📌 WWII Armoured Fighting Vehicle Training Range Winch House, Boyton Marshes, Boyton [TM-3921 4728]

A World War Two Armoured Fighting Vehicle Training Area and Firing Range, Earthworks and Structures were constructed on Boyton Marshes, these centred around area TM-3915 4704. The 79th Armoured Division were Stationed in this area from April 1943 onwards and may have used these Structures as part of the 'Orford Battle Area' however, it was predominantly used as a Firing Range under Eastern Command Control.

Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) Units would have used the Firing Range for Basic Training and Practice before moving the larger War Office controlled AFV Ranges elsewhere in the country, such as Castlemartin, Warcop and Kirkcudbright. The Training Area is made up of a number of components. The Armoured Fighting Vehicles, now more commonly called 'Tanks' would have driven around the Triangular Trackway centred around TM-3890 4752. The Triangular Track would have provided multiple opportunities to Fire at Targets from different angles during a single run, they would have Fired towards 'Moving Targets' that were probably pulled along behind Protective Banks on a Narrow Gauge Railway, by Winches that were housed in Blockhouses at the eastern end of the Banks. These Banks were roughly 1,542ft and 2,953ft to the south east of the Firing Point, and are about 32-39ft wide and 1,312ft and 1,640ft in length.

Two further Concrete Structures with Earthworks covering Blockhouses, at TM-3921 4728 and TM-3899 4709, were used for Observation but also housed the Winching Mechanism for operating ‘Pull Up’ Targets, that were activated by cables housed in cable runs layed in thin trenches between the Blockhouses and Large Banks. To the east of the Triangular Trackway, were six Low Banks alongside wide shallow ditches which were possibly Targets or Butts for Small Arms Practice. A series of Structures at Banters Barn at TM-3874 4751 were connected to the AFV Range by a concrete road, this location housed the Maintenance and Service Area, and a second group at TM-3875 4735 was also probably associated with the AFV Training Area.

There were four circular features about 30ft in diameter centred around TM-3905 4729, these features resemble the Gun Emplacements of a Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery and may be a 'Mock Battery' forming a Practise Target as part of the Training Area. At the end of 1943 an additional Bank had been built that ran parallel with the sea wall for nearly 3,000ft before connecting with it at TM-3899 4616. The 79th Armoured Division may have used this as 'Mock Sea Wall' in their Trials of 'Funnies' Specially Adapted Tanks that were intended to breach the Atlantic Wall in the D-day Landings, the Bank had later disappeared due to coastal erosion by the end of the War.

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