LZ 'P' Scenes and Photos, Operation Varsity

Oi,

As if we don't have enough here are a couple more crops.



Regards ...

 

Hello,

Some selections from the 6th Airborne Divisional Signals war diary with regard the "Q" Base, whatever that was, who appear to be the Signals detachment associated with the "Holy Moly" Farm. No mention of the erection of anything tall.

24th March 1945
Place: Germany

1310 - Div HQ established W of HAMMINKELN (189478) in farm bldgs. Average wireless country. Flat (except to 3 Para Bde and Higher fmns who were immediately behind a high hill) but heavily wooded. "Q" Base set arrived and set up.

1345 - "Q" Base set through.

1515 - "Q" Base lost contact on moving to main bldg. Move imperative owing to intense enemy shellfire and sniping of farm occupied by them.

1520 - Detachment moved into main bldg from nearby farm because of enemy shell-fire and sniping.

Regards ...

 

That’s grid ref is for the Kopenhof.

 

Hi Alex,

I can confirm that location matches with Kopenhof based on the GIS work I have been doing.

Worth Checking but I think, the farm "Oly Mollshof" is approx.: 179479, and the location of the tower is around 181480

For Reference, I've attached my most up to date map below (do need to add grid lines in the near future though).

 

Ho,

Ran some lines for orientation to see if anything stood out on a crop of the Alex aerial. Not sure?



Regards ...

 

181 478 for Rear Div HQ.

 

Yes I

I couldn’t see anything likely on the large aerial. If there’s a couple of hours between photos then we won’t see if it’s a temp structure. Another one for the mystery file!

 

That’s also the line of the railway where this object has been erected. Or was it there originally?

 

This is what it looks like to me, not sure these frames were standard size it were bigger or smaller?

 

Yo,

How high is it ... ? Just a guess.



Regards ...

 

Hard to say, we only needed a smidge more of the frame and we’d see it!

 

We can probably calculate high based on the shadows length as we know it must intercept the base of the object. We just need something to reference it against.
Is there anything else in frame that has a shadow, and we know the height of in the real world.
Do we know how tall a typical para container is?

 

Not to change the subject, but another thought on the same scene.

A tank or self-propelled gun - no idea ... ?



Regards ...

 

I mentioned this the other day, without wanting to muddy the waters even more! Assuming it’s two vehicles travelling left to right then they’d be no doubt going to the Kopenhof having driven through the tracks in the Diersfordt Wald. Looks too small tk be a Tank that came over the Rhine, possibly a White (not the colour) scout car with whatever the ww2 version of a ferret scout car is behind it. Maybe from the Guards Armoured as they 100% were parked up close to the Kopenhof when 7 Para marched out on the 26th.

 

White scout car and Daimler dingo

 

Container Light Equipment (CLE) | ParaData

 

Hi,

Fairly long shadows so it must be late afternoon or evening sometime. If they continue in a easterly direction on that field track it will quickly bring them to Isselbruch Str..

Regards ...

 

Yep, then turn right and you’ve got the CRA location and Kopenhof next door.

 

War diary states that LF (left flank) of Scots Guards tanks crossed the Rhine early hours of the 25th and the remainder about 17:00. Slight chance it’s one of their vehicles but not sure what their Recce element had.

 

I ran it through a shadow calculator the other day and was getting around ~18:00 based on the direction and lengths being about 1-1.5x the object casting them heights (if that makes grammatical sense).

Not sure if this will work but: SunCalc sun position- und sun phases calculator

Its definitely not before 17:00.