warcop Range Targets (& Range Wrecks in General)

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by Groundhugger, Nov 11, 2010.

  1. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    The route could be any one of 100 couldn't it.
    Moscow to Poland to Syria to Iraq to Gulf to Cumbria, etc. etc.
    Just sort of fascinates me that at one point all of these hulks were part of multi-squillion ruble/dollar/pound/shekel/zloty military procurement projects being shown off at some expo as the latest hot thing.

    (You'll be pleased to know my 6-year-old just saw your avatar and went "Santa's being killed on a cross!... eeyewww" ;))
     
  2. spotter

    spotter Senior Member

    ref the T-55s i have a booklet "a snapshot of otterburn training area then and now" fist published 2004 that says the T-55s were bought from Poland to use as targets for milan and swingfire missiles
     
  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Never thought of Poland, Cheers.
     
  4. rick wedlock

    rick wedlock Member

    i took this pic of a mk6 13 months ago on warcop,unfortunately it's not the same one shown in the first pics as this has the later manganese tracks and the one shown at the start of the thread has the heavier original style but that doesn't mean it's not up there as there are 5 churchills on a ridge line 1/2 mile south of this one and the churchills do last a long time due to their heavy armour,6" on a mk7.

    the churchill is my favourite tank.

    rick
     

    Attached Files:

  5. Bluebell21

    Bluebell21 Old Hand

    Photo taken whilst there 1993 showing a fresh lot of tanks just having been delivered, all running and drivable to the target position. At that time the ranges were closed down for a couple of weeks in summer whilst CCF camps were run. During this period a civilian scrap contractor from the North east removed the previous years scrap.
     

    Attached Files:

  6. rick wedlock

    rick wedlock Member

    i must admit it breaks my heart to think of all the tanks that have been scrapped, i just wish i knew a few more scrap dealers :)

    rick
     
  7. Swiper

    Swiper Resident Sospan

    5 Churchills still there... any pics?
     
  8. Oldman

    Oldman Very Senior Member

    Talking to a work colleague about Warcop today, he used to look afterthe infrastructure there mentioned they had actually had a golden eagle up there on the crags at the top of the range which had limited where and what they could use and fire.

    He was unsure if it was a breeding pair or a single bird.
     
  9. rick wedlock

    rick wedlock Member

    there's 6 churchill's still on warcop aswell as a few other ww2 tanks/destroyers and more chieftains than you can poke a stick at, unfortunately i didn't get any pics of the modrn stuff but next time i'm up there i will.
    i own a mk 4 75mm churchill which came, i believe from the fibua area at catterick although i couldn't verify that for sure but i do know someone has been shooting at it with charlie g for a good while. (typical bloody infantry, shooting up a good tank like that).
    i'll post some pics up later.

    rick
     
  10. rick wedlock

    rick wedlock Member

    pics
     

    Attached Files:

  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Link spotted on HMVF:
    Hartziel.de - Standortliste

    Very much worth a browse if Range wrecks are of interest.
    Sadly, I can't get Google Translate to work on it, so it's a bit hit & miss, but there's a good selection of WW2 & later vehicles if you make the effort.
     
  12. grimmy

    grimmy Guest

    Dad did some of his training on the Warcop ranges in 1942/43. Somewhere on those fells (possibly nearer Barnard Castle) is a complete Covenanter tank which sank into a bog. They tried digging it out, pulling it out, but come the morning there was just the tip of the aerial showing.

    Dad also left his toolbox at Warcop, much to the annoyance of 'Monkey' Blacker, so if anyone should come across it..........
     
  13. Swiper

    Swiper Resident Sospan

    Ah I look forward to the day when finally I have enough cash to buy 15 trashed Churchill hulks, buy an aircraft hanger and restore them all...

    Von Poop effectively handed me a shopping list then...
     
  14. brit plumber

    brit plumber Member

    Dad did some of his training on the Warcop ranges in 1942/43. Somewhere on those fells (possibly nearer Barnard Castle) is a complete Covenanter tank which sank into a bog. They tried digging it out, pulling it out, but come the morning there was just the tip of the aerial showing.

    Dad also left his toolbox at Warcop, much to the annoyance of 'Monkey' Blacker, so if anyone should come across it..........

    I did some clearence work at Bowes in 1998 which is close to Barnard Castle. Found a live but unfused 500LB bomb and some mustard gas bomb casings. Oh and a NAAFI tea urn.
     
  15. rick wedlock

    rick wedlock Member

    sunken tank sounds like a great story and i didn't know there were covenanters on warcop, i once went looking for a sunken tank on stainburn moor in yorkshire but as the area was heavily wooded we didn't have any luck but you never know someone might find it one day. funnily enough that was described as a tank with a little turret so it might also have been a covenanter which makes you wonder if they often sunk. i remember the recovery of a covenanter from otterburn that was sunk well into the ground !

    rick
     
  16. Oldman

    Oldman Very Senior Member

    Rick
    Think the tank you are thinking about was the Churchill just into the forest, about 1/4 of a mile from Little Almscliffe.

    It was there until the eighties then either REME or RE TA pulled it out and it ended up being restored to museum condition at Beverley Transport Museum.

    As teenagers we used to cycle out that way and mess about on the tank, just through the forest was the frame of a tank that had been stripped of everything useful, this disappeared at the same time that the Churchill went.
     
  17. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  18. BrianM59

    BrianM59 Senior Member

    Nice one VP - very interesting
     
  19. rick wedlock

    rick wedlock Member

    The att file shows a map of stainburn moor. I was up there 4 years ago looking for the mysterious other tank and with a little help from mike (oldman) I will have another crack at it while I'm off over xmas
    The highlighted orange section is the area I searched first time round, the green dot is little alms cliff crag (good ref point). the corner with the pen pointed at it is I believe the swamp area where the sunken tank might be. if I find it I will recover it with the owners permission and restore it :)
    if anyone can shed a little more light on it's location then please let me know.

    let's find it

    rick
     

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  20. Staffsyeoman

    Staffsyeoman Member

    I trained on Warcop in the early 80s, as did an old flatmate of mine, in a different unit. He bought a sweatshirt from there and one night we were having a drink in a pub. The design was a bit basic, "clip art" style pics of a Chieftain, a GPMG and crossed SLRs, with "WARCOP" above. An attractive young lady sidles up to him and goes "Ooh... warcop... what are you? A military policeman or something?" I was prepared to sidle away and let him... develop the situation, but he was even worse at schmoosing the ladies than me..
     

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