20230517 (19)_Ashley_Walk_Range
Viewed from G-BBKX on a bimble round Hampshire, Ashley Walk was used as a bombing test range during WWII. With the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down only a short flight away it was the target for low, medium and high level bombing techniques and new weapons. In the centre of this photograph is a concrete structure knwn to locals as the "U-boat Pen" though its purpose was more about defeating on-shore concrete structures. It is now mainly buried but very visible from ground level. To the left is a water-filled crater from the live test of Barnes Wallis's first earthquake bomb, a six ton (about 120000 pounds) medium capacity streamlined steel monster designed to penetrate deep and then create a hole beneath the foundations of the target building. Beyond the "U-boat Pen" in the gorse is a filled in crate that has left a shallow depression in the hillside. This was made by the live test of Wallis's full scale "Grand Slam" 22000 pound deep penetration bomb that legendarily hit the exact spot where the high-speed camera intended to record its fall was mounted. All this area is now open access and interesting to see at close range on a forest walk.
20230517 (19)_Ashley_Walk_Range
Viewed from G-BBKX on a bimble round Hampshire, Ashley Walk was used as a bombing test range during WWII. With the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down only a short flight away it was the target for low, medium and high level bombing techniques and new weapons. In the centre of this photograph is a concrete structure knwn to locals as the "U-boat Pen" though its purpose was more about defeating on-shore concrete structures. It is now mainly buried but very visible from ground level. To the left is a water-filled crater from the live test of Barnes Wallis's first earthquake bomb, a six ton (about 120000 pounds) medium capacity streamlined steel monster designed to penetrate deep and then create a hole beneath the foundations of the target building. Beyond the "U-boat Pen" in the gorse is a filled in crate that has left a shallow depression in the hillside. This was made by the live test of Wallis's full scale "Grand Slam" 22000 pound deep penetration bomb that legendarily hit the exact spot where the high-speed camera intended to record its fall was mounted. All this area is now open access and interesting to see at close range on a forest walk.