Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 About a week prior to the Ursel 'Wings & Wheels' show, a few members of the MVT(NE) went to France for a mini holiday. Those who couldn't make the trip early due to various other commitments were to meet us on the Friday of the show so we could enter together as a group. The 'scouting party' drove to Hull to catch the overnight ferry on Friday 10th, arriving at the campsite in Eperlecques on Saturday around mid-day. Lynne and myself towed our jeep to Calais on Saturday, arriving early Saturday evening. A fairly clear night gave us a good view of the International Space Station passing quickly over head. The attached picture shows a 15 second exposure showing the movement of the station against the background stars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Sunday 12th Not far down the road from the campsite was a museum set in and around the Block House built to assemble and launch the A4 Vengeance Weapons, the 'V2' Rocket. The structure that stands today was only 1/3 of that planned for the final assembly, fuelling and launching of the A4 liquid fuelled rockets. The impressive concrete structure was never used having been damaged by bombing raids before completion. A very large crater near one wall shows the impact point of one of Barnes Wallis' Earthquake bombs which, although it didn't make a direct hit, caused enough structural damage for the Germans to abandon the facility built by slave labour. Also on display was a V1 flying bomb, plus several military vehicles and a one man midget submarine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Monday 13th. Day two saw us take both Jeeps on a tour to the coast to the West of our site. The first stop was the 'Musee 39-45' at Ambleteuse. There were many displays of mannequins in period clothing from all sides, and strangely, the faces all looked typical of their country of origin. A Sherman and a Halftrack stood outside the museum, but behind a fence out of easy reach. After leaving the museum, we headed down to the sea front for our packed lunches! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 From there, we headed North up the coast towards Cap- Gris- Nez, and the site of the Todt 39-45 Coastal Gun Battery Museum. The gun opening in the Block House has now been glazed to protect the exhibits within, which included a nicely finished Kettenkrad, complete with two trailers in tow. Outside the museum, is one of only two 280mm Rail Guns in existence, the other being in the USA. The gun is covered in surface rust, 'though the ladders propped against the barrel and a couple of workmen suggest some work is being carried out. While not clear in the picture along the barrel of the gun, England's White Cliffs could just be seen from here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 After leaving this museum, we headed to the coast at Cap-Gris-Nez and found further concrete emplacements, some still in place, others fallen from the eroding coastline. A shelter down a set of steps was in complete darkness, but the camera flash illuminated the scene well enough for a good picture. Along the dirt track at the cliff tops, we also found a part exposed concrete ring and rusting mounting bolts, although for what I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Tuesday 14th. Tuesday was a long day, which started with a search for the Atlantic Wall Museum. One of our group had been before as part of a coach tour, but he couldn't remember where it was, just that it was somewhere between Calais and Dunkirk. So we headed off in the Jeeps along all the little roads that ran along the seafront, looking for the museum. Eventually we reached Dunkirk, having found no museum, but we did come across the memorial to the evacuation from the beaches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 On the way to Dunkirk, the other Jeep began to make a banging noise from somewhere in the transmission, which stopped after a short time. It had made the same noise on the 10th heading to Hull for the ferry. There was no obvious signs of distress, from the vehicle at least, so it turned around here and headed back to the campsite. After asking at a local Tourist Info office, we found that the Atlantic Wall Museum was actually in Oostend in Belgium, so Lynne and I continued North East, hoping to get there before it closed. Fortunately the museum was open until 6:00pm which gave us 90 minutes to look around by the time we got there. The site is a large complex of concrete gun emplacements and tunnels, 'though part of the area is rendered brickwork to give the Allies the impression of more concrete areas than were actually there. Many of the buildings have what looks like original markings on the walls, and several areas have been returned to their original condition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Since we were now in Belgium, and perhaps not likely to be in that area again, we decided to make the hours drive across to Ypres to see the Menen Gate. We arrived around 7:00pm. Little can be said to best describe the memorial to the unknown soldiers lost during WW1. The lists of names seem to be endless, 'though by chance I came across my own name among the many. We would have liked to stay for the 8:00pm ceremony, but it was a long way back in the Jeep, approximately 90 minutes, and we wanted to make sure we were back in daylight. The days travelling had covered 159 miles by the time we got home to the campsite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Wednesday 15th. Since Noel's Jeep was making sounds that it was not happy with life, he was reluctant to drive it any distance, so on Wednesday, we took our normal car the long trip south to Albert, to visit some of the WW1 museums around that area. Under the Church/Cathedral, there were several tunnels used as shelters and these had been turned into a museum to 'The Great War'. The church itself had been almost completely destroyed and yet had been rebuilt to its original design, complete with statue on top of the spire. A mural on a nearby wall shows the statue during the war, partially toppled from the spire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 From Albert, we headed North North East to Vimy Ridge, the scene of some very bloody fighting during WW1. This hill had a commanding view over the battlefield and was held by the Germans through many attacks until finally taken by the Canadians. The land around the memorial is still heavily cratered, 'though overgrown, and also protected behind an electric fence as there is still uncleared munitions buried there. Further back from the memorial, there are still trenches, lined with concrete sandbags. The land around these trenches is also heavily cratered and again protected by electric fences. Only sheep walk into the 'live' area, the only safe way to keep the grass short. The memorial itself is now gleaming white having undergone a multi-million dollar refurbishment in the last few years. [ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Thursday 16th. Lynne and I took the Jeep out again to La Coupole, another A4 Rocket launching site. This concrete bunker and tunnel system was built into a chalk hillside, and several of the tunnels are still incomplete, and show the process of tunneling, and lining the openings with concrete. After leaving La Coupole, Lynne and I went to Boulogne for the rest of the day before returning to the campsite having covered another 99 miles. We spent the rest of the evening packing up most of our camping gear ready for the following morning. Inside the entrance is a rare piloted V1 Flying Bomb, which were flight tested, but never used operationally. A plan elsewhere in the museum shows the full scale of the complex of tunnels, which like Eperlecques, was built by slave labour but never used. A complete A4 rocket is on display along with one of the rocket engines. A small scale animated model showed the arrival of the rockets by train, final assembly and movement from the bunker to the launch pad just outside. One part of the museum follows the development of the A4 rocket by the Americans and Russians into the space program, and a series of models show the A4 Rocket to scale with the Mercury, Soyouz, Zemiorka and Saturn V rockets amongst others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joris Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 Fantastic, keep em comming!! So much for me to go and see... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 More pictures can be found on the MVT(NE) site, the page can be found here - FRANCE TRIP Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 Great work Steve and you guys really do know how to do it with style, as Joris said, enough to inspire anyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.