Sherringford Hovis
Guest
Posted as an local event in http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26851
Aftermath
As the main group (Paul & Jan B., Garry & Marie, Bernie, Dave, Mike, Paul & Claire) emerged into the daylight at the French end of the tunnel it all looked pretty clear and even a little sunny.
The first stop was at the McDonalds to meet a couple of trippers who were over for the weekend. Problem one was that the Mac’s webpage said they opened at 9am, but when we arrived about 9.15 it was in darkness and the door said 10am (efficiency?), so we crossed the tarmac and had a coffee in the café on entrance to the Auchun. We were joined almost immediately by Mark & Julie who managed single-handed to increase the Suzuki quotient by 50% on what was (officially) a Suzuki Owners Club run. Now there were 3 Suzukis, 3 BMW's (2 GS's) and a VFR.
From then the run went off okay despite the best efforts of the weather to change every few minutes and the wind to blow as hard as it could as we rode up and down the D940 coast road from place to place.
The Atlantic Wall Museum housed lots of wartime memorabilia plus a collection of vehicles from the war and also the railway gun "Big Bertha" that was used to shell UK from that very place. The sheer size of the guns that was housed here has to be imagined, as soon after the area was liberated they took the guns away and blew up some of the blockhouses. At €5.50 to get in it was worth it and we could have spent longer in there, but lunch was booked for 1230 and a lot of bellies were rumbling.
Lunch was back up the D940 at the “Le Thomé de Gamond” restaurant high above Cap Blanc Nez. Originally I had booked for 16, and then this shrank to 13 and then on the day to 11. The missing pair were John (aka Belgian John) & Inge Larkin, who had returned from holiday too late to fit in another trip and an emergency dental appointment! Hope everything is all okay Johnny Boy. I had looked out the €22 menu but in the end most people opted for the €24.50 lunch menu and very nice it was…. We arrived just before 1230 and left about 1545 to a very windy aspect. I took a few pictures there to see if the digital stitch program we have a work actually works. Pic below somewhere… it’s the wide narrow one!
After that, in rain we found ourselves riding to the V3 base at Mimoyecues. After a detour around the Fréthun TGV station and car park we eventually got on the right road and had the trip underground. It’s hard to imagine the numbers and appalling living and working conditions of the “volunteers” as the Germans regarded the workers, we tend to call them “forced” although slaves is a better description. Also we were all expecting to see that the V3 wasn’t some huge cannon, but a series of five-barrelled cannons, with a mere 152.50mm calibre. The plan was to build underground and angle the barrels at a 50° angle. The attached picture looks a bit like the plastic left over after you have made an Airfix kit! It is in fact the barrel and the side bits are extra charges. I.e. one projectile with a charge and further charges at 12 metre intervals to fire the projectile to about 5000 ft per second. The elevation and direction of fire constant. The target? London. By changing the power of the charges they could fire nearer or further to spread the drop zone. The expected firing rate from the 5 units of 5 barrels was 300 per hour. Luckily it was never finished. More from http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-heritage/visit/visit-2caps-mimoyec-v3.htm.
Thanks everyone that made it a good day. Mark is looking to organise a return trip in the Spring to take in the other two bunkers in the area at La Coupole and Eperlecques. I’ll advertise these on the Forum when we have a date.
More pics from the trip are in Gallery 5 on the Kent Centre website - http://www.suzuki-club.co.uk/Gardensoc/goe-gallery5.htm at the bottom as the gallery is the whole of 2004!
The panorama pic was created from four pics and stitched using Canon Stitch and it seems to have worked okay. The second panoamic uses the same program and two pics!
Aftermath
As the main group (Paul & Jan B., Garry & Marie, Bernie, Dave, Mike, Paul & Claire) emerged into the daylight at the French end of the tunnel it all looked pretty clear and even a little sunny.
The first stop was at the McDonalds to meet a couple of trippers who were over for the weekend. Problem one was that the Mac’s webpage said they opened at 9am, but when we arrived about 9.15 it was in darkness and the door said 10am (efficiency?), so we crossed the tarmac and had a coffee in the café on entrance to the Auchun. We were joined almost immediately by Mark & Julie who managed single-handed to increase the Suzuki quotient by 50% on what was (officially) a Suzuki Owners Club run. Now there were 3 Suzukis, 3 BMW's (2 GS's) and a VFR.
From then the run went off okay despite the best efforts of the weather to change every few minutes and the wind to blow as hard as it could as we rode up and down the D940 coast road from place to place.
The Atlantic Wall Museum housed lots of wartime memorabilia plus a collection of vehicles from the war and also the railway gun "Big Bertha" that was used to shell UK from that very place. The sheer size of the guns that was housed here has to be imagined, as soon after the area was liberated they took the guns away and blew up some of the blockhouses. At €5.50 to get in it was worth it and we could have spent longer in there, but lunch was booked for 1230 and a lot of bellies were rumbling.
Lunch was back up the D940 at the “Le Thomé de Gamond” restaurant high above Cap Blanc Nez. Originally I had booked for 16, and then this shrank to 13 and then on the day to 11. The missing pair were John (aka Belgian John) & Inge Larkin, who had returned from holiday too late to fit in another trip and an emergency dental appointment! Hope everything is all okay Johnny Boy. I had looked out the €22 menu but in the end most people opted for the €24.50 lunch menu and very nice it was…. We arrived just before 1230 and left about 1545 to a very windy aspect. I took a few pictures there to see if the digital stitch program we have a work actually works. Pic below somewhere… it’s the wide narrow one!
After that, in rain we found ourselves riding to the V3 base at Mimoyecues. After a detour around the Fréthun TGV station and car park we eventually got on the right road and had the trip underground. It’s hard to imagine the numbers and appalling living and working conditions of the “volunteers” as the Germans regarded the workers, we tend to call them “forced” although slaves is a better description. Also we were all expecting to see that the V3 wasn’t some huge cannon, but a series of five-barrelled cannons, with a mere 152.50mm calibre. The plan was to build underground and angle the barrels at a 50° angle. The attached picture looks a bit like the plastic left over after you have made an Airfix kit! It is in fact the barrel and the side bits are extra charges. I.e. one projectile with a charge and further charges at 12 metre intervals to fire the projectile to about 5000 ft per second. The elevation and direction of fire constant. The target? London. By changing the power of the charges they could fire nearer or further to spread the drop zone. The expected firing rate from the 5 units of 5 barrels was 300 per hour. Luckily it was never finished. More from http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-heritage/visit/visit-2caps-mimoyec-v3.htm.
Thanks everyone that made it a good day. Mark is looking to organise a return trip in the Spring to take in the other two bunkers in the area at La Coupole and Eperlecques. I’ll advertise these on the Forum when we have a date.
More pics from the trip are in Gallery 5 on the Kent Centre website - http://www.suzuki-club.co.uk/Gardensoc/goe-gallery5.htm at the bottom as the gallery is the whole of 2004!
The panorama pic was created from four pics and stitched using Canon Stitch and it seems to have worked okay. The second panoamic uses the same program and two pics!
