Clearing the Ranges.... why?

[ajmac]

We have a few members who seem to be the world authority on MOD ranges, so I'm sure they have an opinion.

 

Why in the early 1990s (it seems) did the MOD start to clear the ranges of WW2 vintage armour? I presume much of the armour had been in place since the 40/50s, what kicked off the sales / scrapping? Given that only ~5 years before the MOD had been buying Shermans to increase the number of hard targets.

 

If we had been having these discussions 20 years ago (in a pub rather than in the ether), Adrian and John would be telling us that there were dozens of Churchills, Comets, Shermans and German odds of sods in place. Back to the present, there is practically none left.

[Gordon_M]

Ranges are expensive.

 

Huge amounts spent on security, equally huge liabilities if people should wander in (with or without spanners ...) and get hurt. Environmental concerns, but basically cutting costs.

 

I thnk the amount spent on live-fire ranges in the future is going to be a lot less than in the past, and that's before you get round to selling off thousands of acres of valuable land to rake in millions of £££.

[steveo578]

Most WW2 afvs were scrapped either during WW2 or in the 1950s, even those which served in the post war army were scrapped during this period rather than be sent for targeting.

 

Of those that did the majority were rapidly destroyed, ranges such as Shrewburyness Lulworth Warcop the Tank and A/T lines on SPTA fairly rapidly destroyed targets by direct fire or tests, similarly those on Air ranges such as Somercotes (Humber). Those that survived were either off the main target line, in a general firing area or were on special ranges such as Pirbright, some survived because of changes in firing practice, hence one target line on SPTA was relatively untouched until ATWG weapons were developed, as previously 120mm BAT HESH were used on shorter range target areas, hence the Bovington Centaur, Cavalier and the ex Beverley Crusader survived, as did the Otterburn Roman road range Cavalier which was heavily targeted by 17pdr but was probably just beyond the Max range for 120mm BAT.

 

Other targets survived because they were markers (ie showing the aiming limit and therefore not to be directly targeted) such as the Otterburn Churchill 3 and A11 or the range closed and they were forgotten –the ultimate of these would probably the Churchill Mk2 now at Bovington found in a Plantation in Yorkshire.

 

It also has to be remembered that many WW2 tanks were actually Post War service vehicles Comet, Daimler A.C.s, many Churchills and the few recovered M40s were not struck off until the early 1960s. As an example at least one Comet on OTA was not placed on the range until the late 1970s prior to that it was the Comores 75 test vehicle at Chertsey, it was removed in 1995 having being filled with concrete and shot up by 120mm Bat. It is possible that several other Comets were similarly late placements.

 

Again because of changes in Weapons some ranges were cleared of long standing targets such as the Comet and Sherman at Sennybridge and the five WW2 tanks on Feldom, all of which were concrete filled, because of the deployment of the LAW 80 it was decided that concrete filled targets were a safety problem and had to go. Coupled with the on going contraction of the army (and air force) requiring less training areas and targets were required at a time when large numbers of Chieftains became available.

 

Photos

Comores 75 prototype cleared 1995

Churchill Mk4 AVRE driven into place in the 1950s at the same time as the Mk3 AVRE now at Bovington, targeted by 25pdr A/T and wrecked by 5.5s ,virtually nothing worth recovering and very difficult to clear due to the bogie ground.

Blue Cavalier, positioned distant from most firing points but hit on one side by aircraft cannon on the run in line over Alwinton probably placed in early 1950s removed 2002.

Red Cavalier turret note damge caused be 17pdr A/T probably place in the 1950s remained just beyond the Plate targets on a BAT range but was not hit by HESH.

19ZR17.jpg

OTA#3-3.jpg

cavalier-3.jpg

Cavalier2.jpg

Edited December 30, 2009 by steveo578
grammar

[Adrian Barrell]

We were having that conversation 20 years ago! The problem is we all felt, naively that the old stuff would always be out there. I kick myself when I think what I could have done.....

 

The large influx of Chieftains and similar due to CFE started the clearance of the old stuff. That and the fact it was all getting a bit tatty. With the withdrawal of forces from Germany, the UK ranges and training areas began to see a large increase in use.