Churchill Tank in Norfolk Army Training Area. Where is it now?

[eddy8men]

hi beda
i think the tank shown being recovered is 1C (one charlie) a mk4 churchill AVRE that landed on d day, whilst fighting it slid into a large crater and couldn't recover itself so the crew abandoned it and the crater was filled in to allow other vehicles to pass over it which is how it became buried. it's been restored and sits on a concrete pad as a reminder of that day.

Churchill "One Charlie" tank | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


salzburg i didn't get the comet i've only been collecting for just over a year so my experience is very limited but i doubt it got scrapped, incidentally for those who might be wondering why the tanks should be sitting in a field, they were used by the REME as a recovery training aides.

eddy

[tankbarrell]

eddy is correct, we did recover that Churchill and it is now in Normandy. It is not me on the ARV, I was there but kept out of the way..... I made all the missing parts to finish it off, the air intakes, gun etc.

The Comet went to the East of England Museum but I believe has moved on again to a private owner.

[WW2Hunter]

Here are the pictures as promissed.
With the compliments of Dr.B, Twitchy and Buttons,

Cheers,
Steven

[eddy8men]

steven thank you for the excellent pics, much appreciated.

adrian sorry for mistaking you for the fella on the arv but it could have been worse i could have said you were the guy with the bald bonce nice work on the churchill by the way.

all the best

eddy

ps did the comet go to a far away isle ?

[Salzburg]

Thanks, Steven, for the pictures. It looks like a really respectful memorial; so much better that rotting away on a Range.

[Battery Command Post]

Hello all

On reneblacky's advice i'm reposting this here:

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?" 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