A search question

[Slammer]

A question and its been driving me crazy for years now, deep in my incandescent memory banks I have a faint memory of a submarine off the Lancashire coast made from Accrington brick and used for target practice by the RAF, also there was the steel silhouette of a Me 109 in the same area, I hear that the me 109 target was rescued by some local museum but apart from my memory and a mention in a internet search I can not find any info on the brick submarine.
Anybody able to shed some light on this?

 

[krela]

Never even heard of it tbh, a military forum might be a better place to ask. Sounds interesting though.

 

[Dirus_Strictus]

If the brick target is true - which I doubt,( All to do probably with the RAF of the era not being able to obliterate the preverbal 'brick ***** house', inter war erk's chatter with their Naval opposites!!), all you need to do is search the official Range Maps for that area of the Northern Channel- any permanent target structure will marked.

A brick target will soon be destroyed by explosive armaments. The only possible way a brick outline would work - was if it was for dropping and accurately placing dummy arial depth charges alongside a submarine hull. Dropping of this ordnance for the most effect, took skill.

22/04/15 The metal ME target set me thinking and evidence from another - East Coast Range - site may be a pointer. The explanation that this might have been only a gunnery range may be miss leading - I wonder if this was an early RADAR calibration and sighting range for Coastal Command. Being able to detect a submarine type outline, under non battle conditions, must have been a God send for those young operators of that early, and very temperamental detection and ranging equipment.