February 2015
February 2015
February 2015
February 2015
Fort Henry, February 2015
February 2015
February 2015
Fort Henry, February 2015
Fort Henry
Fort Henry provides an impression of the scale and significance of the preparations for D-Day and is associated with the most prominent figures of the Allied forces. On 18 April, 1944, six weeks before D-Day (6 June, 1944), Winston Churchill, the British prime minister, was joined by King George VI, Supreme Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Acting Admiral Louis Mountbatten at the observation point to witness the largest live ammunition practice of the entire war.
Studland Bay is known for its beaches and wildlife but it is great that its role in the Second World War has now been recognised.
On 4 April 4, 1944, Operation Smash was held at Studland Bay with the Duplex Drive Valentine tanks. A trial run of the tanks ran into difficulty when a change in the weather adversely affected the sea conditions. Six stricken tanks sank with the loss of six crew members.[5] The lesson learned from this trial was the tanks would not survive being launched too far from the beach and consequently on D-Day itself the tanks were released in shallow water.
info via wikipedia:
Shell Bay
Well, apart from the draw of a plate of oysters on ice with shallot vinegar here http://shellbay.net/ (open march to october) Shell Bay is a great place to see passing ships, boats and ferries to the Channel Islands. Not so many shells to be found here, nowadays though. It is on the south side of the mouth of Poole Harbour and connected with Sandbanks by the Sandbanks Ferry which runs regularly across the entrance to the harbour and carries vehicles, foot passengers and cyclists. Bus number 50 (Bournemouth to Swanage) also stops at Shell Bay. The beach is backed by dunes and heathland. A couple of streams flow over the beach from the heathland.