2011

TG4601 : Weathered old shed door, Waveney Forest

taken 13 years ago, near to Fritton, Norfolk, England

Weathered old shed door, Waveney Forest
Weathered old shed door, Waveney Forest
For a full view of this location see > Link.
Military remains in Waveney Forest

Waveney Forest, also known as Fritton Wood or Fritton Warren, has a long history of military use. During WW1, it was situated within the infantry defence scheme for Gt Yarmouth and some of the trenches still in place are believed to date from this time.

In WW2, the Royal Navy used the East Suffolk railway for transporting depth charges which were unloaded at a designated halt and from there transported to a storage area a short distance further to the south, at Fritton Decoy.

In 1943/43, the US Army used the area, which at that time was mainly heathland and not as heavily forested as it is today, for the training of their infantry. An aerial view taken in April 1944 shows a large collection of army trucks in the vicinity of the firing range, which are believed to have perhaps been part of a D-Day training exercise. Today, the whole area of the former heath is still covered with weapons pits and short, curvilinear trench sections as well as slit trenches.

The rifle range and a number of other remains such as fire trenches, an infantry redoubt, gun emplacements, and several roofless and now very deteriorated and hardly recognisable large underground shelters can still be seen. Altogether 18 small dugouts, arranged in two separate groupings, each covered by a concrete slab and with brick walls and corrugated sheeting laid onto timber frames, have in recent years been destroyed by deliberately, so it would seem, driving over them with heavy forestry machinery. It has never been established for certain which purpose these dugouts served but considering their small size the consensus seems to be that they were probably used for storage.

The remains of concrete accommodation and workshop hut bases, ablution blocks, barbed wire obstructions, bundles of wire mesh, sections of corrugated iron sheeting can still be seen in many places. Small items including rifle cartridges and fragments of tank tracks can be found in the vicinity of the rifle range and also the workshops. The long since disused and now derelict and overgrown camp's sewage works are still in place on the western edge of the site.

Reports according to which structures associated with the Auxiliary Units (AU, aka Churchill's Secret Army) are located in the wood are incorrect. The underground bases of the two AU patrols active in the area, which have been found, surveyed and recorded, are situated elsewhere.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Evelyn Simak and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Woodland, Forest
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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Grid Square
TG4601, 48 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Evelyn Simak   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Sunday, 22 May, 2011   (more nearby)
Submitted
Sunday, 22 May, 2011
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! TG 4606 0114 [10m precision]
WGS84: 52:33.1461N 1:37.6904E
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! TG 4603 0112
View Direction
East-northeast (about 67 degrees)
Clickable map
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NW N NE
W Go E
SW S SE
Image classification(about): Supplemental image
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