As most of you probably know, prior to D-Day a number of Atlantic Wall mock-ups were constructed across britain to aid training; as well as my local one at Sheriffmuir in Stirlingshire, there's one in Surrey and another at the Castlemartin ranges in Wales. Turns out that someone's just discovered another possible one in Suffolk: this is an email sent to Chris Shepheard, who runs a website on the Surrey one. "Dear Chris, I am a volunteer researcher for Orford Museum (Suffolk) and contacting you about your web site relating to the Atlantic Wall in Surrey. Orford Museum is a registered charity and has permanent display exhibits in Orford Castle which is operated by English Heritage. In October last year we held a very successful two day exhibition in Orford Town Hall to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the release of the villages of Sudbourne and Iken back to the residents following their requisition by the Army as a battle training area by the 79th Armoured Division under Major-General Sir Percy “Hobo” Hobart. During the course of the event and since then further information has been forthcoming about events and items that relate to the period between 1942 and 1948. Following information from a local resident I attended a location in the village of Sudbourne with our curator and the landowner where we are now certain we have discovered a section of the missing concrete Atlantic Wall. The present section of wall, built into a bank separating two fields, is 22 metres long and eight feet high. I have been in contact with the Tank Museum and obtained from them a copy of their photograph reference No. 0359/A/4 showing a Churchill Double Onion placing a charge against a wall. This photograph has been identified as having been taken at Sudbourne on the section of wall we have now located. In addition I have today received a scan of an aerial photograph taken of the site by the RAF in 1945, and part of the wall can be seen by zooming in on the image. We will be including a report on this find in a future newsletter to all the Friends of the Museum and to provide images to compare what we have in our area and you have in Surrey I would be most obliged if you could let me have photographs of your wall, as per the examples on your web site. I have attached three photographs of our wall, which is not easily discernible as it is covered by vegetation. Your web site has been very helpful to us during our research and we would like to thank you for that assistance. Best wishes Brian Boulton. Old School House, Farnham Road, Snape, Saxmundham, Suffolk, IP17 1QW. Tel. 01728 688999" It's early days, but it sounds interesting.
that would be a very interesting find indeed..........and pretty big too, 22m - it beats finding bits of shrapnel in a field !
Certainly would, Andy. People have speculated for years as to where the picture of the 'Double Onion' was actually taken; we might have the answer at long last.
Great stuff Mate ;-)) On a distantly related subject-I meant to ask you if you heard about that I think it was a 47 million yar old skeleton of a Primate that was found somewhere in Germany. I was going to post about that but had no time. Anyway-it's a complete skeleton and the size of it is about the size of a household Cat.
Yes mate, I did. It's been all over our news for the last couple of days. If they're right about it being a distant relative of primates- more a long-lost aunt than a direct link to man- it's exciting stuff indeed. BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Scientists hail stunning fossil
Ahh, thanks Gordon ;-)) I hadn't heard much of the story when it aired-thanks for the links Mate ;-)) Heh heh, if you only knew a co-worker/friend of mine who was also a Correctional Officer-you would think that Curtis was THE missing link. We always used to kid him about it becaus he really does look like a living Caveman. Of course-he's no cavemen but more of a Teddybear ;-))
You reminded me of an exchange that happened between myself and an anthropology prof. I had when I returned to college at the age of 44. He was going on about how and why the Neanderthal went extinct, and the different theories concerning same. After class I went up to the fellow and put in my two cents worth. I was of the strong belief that they were "absorbed" into sapien-sapien group when the two ran into each other. Now I know that the scientists have compared DNA from the two groups, and find no similar genome links between them. But at the time ('93), this wasn't known. Anyway, I went up to the prof. and informed him he had never met my cousin Mike, or he would know the caveman never went extinct. Heavy brow ridge, single unbroken eyebrow, hairy shoulders, neck, arms and legs, heavy beard by the eighth grade, and the build of a weight lifter without doing the work of lifting. Just naturally heavy duty build. Mike was also a gentle fellow, and wouldn't hurt anybody on purpose. The prof. laughted and said; "you may be right, but it is still just an opinion."
Hi Clint-you just almost perfectly described my co-worker-and no fooling either. I wish I had a photo of Curtis-you would almost swear that he was the missing link. Im not making funn of him or anything but--he fits a Cavemans description to a T. This also reminds me of an exchange I had with a man who was in concentration camps from 1940 to end of the war. His last name was Samelsen. Anyway, I was sitting at a table with hugh stack of books on WWII at a table inside Barnes and Nobles Bookstore-when he came in and gave a lecture about the Waffen SS-and had been talking about them being in Stalingrad. I was not a part of his audience but I listened to what he had to say-and after he mentioned the Waffen SS being at Stalingrad-I had to interject and said they indeed were NOT @ Stalingrad-that perhapse he made a mistake saying Stalingrad but meaning another City. Anyway, the audience was taken aback about what I said-and I just happened to have included in that stack of books-at leat three that were about Stalingrad. Some newspaper reportar and a TV reported asked me a few questions and wanted an interview after Samelsens speech was over. Well, when it was over-that Professor-Samelsen-came up to me and asked about what i knew about the War in the East-and I gave him answersto each of his questions. He also had thanked me for correcting his "wrong" and sai that he would make it a point to do more reseach abut what German units were at Stalingrad. All I know is that no Waffen SS unit served there. Now-it's entirely possible that there were a few Waffen SS guys there-just like those some 40 odd Italian truck drivers-and some Rumanians and Hungarians. Anyway-to make a long-shorter--I wound up on Channel 3 news that evening-as well as in the next edition of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times paper-which was the next mornings edition. One of the people in the audience came up to me and said he was trying to learn what he could about Stalingrad and said he thought about telling Prof Samelsen that he was in error about including the Waffen SS in the 6th Armies Stalingrad Order of Battle. However he didn't because he admitted to not knowing much.
