Www atlantikwall co uk

19/12/2024

Happy Christmas to everybody.

www.atlantikwall.co.uk I have updating and a lot of new items added throughout the year. https://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/updates.php

Several interesting items, R608's for one. I seem to have visited several in Normandy over the years. StP122 Barfleur, a place visited many times but its supprised me what was there. RAF Yatesbury, a very interesting aerodrome from 1915/16 right through to WW2.
High Post where many Spitfires took their first flights, RAF Wraughton, a large aircraft storage area. Wn Valleuse de Bruneval a fantastic story. AND last but not least, Wn17 de Colleville (Hohe61) where I took two friends and we had a great time looking around its R608/SK bunker with the volunteers of Les amis du Suffolk Regiment. Then I took them to Omaha Beach, where Hugh's father landed with the Americans on D-Day. His story is shrouded in time and we have very little information. Just that he was there as an American Officer? One hell of a story, if we can get to it.
It has been a good year. I managed several trips to France, including a lovely weekend in Couesulles with Kurt and family, MKB Bunkertour. Terry and I visited Haute-Normandy to see the battlefields of Crécy and Agincourt—something very different.
I have been working hard volunteering at BDAC our local aircraft museum.
Next year starts with a bang I hope.
The picture is OMAHA Beach with Hugh and Graham. Hugh's father may have landed here.

Also a thank you to SD, Pete, MKB, John F and many others for their help in producing the website.

17/12/2024

https://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/fr-normandy-barfleur/wn144-la-pernelle-obs.php #

I have just updated Wn144 La Pernelle observatoirs,
K.V.G.U.Gruppe Barfleur, Normandy.

16/12/2024

https://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/fr-normandy-st-vaast/wn137-quin-ginsterhohe.php #
New Wn137 'Ginsterhöhe'. Command HQ for the Quineville area, where the Infantry and Artillery commanders were to run the battle.

15/12/2024

Boscombe Down Aviatin Collection
New cabinet signage completed. All items most probably used at Boscombe Down on several of the aircraft in the hangar.

13/12/2024

12/12/2024

Able Seaman D C Holder, HMS Codrington.

"I was serving in HMS Codrington and we were going back and forth for 5 or 7 days and night. The last lot of lads were from a Scottish Regiment. It was just before dusk and for the first time we were inside the Mole and tied up to the wooden jetty. Just as we tied up a few ‘Bricks’ landed in the harbour quite close so we cast off ready to nip away, then we tied up again. It was a funny feeling- there was no one about. Then I saw a ‘squaddie’ and 5ft tall running and jumping over the holes and coming up the jetty with a fixed bayonet. A mate and myself were leaning on the guard rails and the ‘squaddie’ pointed the bayonet at us and said in a broad Scots, ‘German or British?’ We told him we were British and with that he gave a wave back along the jetty and 2 or 3 hundred Scots came running and came aboard. I have often thought how brave he was. After Dunkirk we tried to get the 51st Highland Division off at St. Valery-That is when the French gave us permission."

One of the 5,450 troops evacuated in eight trips between Dunkirk and Dover was General Montgomery, then General Officer Commanding the 3rd Infantry Division. HMS Codrington went on to play an active part in Operation Cycle helping with the evacuation of troops from St. Valery and Le Havre. On the 27th July 1940 Dover harbour came under air attack and as a result of a bomb exploding beside her in the harbour HMS Codrington broke her back and I believe she sunk. She stayed there for the duration of the war until scraped in 1947.

Image of HMS Codrington at high speed undergoing sea trials before the war.

12/12/2024

https://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/fr-normandy-barfleur/stp-122-barfleur-gauche-port.php #

Just added StP122 Barfleur rive gauche du port

12/12/2024

Another update Wn136 Quineville Mt Coquerel H.K.B.
https://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlantikwall/kvg_wn22_quineville.php

12/12/2024

A camera mistake but with the La Sinope on the right and Wn19 Quineville fort Lestre Hameau Simon on the left and with who else but John in his red coat. March 2006
https://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlantikwall/kvg_wn19_quineville.php

12/12/2024

https://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlantikwall/kvg_wn19_quineville.php

09/12/2024

From World War Pictures Facebook
RAF/RAAF Brewster Buffalo Mk Is are uncrated and assembled in Singapore - 1941

Nice 'A' hangar in Singapore 1941. I wonder if there is a list of where these hangars went, from the top of my head, Netheravon 2, Boscombe Down 1, Upper Heyford 6, Bicester 1, can anybody add to this list. Especially world wide.

07/12/2024

https://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/e-wiltshire/blakehill-farm.php

I have updated my page on RAF Blakehill Farm and just added some more information on the C-47 Dakota.

This website shows what's still left to see 70 years on including some of the V weapons that would have been used to pound the assault areas of Southern England building up for D-Day.

07/12/2024

https://www.youtube.com/live/JZkXqVCOLsE
I am about to view this, it is well worth watching.

The Logistic Build up to DDayWith Christopher Barrington BrownPart of our Transport, Logistics and War Finance serieshttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDG3X...

05/12/2024

In a museum reserve collection, I just snapped this image.

28/11/2024

A brilliant new publication from Terry Grace.
The Military Aeroplane Competition.
At Larkhill 1912
Local interest book just published
A book detailing The Military Aeroplane Competition which was held at Larkhill in 1912.
To the general public, the announcement of the Military Aeroplane Competition was together with the formation of the Royal Flying Corps and to a much lesser extent the Air Battalion, the first sign, that at long last, the War Office, The Army and indeed the Government as a whole were beginning to realise the potential of the aeroplane in war.
For years, the War Office had been dragging its feet when it came to matters of aviation but in 1912, due to pressure from the press and a few of the prominent aviators and the general public, it seemed that the Government was finally waking up to the idea of how important the aeroplane was to become in a war which many realised was inevitable. To that end, the War Office announced that it would hold a competition, open not just to the UK but to the whole World, to find the best military aeroplane for what was to become the Royal Flying Corps.
So, in what turned out to be the worst August since meteorological records began, the Military Aeroplane Competition finally got underway at Larkhill, near Stonehenge and for three weeks, it became the centre of attention in terms of aviation. Despite the appalling weather, the competition drew large crowds of spectators, many of whom would have not seen an aeroplane before.
This new book discusses aviation prior to this event, the build up to the competition, how it was organised and run, the pilots involved, the aeroplanes entered in the competition, the judges involved, the winners and the losers, the politics and in terms of the future of aviation whether the event was a success or a failure and much more.
The book which runs to over 200 pages, is available at the Salisbury History Bookshop in Fisherton Mill, Salisbury. [email protected], 07772632517 or online at Amazon.co.uk. (search Terry Grace if not found by title) ISBN 979-8342643931
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DNS9RZXS/
All proceeds to local charities

28/11/2024

27/11/2024