The Military Enthusiast

Introduction

This blog contains details of my dabblings in the world of militaria, from visits to sites of military history, museums, exhibitions and any other related bits n pieces. I have another specialised BLOG on the go which was started to show the results of my research into the military history of some of my relatives, its located here: http://arvtech-jonnyalpha.blogspot.com/

Whilst writing the above blog I started to add other bits related to military historical info and was drifting away from the main goal so I decided to start this blog to hold all the miscellanious bits not directly linked.

US Army WWII Assault Training Centre (ATC)

I currently live in North Devon "Braunton" which happens to be right on the doorstep of a very extensive US Army WWII training area. Ever since moving to the area I was aware of local clues such as people refering to a road on Braunton Burrows as "The American Road". Braunton Burrows is a large area of grassed sand dunes that to the untrained eye appears to be nothing more than a Nature Reserve. Last summer while reading the Local Paper I learnt of a guided tour by a gentleman by the name of Richard Bass. Richard along with others has carried out extensive research into the ATC located in North Devon and has written several books, so what a spot of luck.

The ATC stretched from Crow Point on Braunton Burrows to just beyond Woolacombe. It was a massive training area designed to replicate the beaches of Normandy and helped to train some 10,000 US servicemen that took part in the Operation Overlord - D Day. Very little remains obviously visible today apart from several concrete mock up Landing Craft and bunkers but the more you search the more you may find. (Be aware that this still is a military training area and could possibly contain dangerous unexploaded ordnance, no digging or metal detecting is allowed)

Hidden Treasure

There are unconfirmed rumours that when the US Army pulled out they buried a large amount of equipment however nothing has been found to date, again see the warning above regarding explosive ordnance. The mystery of hidden artifacts is probably wishful thinking maybe, you would probably find old bikes and the like stolen from the local community used to get back to the Burrows after a night out in the village.

Matilda

Anyway as part of my research I decided to spend a day on Braunton Burrows in search of an old tank that a friend of mine said they once saw. It appears on the conservation map of Braunton Burrows and is listed in the "Spirits In The Sands" field manual with a Grid Reference. So I set up my GPS, made a flask of Coffee, packed some of my daughters home made breakfast bars and set of with my Dog Blue (and future son in law, Mark not Blue).

The Tank is located near Matilda ridge, aptly named after the tank itself, a Matilda Tank, and after some deviation due to a barbed wire fence we found it, well at least most of it. Without the GPS we would have struggled, Braunton Burrows is not the easiest place to accurately map read. The poor old Tank was clearly used as target practice and is now in several, but recognisable, pieces.

The picture on the left shows the Tanks left hand drive gear including the track. The picture on the right shows an aerial view of all the debris. A stroke of luck however was that about a week later whilst in London I happened to visit the Imperial War Museum and to my surprise they have a complete Matilda Tank so I took a picture for comparison, sorry about being in the picture but my good lady insists that every picture she takes should have someone in it. I wonder where the turret from the wreck went? Cobbaton Combat Collection?