WW2 range tank wash

[No Signals]

I’d driven past this spot up on the local moors for more years than I can remember before learning last year of its existence. The trees being good effective modern camoufalge! Anyhow I had a spare sunny afternoon today and went up to take a few photos and do a few measurements.

 

By repute it is a tank wash from WW2 and the references I have seen, up to date, state of it being used by British Army Shermans. But other tanks may have been in use on the range as well.

 

All sizes will be given in Imperial - as that is what it would have been made in. The overall length is about 74 feet and the width is 11 feet.

 

Obviously it tapers with its depth, with the width at the cross members being 7 feet 10 inches (94 inches).

 

Construction is of concrete (a report I read elsewhere incorrectly states the lining is wood!) with paving type slabs over a concrete foundation for the sides with strengthening ribs at reasonably regular spacing at around 3 feet 4 inches (40 inches).

 

A central brick spine wall runs along the full length with the cross members built in to it. The cross-members are rebar reinforced concrete. The cross members are spaced as per the side supports at around 80 inches. (They vary at 78, 79 and 80, with no particular pattern). The upper surfaces of the cross-members are at about 29/30 inches below the outer top surface of the wash. The cross members show no sign of being load bearing for the tanks. Nor does the central spine wall show any signs of contact from vehicles.

 

There are two large drainpipes that exit the tank, one at one end and the other nearby at one side. There may be some kind of sluice at the far exit ends of these but this was not checked at this visit.

 

The spoil from digging the pit appears to have been used at either end to make a banking for helping ‘steering’ the vehicles in and out, but there may be another use for these piles?

 

For me the interesting and puzzling feature is the series of concrete ‘beams’ that extend in a regular spaced pattern down one side. Apart from one initial short beam of 5 feet the others are of two lengths of 10 feet and 9 feet 2 inches, although some slight variation both ways exists on both sizes. Possibly they were all intended to be 10-foot lengths but the casting of them was done a bit hit and miss. They are spaced at 88 and 96-inch distance, with slight variations. We are talking a tank wash here, not CNC engineering! Two ‘beams’ have had slight breaks to them and neither shows any evidence of containing rebar. These features appear to be attached to the floor but I did not attempt to move them. If they are not fixed then I am very surprised that no one has pushed them in to the pit before now, or done other damage to/with them. Or re-arranged the careful spacing, hence my feeling they are fixed.

 

I have no experience of tank washes so can someone who has tell me the likely use of these?

My take on how it was used is that the vehicles were driven on to some form of steel girder arrangement over the pit and water either from the pit, or bowsers, was hosed over the tracks with the peat falling in to the pit. Either the drains are just an overflow or when the water reached that height they emptied down in to the ditches. Or the drains were sealed and the water reused until it was too thick to use again and then they were opened and the pit flushed. However if someone has a more accurate knowledge of its workings then I am keen to hear. Quite how the side beams fit in I don’t know., possibly something to do with locating whatever it was the tanks actually drove on to. There is no impact or abrasion evidence on the remaining internal features of vehicles ‘dropping’ in to the pit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eddy8men]

is this langsett reservoir

[ploughman]

When I have been across a tank wash in RE plant vehicles, it was usually a deep pit full of water and mud but with a steel girder framework over the top as a driving surface.

Anything more than 1/2 inch below water level was invisible.

 

We used to get the job of digging the mud out with a backacter but most of the water stayed in.

 

Water supply was usually to a number of fire hoses used manually and at times there was a fixed pipe arrangement directing water at full bore at the tracks area and underbody.

[iandarkpeak]

The tank wash was filled by a spring clearly seen with sediment traps...

The upper slabs I presumed were to stop the wash splashing the upper area and making it muddy.

There are many other features in the moors around here, bunkers, ranges, defences...

Go to FB search a site called everythingoutdoors...its me I'm a local guide...look at photo albums for hills above midhope and Langsett.

 

There's also a  slightly out of date site called Midhope at War

http://www.langsettandmidhopeatwar.co.uk/