Military Archaeology

More interior shots-this is the Plotting Room.





This is the small room at the far end of the previous picture.



The emergency exit.



This curved access path connects the emergency exit with the front of the building.



All thats left of the accommodation part of this site is this strange building. Anyone know what it was used for?



And this 'water tank' at the north end of the site is where I took the overview from.



[ 18. August 2005, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

This looks good.
Merlin engine goes on display

 

Just heard an interesting bit of news from some friends in Surrey.
They're interested in researching Tweedsmuir Camp, near Hankley Common 'Atlantic Wall', and it turns out there are rumours of a Sherman tank being disposed of in a bog on Thursley Common (now a nature reserve, I believe). There was also some other surplus equipment buried there when the camp was abandoned, but I'd better not reveal too much!
Anyone who knows the area able to give me some more info?

 

An all too familiar story, unfortunately.
Bid to stop divers on Orkney wrecks.

 

One for Gordon!

Lossiemouth Defences

 

Thanks Ian-what a guy!
A very nice set of pictures.
I'd like to get up there for a look, and also to get over to the Tentsmuir Nature Reserve near St. Andrews. Apparently, the Polish troops stationed in Fife took their anti-invasion plans very seriously, and as a result Tentsmuir is supposedly thick with fortifications.
One day............

 

Another great military website to look at. No wonder I have so many books that I haven't read yet. Great website PillboxesUK.

 

I like this guy's style.......a lot!
Gimme Shelter Plea

 

Took some time to find out what the Anderson Shelter was, but it was very interesting. This collection must not be as big as I thought though. The shelters were not that big.

I wonder how many of them may still be in existence in back yards?

 

You do still see Anderson shelters in odd places - farmyards, waste ground etc.

Yes, I should think the gentleman's collection is...modest ( but he sounds like my kind of eccentric ! )

 

I am not that up on WWI except for aviation so forgive me for the dumb question. Did the British think the Germans would invade them in WWI. I was looking at the pill boxes from Pillboxsuk's posting of Lossie Scotland when I had this question.
Noticed too you have anouther new metal Gordon ! Guess it will be a bit before you get the next one though.

 

There was threat of invasion to East Anglia from the German North Sea Coast so a number of pillboxes were built in WW1. Mostly small circular ones.

 

Cheers TA! Got my work cut out now though.
Britain had many coastal defence batteries guarding the coast in WW1; Ian Hogg covered it in his 1974 book Britain's Coastal Defences 1856-1956. Batteries started being built in the late Victorian era, and this accelerated immediately before and during WW1. This was fuelled by the armaments race with Germany, and also by a 1904 book (forget the name/author)chronicling a fictional German invasion of Britain.
As far as the Firth of Forth went, there were three lines of defences (across both sides of the water)starting from the North Sea end and finishing up at the Forth (rail!) bridge (east of where Rosyth Naval Base now lies). Most of these batteries can still be seen.
If you go back a few pages in this thread, you'll see photos I took of loopholes in the wall of the old ferry road at Kincardine Bridge, Fife. The bridge wasn't built until 1936, so these loopholes would have had clear fields of fire across the mudflats.
The Army also used mobile defence brigades in this era, billeted conveniently close to coastal and vulnerable areas (bearing in mind how extensive the railway network was prior to 1963). The point was that no-one seriously expected any invaders to get past the RN to start with, but fortunately this wasn't put to the test.
Anderson shelters are still ten a plenty; in Rosyth, Fife, there's a large piece of land used for gardening allotments FULL of old shelters being used for huts. Another common feature in my area (parts of which still heavily industrialised) are brick shelters with concrete roofs. These weren't much smaller than the normal public ones built in the street, and were usually sited in the back gardens of flats and/or tenements. These still exist as the ultimate in garden sheds!

[ 24. August 2005, 01:06 PM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

I often wonder how hard it would be here in the United States to find out how many people have fallout shelters in the back yard from the cold war days. I wouldn't even be suprised to find out that the current property owners are unaware that they are even there.

 

Thanks for the information guys!

In 1999 a company was selling cement septic tanks as Y2K shelters near where I live. I don't think he sold too many for that purpose and went back to selling them as septic tanks.

 

Bit of a mystery this time.
These are shots of the former wartime RN establishment at Prae Brae, in the Devilla Forest, near Kincardine, Fife. This forest is about the size of a small town, so this place would have been well hidden.
It opened in 1943 as the Admiralty Underwater Explosion Research Establishment, and was served by a light railway through the forest. The establishment was charged with testing the efficiency of new explosives, and had a de-commissioned vessel moored in the Firth of Forth ( between Crombie Point in Fife, and Grangemouth Docks in Stirlingshire)to facilitate this.
It was renamed the Naval Construction Research Establishment in 1946, and moved to the nearby town of Dunfermline. It closed completely in 1949.
Wartime RAF pics still exist of the site, which was quite large, and has now been largely cleared away.
This is a general view of the former site-



However, one bunker still remains, still surrounded by a blast wall composed of a hollow square of railway sleepers reinforcing a berm.



This is a view of the bunkers above-ground reinforcing walls & entrance-



This is a close-up of the armoured plate which reinforced the concrete; note the thickness-



This is a view of the steel sheets welded over the underground room/pit used for storing explosives....



...And this is a close-up of the 'NCRE' legend on each corner.....



What puzzles me is this; when so much effort has been put into removing all other traces of the camp (except for a flagpole), why has this bunker been left untouched? There MUST have been others, so why does this one still exist?
Was it just forgotten, or does it contain something which can't be released? There is a row of about five dead MATURE trees to the rear of it (which must have died since 1949), but is that coincidence (given that it's an old forest)or due to some unknown factor?
Have I just been reading too many conspiracy websites?!

 

Gordon, don't know if it is just my computer or network but I cannot see your pictures.

 

A most interesting site that, Gordon. I wonder if an unstable substance was left onsite for a while after closure ( eg mustard gas ? )....

( PS : The ghostly boot bottom left in one of the photos looks interesting..... )

 

Ice,
The pics seem ok here...try your browser settings.
Martin,
A couple of years ago, I actually spoke to a bloke who was an apprentice there during the war. I mentioned my theory, but he was, erm, sceptical?! There's a school of thought that suggests he would say that though....
I put the mysterious trainer in the photo down to a long-departed rating trying to contact a kindred soul......

 

I can see it now that I have gotten home. Good pictures.