Report - Theddlethorpe Dunes Tank

[rich666dickie]

This will proberbly end up in the pit, but thought would share my find ,after a very long walk!

The site was purchased by the Air Ministry for use as a bombing range in the 1930s, and the beach was littered with old vehicles which were used as targets. During the Second World War tank traps and pillboxes were built, and the dunes were mined to defend against invasion. In 1969, part of the site was handed over to the Nature Conservancy and declared a National Nature Reserve. The bombing range eventually moved further north to Donna Nook in 1973.

From what can find it is a A34 Comet Tank

 

[john wharton]

i had written a history about the tank but it has been lost in regeresting, so Unlucky!!!

 

[john wharton]

nice pictures though and when i was a lad, every thing still worked! i believe it was driven down there in 1958 according to Eric Emerson who owned the Blue Bell garage, my problem is, I have no idea how to use this site, just wanted to say thanks to he or she, as it was almost out of sight the last time i visited it!

 

[David JB Sear]

we used to play in this tank when it was first delivered, that would be about 1965 , you could climb in it and use the controls to move the turret up and down , they did not like it much when they were bombing it and in hindsight perhaps not a very safe thing to do, but we were just kids at play, I still hj
have the float from the float chamber, the size of an apple

 

[nick w]

Please can anybody confirm that this Cromwell / Comet is still located here and if so is it still visible? It's a great bit of history and it would be a shame for it to be lost!

 

[ruby_rainbow]

The tank is still there, I took these photographs this week.

 

[ruby_rainbow]

 

[ruby_rainbow]

 

[ruby_rainbow]

 

[westernsultan]

You might like the information given at http://preservedtanks.com/Locations.aspx?LocationCategoryId=3583

 

[ruby_rainbow]

You might like the information given at http://preservedtanks.com/Locations.aspx?LocationCategoryId=3583

Great, thank you