Blythburgh still floods on purpose to stop a land invasion.

There's also this, whole street used to be Victorian terraces but some got bombed and they were replaced in the 1950's with the 2 houses in the middle. Half of Malborough Road also got bombed but they rebuilt on the old Victorian foundations so it's not so obvious. Apparently if the German bombers hadn't found their main target then they would offload their bombs on the last target as they left England, so there's a lot of this on the East Coast.

Morningside said:

Oddly at Southwold on Mights Bridge there is one hidden on the Reydon side.

Is there? I must be driving with my eyes shut - never seen it in probably 1000 transits over the bridge!

Thanks for that. Very interesting. I remember my wife talking about it a few times.

Yes. As you approach Mights Bridge from Reydon going into Southwold on the right hand side hidden amongst all brambles there is a pillbox hidden away.

I expect you also noticed the pill box on the A12 as you take the Southwold turnoff at Blythburgh.

There are also very, very strong rumours that slightly up the coast at Covehite hidden in the wood there is a massive munitions dump.

[Rostfritt]

moorx said:

There are a couple of WW2-related facts/photos in amongst this:

http://www.bristol-culture.com/2014/08/08/18-thing...

(I'm Bristolian by birth).

Thank's for this, never realised the extent of the tunnels underneath.

There is quite a bit of evidence by way of gaps in rows of houses and 70s buildings which are completely out of place. Kingsdown was hit a few times and quite a lot of what survived was ripped down to build tower blocks in a move which today would have been considered completely insane.

[Scoobman]

Hill 112 Normandy

[Scoobman]

Third Reich Rally Platz, Known as a Thing Platz in the woods near Heidelburg

[NelsonM3]

Scoobman said:

Third Reich Rally Platz, Known as a Thing Platz in the woods near Heidelburg

There are loads of these in Germany. If they didn't have the Nazi link they would actually make pretty good outdoor venues.

There is a great site called Third Reich in Ruins that has most of the stuff left in Germany.

Edited by NelsonM3 on Monday 28th September 21:12

[DrDoofenshmirtz]

ecsrobin said:

Shanklin on the IoW?

Yes.

[Celtic Dragon]

The search has now gained some legs and I feel a trip tot he IWM or Nation Archives comming on. With a bit of help from my mother (shes an expert at trawling through archives thanks to familiy archives) on how to search, the below snippet has come to life. I just hope if they were SOE buildings their not covered by the 100 year ruling on offical secrets.

2 prefabricated huts located at Quarry Hills. Hidden from the road in a dip surrounded by woods their use is unknown, although they may have been associated with Tempsford Airfield. The smaller hut was breeze block lined with brick partitions, a dry concrete floor and 3 hatches. The longer hut was constructed in the same manner with no partitions and the ends knocked out. Between the huts is a sump and above the smaller hut is a concrete block with anchor bolts of unknown use. Internally evidence of paint suggests that the huts were either used as living quarters or were permanently manned.

[Mal001]

Morningside said:

There are also very, very strong rumours that slightly up the coast at Covehite hidden in the wood there is a massive munitions dump.

That's interesting. Is it on the Benacre estate?

[Morningside]

Mal001 said:

Morningside said:

There are also very, very strong rumours that slightly up the coast at Covehite hidden in the wood there is a massive munitions dump.

That's interesting. Is it on the Benacre estate?

No further back than that. hard to explain but someone local remembers it when he was a boy and swears it is still there.

[Mal001]

There are a lot of pillboxes and buildings on the beach at Covehithe. I'll have to take the dogs up there again for a mooch.