New Forest National Park

Carnaby;117687 wrote:

The MoHS Target is described in detail together with a drawing in Norman's book. Based on structures discovered by RAF recce flights along the French coast, it was built by Morlands at a cost £0.25M. He states, '... its more commonly used name "The Submarine Pens" survives in use among local people today.

In Tim Mason's book "The Secret Years" about Boscombe Down there is a nice oblique photo (no reference number etc.) taken in early 1945 showing the "concrete structure", which he describes as"submarine pens". Not unreasonably it does not appear to be to the same scale as the real thing. There seems to have been 3 or 4 strikes on the target by bombs. Not far from it is the surprising crater said to have been made by a sand filled Grand Slam. The crater seems to have been a similar size to the concrete structure.

At Braidfell near Stranraer there was a concrete "factory target", was this built for similar testing purposes?

PNK;117831 wrote:

John - rather than clutter this thread I posted a little bit here on Braid Fell. /community/showthread.php?5050-Braid-Fell-Range-Extant-Directional-Arrow-base&p=117830&viewfull=1#post117830

Thanks Peter

The two craters next to the U-boat pen are not that big, now I understand why if they were filled with sand.

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I believe the crater in your shot is that made by a Tallboy - there was a crater from the only live Grand Slam dropped at AW nearby but this has been filled in.

Couple of shots follow -Ministry Of Home Security Target (Submarine Pen) - as it is today -



It became evident that the Germans were building substantial concrete structures on the French Coast to house their U-Boats. The RAF were keen to bomb these structures but needed to evaluate how the structures could be penetrated. In order to simulate the structures, a replica was built at Ashley Walk in September 1941 at a cost of £250,000. A huge concrete raft 6’ thick and measuring 79’ by 70’ was constructed. Supported on five walls, 6’ high the structure was built on a foundation 20’’ thick. The outer walls were 3’ 3’’ thick with the inner walls being 1’ 9’’. The RAF tried many times to destroy the pen but were not successful. In fact they had quite an issue with trying to hit the target. The bombs used, 500Ib, were also in reality rather small to make an impression on such a massively constructed structure. I have heard tale that it was only the Americans with their Norden Bomb Site that managed to get a hit on the structure. I cant confirm this though.

A shot of Tallboy crater with the Ministry Of Home Security Target behind -

Richard Halls excellent article on Ashley Walk range will be in the March Airfield Review.

Is anyone still involved with this project?

I don't know. I offered information when the project opened and was told that I would be contacted at a later date. Nothing thus far.