Military Archaeology

A sad reflection from those who just don't stop and think.

 

Nice to see people like you Gordon taking photos of these sites
Which are disappearing due to nature and man at this rate that's all we will have left.

 

Cheers Richard. Sometimes obsessions are good!
Just found this-
Search starts for Lampeter Spitfire crash site

 

Interesting that link Gordon nice one.

 

Something to make us all stop and think.



A very poignant memorial.

Gordon can you shed some light on this pilot?

 

Ian,
The link isn't working I'm afraid.

 

yep the site I found out on has since died...

I'll see if I can grab the image.

It's a roadside memorial to P/O A.W.Clarke of No 504 Squadron was shot down and killed on the 11th of September 1940 at 16:00 in his Hurricane I (P3770) over Romney. Looks like it was put up by his parents and reads "One of the Few, killed somewhere near this spot"

[ 17. March 2006, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: pillboxesuk ]

 

I've visited that memorial ! Nearly driving my wife crazy as we trundled up and down narrow lanes on Romney Marsh trying to locate it....

It is indeed very poignant and a very fitting memorial indeed. The Hurricane plunged deep into the marsh alongside the road. Years ago aviation archaeologists offered to try to excavate the crash site but the family asked that it be left as it was with the pilots remains still in the aircraft.

It's a quiet and remote spot, and you do indeed think that it's right and proper that the young flyer should lie where he fell in the land he was defending.



( Later : Fuller details are to be found in the book 'Men Of The Battle Of Britain' by K G Wynn. Pilot Officer Alfred William Clarke was born in 1919 and joined 504 Squadron at RAF Debden in April 1940. He was shot down in combat with Bf 109s at 16;00 hrs on 11/9/40 and reported 'missing'. His aircraft was only identified when the Kent BofB Museum excavated the site of an 'unknown' Hurricane and discovered items identifying the aircraft. When it bacame clear that the pilots remains were still in the cockpit, his family made the above request which was respected ; the roadside memorial being dedicated on September 11th, 1986 ).

[ 17. March 2006, 10:23 AM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ]

 

Ok have now got an image, but unfortunately too poor to read the inscription.


However, I agree wholeheartedly with Martin's comments.

 

Good find, Ian. I wonder how many more there are like it? I wasn't aware of this memorial previously.
Thanks for the info too, Martin.

 

Just had a newsflash that the exact place where Sergeant Alvin York won his MOH in WW1 has finally been located, ending decades of speculation-
Sergeant York's Field of Glory found

 

Gordon your posting above brings up some Linux test page.

Re P/O Clarke memorial, I stumbled across it looking for invasion defences in the area about 15 years ago. How did you hear about it Martin?

[ 17. March 2006, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: pillboxesuk ]

 

Ian,
The link seems to work ok for me?
Try this

 

yep that works, fascinating piece of detective work! How do you find these?

 

Great links to the Hurricane pilot story and the Sgt. York story. You really come through for us with all of them. Thanks Gordon. I like the idea of an archeology course in WWII military sites.

 

Ian,
Sign of a misspent youth!
No, actually I'm a member of these-
CAIRN Message Board
CAIRN
Ice,
That archaeology course would be seventh heaven to me too.

 

The CAIRN group looks like something right up our alley. There must be lots of links you get from them. I will have to bookmark them as well.

 

Here's an interesting one I've received recently which the forum may be able to solve, although I'm not at all certain that this is military archaeology...

The email reads..

"In the woods behind our house there is a group of three structures that
we have always understood to be part of the anti-invasion system that
was set up during WW2. They are now crumbling quite rapidly so I am
taking photographs of them before they disappear completely. There is
evidence on the ground of a fourth structure that has now disappeared.

There are three huts. One larger, the second hut is a
smaller version of this one. The third structure is a much plainer
square-shaped building made out of blocks, with just one window. It
appears to be more of a storage facility or an animal shed (it has a
horizontally split door, and there has been no attempt to give it
"beams" on the outside). The large hut shown in this photo had a proper
front door with a letter box. Inside are several rooms, and all were
wired up with proper light switches etc.

I would be interested to know exactly what they were used for. On the
other side of this hut is a recently drawn-up sign saying "Danger, deep
well". Could there be an OB or a bunker below it? Any information on
websites where I could learn more about these interesting structures
would be welcomed."


Ordnance Survey Map of area

 

See what you mean, Ian. Could be that the larger hut was a requisitioned civilian one, since it seems a complicated design; then again, it's built on the same kind of foundations I've seen on Nissen huts.
The smaller hut could be a WO addition, with the breeze block one used for storing ammo/fuel.
I'll have a trawl through some books to see if there's any kind of military structure noted there.

 

I think if this was a military camp it was taken over by the post-war squatters, as they seem to have been "civilianised"

Here's a link to an interesting essay on the movement

The Squatters of 1946

Here's the intro.

"All over Britain in the summer of 1946 homeless families squatted in camps left disused by the armed forces, and in offices and empty blocks of flats. This was direct action over the most pressing social issue of the day. Domestic politics was shaken, and for a moment “the government feared widespread disorder… an outbreak of direct action which could have spread like a prairie fire.” "