Castlemartin range

borntobemild · Aug 13, 2008

Came across these bunkers while walking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. They are at the eastern end of the Castlemartin range. This is generally open to the public. Western end only open at weekends.

Five in all. All facing the sea. I thought at first that they were gun emplacements, but as they were sunken slightly into the ground and covered by a substantial mound of soil, they might be ammunition stores.

Two of the stores were connected by what looked to have been a miniature rail track - in a cutting hewn out of solid rock.

sorry - bit fuzzy

Plenty of old tanks to see at the other end of the range but you'd have to be mental to try and get close to them.

chizyramone · Aug 13, 2008

Ah, now I found out about these fella's last week when I was home visiting the folks in Milford.

They are moving target tracks,observation and storage/target maintainance bunkers.

Think the bunkers are now used as a refuge for owls and bats.

smileysal · Aug 13, 2008

Jeez, it's about 25 years since I last went down around the Castlemartin Range. I'm sure you used to be able to go in these? Or maybe it was a different military place around this way. (did that many when we were there, I've lost track of all the places we went to now

)

There's quite a few bits and pieces knocking around this area, some in use, some not. And around milford haven and pembroke as well.

Excellent pics, nice to see the place again. Will have to go back there at some point.

Cheers,

Sal

chizyramone · Aug 13, 2008

And the biggest bummer is that today,the National Park were doing a guided walk around the whole site including the off limits bits.

Found this out though:

Great Furzenip to Linney Head: This section of
coast is within the danger area of the Castlemartin
training ranges and is only accessible on National
Park guided walks. It includes the important Linney
Training Area (SR 892 969) which was set aside for the training of the 79th Armoured
Division during WW2. Several secret weapons were tested here and it was the scene
of a number of exercises during the build-up to D-Day. These exercises involved the
construction of replica German defences - including mine-fields, trenches and anti-tank
walls - which were attacked from the sea by the 79th Armoured Division. Many
replica German structures still stand, including ‘Tobruk’ shelters, machine gun posts and
German style gun emplacements. Also visible are the remains of the various types of
matting which were used in tests designed to allow tanks to cross areas of soft sand.

Blimmin typical,I was only down mother's last week!

Get back down there Sal with a copy of this

http://www.planed.org.uk/Communities/sop_64.htm

it's my bible

Foxylady · Aug 13, 2008

Those are really interesting...not seen anything like them before. Nice find.

smileysal · Aug 14, 2008

oooooooooooooh cheers for the link chizyramone, will definitely have to go back soonish.

Been wanting to go back for a few years now, and now I have an excellent reason.

Thanks again,

Sal

crickleymal · Aug 14, 2008

chizyramone said:
http://www.planed.org.uk/Communities/sop_64.htm

it's my bible

That's a brilliant link thanks. I love Pembrokeshire, I've been on holiday there so many times but knew very little about the military history.

Going off topic slightly, this is a useful link if you're looking for mining history in Pembrokeshire
http://www.people.ex.ac.uk/pfclaugh/mhinf/pembs1.htm

chizyramone · Aug 15, 2008

Cheers guys, but then I'm really biased-Milford Boy through and through.

Oxon is where I live, but Pembs is home :mrgreen:

.

Thanks for the link crickleymal

borntobemild · Aug 17, 2008

thanks for supplying the detail folks.

The target theory makes sense. All the bunkers were facing the sea. I assume that they practiced shelling from warships.
The ground behind all the bunkers was very broken up. So I guess a few shells went over the top!

chizyramone · Sep 1, 2008

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!

Went back home again Friday before Bank Holiday,got local paper (the day it comes out)r,read that the MOD were allowing another guided walk on the range the following Thursday,phoned tommyramone in Malta to see if he wanted to go after he got back on Tuesday,called the number to book two places and it was fully f***ing booked!!!!!!

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Still, never mind eh?

"There's always next time, now you can come with me and the kids to Tenby" lisaramone cheerfully said.................................

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Marauder · Sep 4, 2008

The bunkers were for shelter from the tank fire for the people operating and maintaining the moving targets between uses (pasting up the holes etc.). They had a large steel door and a flag-pole for running up a green flag to say you were clear of the danger area and a red flag to stop firing in case of emergencies.

The tanks fired from a firing point at the rear of the bunkers. As far as I am aware there was never any naval use of the site. Well apart from the black-clad Royal Tank Regiment boys and their 'Land Ships'!

Also in the bunkers when in use was a field telephone to the range warden and another to the firing point. Radios were not considered reliable enough even in the early 80s when I used to spend three months a year there.

Dennis · Sep 4, 2008

If you look along side the bunkers you can see the tramways where the' moving targets' used to trundle.
As you walk along the coatal path near St Govens Chapel you can see pleanty of recent evidence of incoming 5.56 & 7.62 from the range

Rerun57 · May 17, 2009

Moving Targets on St Govan's Head, Castlemartin

Hello All

The bunkers (also known as dugouts), were built in about 1941, when this part of the present range at Castlemartin was acquired by the War Office. These particular ranges were used to train new recruits to the Royal Armoured Corps from 1941 to March 1943, when training moved to Hornsea in the East Riding. After this date the ranges were used by operational armoured units as part of their training. I think they were out of use by the end of 1944 for tank gunnery training, and subsequently fell into disuse. The area became an air-to-ground rocket/bombing and gunnery range from about 1953, being used by the Fleet Air Arm and the RAF by turns. It is still used for this (by helicopters) on occasions today.

Some of the dugouts have been destroyed by demolition charges, and the remainder, within recent years, have been sealed to provide roosts for bats. There are many tens of such dugouts scattered over the 6,000 acres of Castlemartin range, now mostly disused, and many sealed.

All the best - just bumped into this forum today!

jonney · May 18, 2009

Fantastic place, have never had the chance to get down that way but when I do this is on the todo list. You cannot get anywhere near our local ranges at Otterburn.

Rerun57 · Feb 25, 2010

Castlemartin Range

These bunkers are part of the old WW II target system for training tank crews. Targets on trollies were hauled back and fore between pairs of dugouts to simulate moving vehicles for tank gunners to engage from the firing track about 500 metres to the north. This part of the range was used mainly to train recruits from about 1941 to 1943, after this the facilities you saw fell into disuse. they have been bricked up to provide accommodation for bats!

Castlemartin range

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