Preparations for Normandy Landings

Good Morning Everybody,

I have spent many an happy hour reading your wonderful stories and being very impressed by your knowledge and commitment to memory of the warriors of the war.

In my own humble way I have make my mark by creating a train of railway wagons with full army of Hobarts funnies and other assorted vehicles, I offer a link to my article on the model at: Overlord Military Train

Apart from the modeling part my good lady and I try to do our bit for the historical side by attending 1940 events at the preserved steam railways dressed like this:

In creating the railway model train I have created spreadsheet to trace the route of British units to the embarkation ports for the Normandy beaches. From there I have worked out where the vehicles and troops may have been billeted in the days before loading. After collecting lots of bits of info from many books and libraries in Hampshire, and the IWM and PRO, the picture is still fragmented. I have the tanks but need to know the units to which they belonged so that I can apply the correct transfers.

I am hoping that there a book or reference which describes the plans for the marshalling areas and that you may be able to point me towards it.

Thanks and bye for now,

 

That's a pretty impressive model... and thanks for your introduction and welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome and enjoy !!! You have put in a lot of work there, splendid work, thanks.

 

I like it ...It looks great. Wonderful.
Sapper

 

Fantastic introduction CC. Well done and that model is fantastic as are the pics of the 1940's dress. Welcome and best of luck with your search.

 

Welcome to the forum I like the models,
where were the pictures taken of you in 1940's
dress, it looks very familiar I live round the
corner from Chasewater Railway

Regards
Kieron

 

Hobarts funnies takes me back we had them at our disposal in Normandy. Oddly enough some were Tankies, but a lot were AVREs. If only the Yanks had the good sense to use them as they were offered, they would have saved a lot more lives. Sadly the "Gung Ho" attitude ruled
Sapper

 

Hi CC and welcome.

After the Battle's D-DAY describes the build up and locations of the divisions quite well in Volume one- Some units were as far North as Scotland

Cheers
Andy

 

CC,
Hello and welcome to the forum.
Your model railway looks great.
Highley station is on the Severn Valley, ex Great Western Railway.

Regards
Tom

 

Hello and welcome. Great pix.

 

Hello and welcome, a very nice model you have there. As for armour markings for Normandy your first point of call should be www.armouredacorn.com in particular Part 27, Part 32 and Part 39.

and don't forget the IWM picture archive Imperial War Museum Collections Online Database

 

Hello Commander from Canada. My late neighbour was a Railroader and had a massive layout. Having watched him build over the years, I have a deep appreciation for your hours of work. Well done. What a splendid way to join history and railroading together. Show us more of your efforts any time.
phil

 

Hallo again and thank you for a very warm welcome. I am humbled by your appreciation of my model military train and the help given to achieve my goal of historical accuracy as a monument to our heroes.

There have been a number of comments to which I would like to respond. The model train is pictured on the old garden layout of my fathers and he used the Severn Valley Railway as his inspiration for the station buildings. The train is pictured in this very photogenic setting for convenience sake and I claim modelers license to get the photos.

The train has been updated since the pictures was taken and I have now built a Crocodile and trailer combo on a warflat and ramp wagon. There are no pictures of this arrangement from the war but documents in the IWM describe it perfectly. The other new project just completed is a jeep in 7mm which has been motorised and converted to run on rails. Hopefully the photos do justice to a diffcult but rewarding modeling project. In all the military train has taken 18 months to research, resource, build and to get running. In the next update of it I will correct some off the errors in loading tanks onto the wrong wagons, (Grommit!!).

The 1940 events on the preserved steam railways have become much more well attended in the last few years. When I started as a Commander RN there only a few hardy souls in uniform. The photos were taken several years ago at the Severn Valley Railway and in the same year we won free flights in a competition at Blenheim palace. It was great fun, and the number of ex-serviceman who came up to me to chat about their wartime expolits was emotionally draining but a real priviledge. Most of the larger railways have 1940 weekends, the most notable being Severn Valley Railway, Churnet Valley, North York Moors, Bluebell, East Sussex and Kent, and many more.

To the real reason for this tread, thank you for the pointers to information and the After the Battle book suggested by Drew five thousand, two hundrew and thirty three, looks very promising. The vehicle markings from Bodston are particularly clear and I now have all the info to personalise each of my model tanks with a Normandy story. Thanks again for all of your contributions.

 

Welcome to what Suzi Quatro called " Devil gate Drive".
( Shows my age).

Seriously , welcome from a relative newcomer - I can't believe I missed this excellent forum for so long.

Is that a LSSAH panzer trooper lurking in the background ?

Like the naval uniform .

 

Commander Chuff,

Here are some images from my Great Western Book collection, which may be of interest to you and other members.





Regards
Tom

 

Commander Chuff,

Here are some images from my Great Western Book collection, which may be of interest to you and other members.

Regards
Tom


Tom, thanks for those images, and I have enjoyed your LGB garden layout in Germany. From a modeling point of view the long trains of warwells and warflats with new and single type of tanks/vehicles is fairly mind numbing to build. I really did enjoy researching the history of the fighting units at D-Day and the vehicles, (which were all new to me).

But I thought that I would try this as a project; I found in the IWM a report of the railways attempting to transport a Churchill Crocodile and trailer combination. Although there are no photographs of the tank, the reports speak for themselves.
IWM: 01/41/3: AQMG mins: 14Mar1944;
Churchill crocodiles can be loaded onto warflat with trailer on next warflat. The tank to be loaded 3ft back from centreline of warflat, with coupled trailer on the next warflat to the rear (or ramp wagon if end of train), the front of the warflat with the tank will have the trailer of the next tank/trailer combination to the front. Tanks are chocked and chained. Trailers are not chained and have chocks against the inside of the wheels to prevent sideways movement. Sleepers are used as chocks and are nailed to the floor of the wagon. Warflat wagons should be close coupled and safety chains used on the first ring closest to the wagon.

21May1944: Test to load a Churchill Crocodile tank and trailer onto one flat wagon unsuccessful;

04Jun1944: On 31May44 test at Farnborough showed that Crocodile tank on one wagon and connected trailer on the next;
18Jun1944; New Churchill VII being produced at 9’8” instead of 9’6”;
x36 Churchill crocodiles, with connected trailer on next vehicle, moved from Farnborough to Portsmouth;

David

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/../attachments/weapons-technology-equipment/22454d1258202234t-churchill-crocodile-flame-tank-model-overlordtrain-tank-croctrailer-2-lwmrsnov08-c-jpg http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/../attachments/weapons-technology-equipment/22455d1258202234t-churchill-crocodile-flame-tank-model-overlordtrain-tank-croctrailer-3-lwmrsnov08-c-jpg http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/../attachments/weapons-technology-equipment/22456d1258202234t-churchill-crocodile-flame-tank-model-overlordtrain-tank-croctrailer-4-lwmrsnov08-c-jpg http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/../attachments/weapons-technology-equipment/22454d1258202234t-churchill-crocodile-flame-tank-model-overlordtrain-tank-croctrailer-2-lwmrsnov08-c-jpg http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/../attachments/weapons-technology-equipment/22455d1258202234t-churchill-crocodile-flame-tank-model-overlordtrain-tank-croctrailer-3-lwmrsnov08-c-jpg http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/../attachments/weapons-technology-equipment/22456d1258202234t-churchill-crocodile-flame-tank-model-overlordtrain-tank-croctrailer-4-lwmrsnov08-c-jpg

 

Great railway!