Operation Biting

Onahi

The Equalizer
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Anyone been here?
Not the memorial at the end of the road at the beach, but the radar and Villa site at the top. It looks like you can ride quite near to the site? There is a farm you have to pass through, access ?
 

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2 para's first raid to capture and bring home the radar at Bruneval.
Proper roy of the rovers stuff. First heard about this when I was 13 years old and had to learn the battle honours of the regiment !
 

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If it is Villa Freya, Google maps shows it as "remnants of..." There's no Streetview there either but Rue Major Frost - in truth, more of a cart track - has what looks like footpath markers on it.
 
Yes, I've studied google maps and other sources. I would like to know if anyone has been to the Remains and where the access is.
 
It is Villa Freya (according to Wikipedia). Good luck getting there - I can't imagine the owners would object to a single person or small group walking up the path to look at the site. Although if they have a group every day it might get a bit tedious. (It can't be more difficult than when 2 Para had to get there!)
 
Rumours are that they are going to make it into a official site. And it should be. First Para raid. John Frost and one of the first working radar sites. Locals cant believe its not popular as is Normandy etc. 2 Para parade there every year. And as I am ex para !
 
Put your cammy paint on, get tooled up and fight your way in. Don't forget to take a prisoner. I'll see if I can arrange some MTBs to evacuate you, but if not, crossing the channel in a dinghy seems to be popular these days. 500 Egyptians a year can't all be wrong. :D
 
I may have to go in , stealth mode after all?
Its strictly forbidden. Private land. Which is a shame. I've just learnt that the land owner used to allow people to go onto the site. But an individual did go on without permission and had an accident. So he had denied all since. Only Parachute Regiment. I've asked for the contact details of the landowner to get permission to visit. He can only say no.
Ill post my results and any pictures on here. If Wapping doesn't close the thread ?
 
Fingers Crossed I can get in......
 

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John Frost was some hero wasn’t he! I only knew the very basic details about the Bruneval raid but the bravery of Frost and his men during here and also at Arnhem is incredible
 
John Frost was some hero wasn’t he! I only knew the very basic details about the Bruneval raid but the bravery of Frost and his men during here and also at Arnhem is incredible

These guys would have pushed so hard to get on every mission available. Frost personally argued every operation and trained his men hard. Outside the book of rules at the time. These guys were 6ft tall and bullet proof. As are all dedicated soldiers, especially the cream of the British army, or Brecon Trained SNCO's !
Heroes the lot of them. Today many of the missions carried out would not have been approved to estimated casualty rates. St Nazaire being another.
 
I've been there, accessed it from the beach and climbed up a path on the cliffs. As you say the buildings are not there now,just remnants of. Well worth a visit in my opinion.
 
We could organise a UKGSer raiding party. What's the worst that could happen? Sat nav errors resulting in the advance party heading for Bruneval near Beauvais and wondering why the tide has gone out so far, stopping for three hours nr Dover to download updated software for TFTs, having to call french paramedics when it emerges that two of the beach party have forgotten their asthma puffers, and two arrested for not having their post-Brexit green cards and IDPs in order...

Seriously, I hope you can get permission from the owner.
 
Its not looking good .....
The Parachute Regiment have been denied many times, so Im not holding out. I've sent the landowner an email, The address I acquired from an official Operation Biting website. I've been warned that he may not even return my email. What i don't understand, is that knowing how busy All of Normandy is, all year round too, That this site hasn't been developed. Its history and the history of Radar, it would be popular. Its isolated, not in a town etc. There's not any military sites I've not been to now in Europe. But this one ....
Fingers crossed.
Ferret, That may well be my only option........
 
We went right up to the ruins, single barbed wire fence near to cliff edges and only a few well behaved cattle in the feild. Nobody else around was very intersting.
I met a fella once who did a lot of greenlaning and liked visiting sites of downed military aircraft, used to ride his little xr250 to most sites, many up mountains of the beaten track. Took his time just bumbled about, had a map with him and a little British legion remembrance cross, if he ever got stopped by local landowners he told them he was wanting to lay the cross at the spot one of his relatives had lost their life.seemed to have worked he never had any real issues, bit of a white lie I know but it worked.
Have fun:thumb
 
Its not looking good .....
The Parachute Regiment have been denied many times, so Im not holding out. I've sent the landowner an email, The address I acquired from an official Operation Biting website. I've been warned that he may not even return my email. What i don't understand, is that knowing how busy All of Normandy is, all year round too, That this site hasn't been developed. Its history and the history of Radar, it would be popular. Its isolated, not in a town etc. There's not any military sites I've not been to now in Europe. But this one ....
Fingers crossed.
Ferret, That may well be my only option........

I am just guessing but to ‘develop’ the site requires money and effort, disproportionate to the reward. Fencing, a car park, a wc, a history of what went on etc etc etc

Don’t forget that the bombing of France in the lead up to DDay and after is not universally popular in France, particularly in generations that lived through it and those that came not so long afterwards. In some parts of France there was, until quite recently, outwards hostility in some quarters to our murder (as they see it) of French sailors at Orange, when we sunk their fleet. A brave and heroic act the Parachute Reg’t undoubtably undertook. If your house was then blown away or your father killed on his battleship in harbour, you might not see it quite the same way.
 
We went right up to the ruins, single barbed wire fence near to cliff edges and only a few well behaved cattle in the feild. Nobody else around was very intersting.
I met a fella once who did a lot of greenlaning and liked visiting sites of downed military aircraft, used to ride his little xr250 to most sites, many up mountains of the beaten track. Took his time just bumbled about, had a map with him and a little British legion remembrance cross, if he ever got stopped by local landowners he told them he was wanting to lay the cross at the spot one of his relatives had lost their life.seemed to have worked he never had any real issues, bit of a white lie I know but it worked.
Have fun:thumb

In the early 80's as an army cadet, we were taken to the peak district to find downed aircraft, and to my complete surprise there was quite an amount of wreckage left at the sites.
Your comment about the remembrance cross is a good idea. Ill take one with me on the visit. Ill post my outcome here !
 


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