Artillery Bearing Picket at Hill 112 Memorial
Article about: Hello all Did you ever have one of those weird coincidences? I was just reading the thread in the recovery section about the "Churchill Tank in Norfolk Army Training Area. Where is it n
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Artillery Bearing Picket at Hill 112 Memorial
Hello all
Did you ever have one of those weird coincidences? I was just reading the thread in the recovery section about the "Churchill Tank in Norfolk Army Training Area. Where is it now?" Churchill Tank in Norfolk Army Training Area. Where is it now? and realised I knew the location from an item in my collection. So I thought i'd share it.
The item is a Bearing Picket Card (aka Army Form B250) dated 6th August 1944, which were used by the Royal Artillery to record the exact location of a Bearing Picket, which was a metal stake used as a triangulation point for survey. As most targeting was worked out from map co-ordinates, using either an artillery board or a slide rule/trig tables, accurate survey was crucial to the artillery of 21st Army Group, and surveyors from Survey Regiments and from Field Regiments were constantly trying to improve accuracy for gun positions.
The BP Card records the location of the picket by map co-ords and height, and also includes bearings to known objects, and sketches of both the bearing points and the general location. As can be seen this BP was right in the area now taken up by the Hill 112 Memorial (and our missing tank), which is approximately in the area of the word 'LE' in LE CROIX DE FILANDRIERS. Interestingly there were a couple of static AFVs in the area in 1944 judging by the 163° bearing. This BP is marked as being part of the THEATRE GRID, which is probably being surveyed by Corps level units (an artillery regiment would start by working out a regimental grid, then adjusting to a divisional grid, and eventually a theatre grid, allowing large numbers of guns to fire at the same target). I am guessing this is actually from British XII Corps, and therefore probably 7th Survey Regiment, RA.
Rob
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Re: Artillery Bearing Picket at Hill 112 Memorial
G'day Rob
You should whack this in the thread link you have provided
Great stuff
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