Bruneval, anything to see today?

Discussion in 'War Cemeteries & War Memorial Research' started by Owen, Jun 7, 2007.

  1. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I've just shown your pics to wife & kids, they still remember being dragged up the hillside.

    We also did Dieppe, just missed 65th Anniversary, also went to St Valery-en-Caux, where my daughter stood in for Rommel in a then & now photo.
    She still hates me for that!
    :)
     
  2. airborne medic

    airborne medic Very Senior Member

    Just a minor point but in 1942 most of the blokes had to climb 'downhill'...however not an easy taks with the radar booty, under fire and a few wounded......
     
  3. Paul Pariso

    Paul Pariso Very Senior Member

    I've just shown your pics to wife & kids, they still remember being dragged up the hillside.

    We also did Dieppe, just missed 65th Anniversary, also went to St Valery-en-Caux, where my daughter stood in for Rommel in a then & now photo.
    She still hates me for that!
    :)

    :lol: That's it mate, get the kids involved!! I'm taking my 14 year old son to Arnhem in September and he's looking forward to it............
     
  4. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    [​IMG]
    Radar device. - " Wuerzburg Riese" (left) and " Freya" - Equipment (right) similiar to the ones the Paratroopers were after.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Is that bottom photo actually the Dover Patrol Memorial at Cap Blanc Nez near Calais?
     
  6. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Apologies, I should have posted the info too.

    Headlines: In the west, radar " Freya" Specially information: In the west (Belgium/France), cape Blanc Nez. - " radar; Freya" ; KBK Lw 3

    Taken in Sept 1941
     
  7. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Yes it is.

    I was at Bruneval in June last year.I could not get down to the bottom of the gulley by car as the road was being upgraded to a permanent road and the way was obstructed by mini excavators.

    Walking to the memorial,I saw that it was in a deteriorating condition and despite the "route barriered off" ,there were cars on the beach.

    It appears that there has been some work done to provide a car park for about four cars adjacent to the memorial with the access possibly from the top side of Bruneval.

    The building at the bottom of the gulley appears to be in the process of being restored and looks to be an official building.Could it be a museum of some sort?

    Must get round to posting the photographs.
     
  8. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The Wuerzburg Riese (Giant Wuerrzburg) ground radar equipment were part of the Kammhuber Line, a series of radar stations which formed a defensive screen of "boxes" some overlapping, to detect British aircraft on route to the Ruhr Valley.This conception was initiated in late 1940 and by March 1941 had been extended to the Danish border.Further extensions of the radar screen were completed by July 1943 when the Kammhuber Line stretched from the north end of Denmark to an area south west of Paris.The W.R gear had a radius of detection of 60 kms and was operated in pairs such that one Wuerzburg was used to detect the bomber force and target an individual bomber and the other was used to pick up the night fighter and guide the fighter to within 400 metres of his intended victim.

    The proficiency of the Kammhuber Line was seriously affected by the first use of window by Bomber Command on the night of 23/24 July 1943 on the Hamburg raid.The use of window blinded the German night fighters who were unable to be vectored on to the bomber stream.

    What the Bruneval raid determined was the progress being made in German ground radar R&D and its implementation and extension.Radar gear components taken assisted the TRE to develop ECM apparatus to counter the Kammhuber Line gear, the most simple device used being window which was to be unfolded in July 1943.The other point from the gear stolen from Bruneval was the intelligence gained from being aware of the German's trait in attitude to production, its source and output records.From the serial numbers and prodution detail attached to components, the TRE were able to predict the likely number of W.R sets in use and their likely configuration in screening the German indudstrial targets from a western approach.

    At Bruneval I noticed that "Col Remy" was comemorated by naming the D111A road after him (which is the gully road down to the Bruneval beach and is now being or has been improved for improved access to the beach).A fitting tribute to a French patriot who supplied and co-ordinated much of the military intelligence regarding Bruneval and the secrets of the Atlantic Wall to make the Allied task of re-entering Europe so much the better.
     

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  9. WotNoChad?

    WotNoChad? Senior Member

    Which type of Freya outpost was it, the air or sea one?

    Any photos of it that anyone knows about?
     
  10. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Found some more shots from Northern France. US Army Signals.
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  11. airborne medic

    airborne medic Very Senior Member

    Nice pictures but they are of the Giant Wurzburg...the one on the coast at Bruneval was the 'Little' Wurzburg.....the dish was solid as this photo of the original breifing model shows rather than the 'fabricated' Giant Wurzburg.....
     

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  12. Camulard

    Camulard Junior Member

    I know I'm late for this subject, but I'm a new member.

    About the Bruneval Raid battlefields, there is André Haraux memorial in the Bruneval Beach. In La Poterie Cap d'Antifer, there is a little sign on the City Hall. You can see the rest of the Lone House in the middle of the cows plain. There is an other sign on a house wall in Le Tilleul (between Bruneval and Etretat), where there was two paratroopers who they hiddened by a French person. And Ste Marie's cemetery in Le Havre where there is a both graves of the paratroopers died in Bruneval.
     
  13. Camulard

    Camulard Junior Member

    The Wurzburg's position, it's very difficult to find the exactly place. Because the hole was stoppered after the raid, and there was hole's bombing in 1944. The radar would be at the men's position on the picture.

    [​IMG]

    Le Chateau's fondation with Bruneval Coy on it.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    The descent to the beach. You can see the monument.

    [​IMG]

    The Ceremony

    [​IMG]
     
    Owen likes this.
  14. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Thanks for the photographs.Looking at the memorial "complex" on the left hand side of the gulley and the photograph of the ceremony,it looks as if there has been some tidying up of the site from when I visited in June 2008.

    There was a very small car park adjacent to the memorial "complex" which I expect would have its entry farther up in the village.Thus it would not require a journey down the gulley and then a walk up the steps at the side of the house on the beach.

    This house was being renovated when I was there and I got the impression that it may have been intended to be a commune building.

    Photographs taken in June 2008.

    Just managed to pick up one on this attempt.
     

    Attached Files:

  15. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Why the software did not do as it was instructed,I wiil never know.Not finger trouble on my part.Still no response,I'll return later.
     
  16. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Why the software did not do as it was instructed,I wiil never know.Not finger trouble on my part.Still no response,I'll return later.
    maybe make images a bit smaller, that one you uploaded was rather large filesize.
     
  17. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I think the problem is that the "Manage Attachments" is not initiated when clicked.

    It did, of course, when the first photograph was posted.
     
  18. Camulard

    Camulard Junior Member

    Harry, you talk about the Villa Stella Marris (the GUARD ROOM). This house was destroy after the war and reconstruted, so it's not the same during Operation Biting. Villa Stella Marris is not the property of the village, but it's private. Its works are not finished...

    You can get to the beach from the Memorial by staircase, we say that every stair corresponds of one paratrooper of the raid. On one of this stair, there is Mauthausen camp's brick.
     
    Cestrianblue likes this.
  19. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    Just watching a History Channel Doco on the Bruneval Raid.
     
  20. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Camulard,

    Thanks for solving the mystery of the house.Interesting to see that it was the guardhouse although the spot was obviously ideal for that purpose.

    Photographs taken on a very hot day.Incidentally the local authorities must have metalled the gully road by now.Could not get down by car when I was there.

    Can't post photographs.Clicking on "Manage Attachments" does not initiate the uploading stage.
     

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