Ibsley

[REF]

Hi Gypseymoth, welcome to the forum. I'd like to see some pf your screen shots if thats ok?

In the mean time, here are some photos of the BHQ at Ibsley, taken 8 September 2010














And one of the Control Tower

[Gypsymoth]

Thanks for the snaps REF. I did creep up to the tower recently - it's enough to make you sceam & I nearly did. I will have a go at the bat thing. Where they came from is a mystery but they do suit the purpose of keeping people out. Having said that, travellers damaged the roof some years ago I'm told & actually had fires there.

This is the link to my Flight Sim. screenshots. There are 45 or so aircraft flying in & out. http://www.flickr.com/photos/2719341...7624597362588/
I've made 25 so far & am taking shots for a flickr section My WW2 Airfields or similar.
Cheers for now.

[Richard Drew]

http://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlant...hq.htm/map.htm

There is a lot more here Peter.

[Farmer Fred]

They seem to have done a fair bit of tree clearance in the valley to the East of the Battle HQ, along the Dockens Water. The wall of the shooting range is now more visible and obvious, we used to dig up heaps of bullets here as kids armed with a C-Scope. I have Grandad's Home Guard shooting records with the individual scores for his men at the range here.
There is a very good official photo of a Lysander on exersize with "German" tanks on top of Ibsley Common. It appeared in a book I had as a kid and I went up there with Dad to line up the scenery in the background. Sadly, no amount of googling of "Lysanders" and "tanks" brings up a copy of the pic.I'll try and remember the name of the book.
Fred

[Gypsymoth]

Can anyone tell me where the refuge entrances were placed in the blast pens at RAF Ibsely?

I was hoping an 88 yr old man who was at Ibsley in 1942 could tell me but he's very hazy. He can tell me they had them & the blast wall were hollow. I'm assuming they were like the pens at Clifton in Yorkshire (http://www.oldairfields.fotopic.net) which is why I've placed them as seem in this screenshot from the Ibsely I've made for my Flight Sim.

If anyone can tell me anything more I'd be very grateful.
Thanks,
Terry Wallis.

[PETERTHEEATER]

Gypsymoth,

The scale of your Spitfires looks, to me, to be too small. Each bay was about 70 feet (21.3 metres) wide from the edge of the outer arm to the centre. An early Mark Spitfire was about 40 feet (12 metres) wingspan.

[ranger]

Hi Guys

Ref Ibsley aircraft pens, they were different to the ones in your illustration. There built to drawing 11070/40 with the air raid shelter at the tip of the central spine of the pen, making the end of the spine "T" shaped, I have photo's that were taken in the 80's long before they were demolished in the last 15 years. ranger

[P Bellamy]

From the visible remains of the three northern pens at Ibsley they were type 11070/40 which had a shelter in the centre of the "T".

This model was built using one of the surviving 11070/40s at Kings Cliffe for reference:



All the best,
PB

[Gypsymoth]

Oh Christmas! What amazing replies.

You're right PB - the scale is wrong. That picture is one I was playing with to get it looking right with the info I'd been given. The new screenshot is the latest one from 2 days ago. The scale's better I think?
The aircraft come in scale 1, & all other scenery items have to be scaled appropriately, eg, a flight crew to match a Spitfire would be .90.

I'll see if I can get a copy of the 11070/40 drawing, ranger - any chance of you sending me a photo? The bloke I chatted to is one Charlie West of No.66 Squadron who gave conflicting info but did say the blast walls were hollow & gave me the impression he's been in them. (He did say the best pilots were Polish.)

PB - that picture is just great. The only pen remains I've found is at the southern side along Ellingham Drove by the temporary brick building that's still standing. The earthworks suggest a blast pen & now I've seen your model, the brick work there is the entrance to a vanished refuge.

I'm going to play around with some add-on items I've managed to download to make another pen to match the 11070/40 model. But I have a question: Charlie West said there were no brick walls. He could be wrong so did the Ibsely pens have brick retaining walls?

Thanks for your replies - I'll get building!

[P Bellamy]

I've attached an arrowed Google Earth screengrab showing the remains of the three pens along Mockbeggar Lane. The refuges appear to still exist on the eastern and western of these three pens, the central one may be there too but backfilled.

IbPens1.jpg
Click for a larger version

11017/40s were also constructed from sandbags, so not always brick.

All the best,
PB