"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".
Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"
Spotted this on Farcebook the other day - never seen it before, but it touches on a subject I had a brief'ish mention of here [clicky] and it's a fascinating picture..
This is Hayling beach - just down the road from me, and at the entrance to Langstone Harbour - and the hive of activity you see is construction of Phoenix (type C) caissons destined for Normandy as part of the Mulberry Harbours. There were four built between '43 and '44, so I would guess this is probably sometime in late '43, or early '44 given the state of construction and the workers clothes.
The building in the far distance is now the Ferryboat Inn pub. View hasn't changed that much despite the years... and the concrete support blocks are still there...
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| Piccie courtesy Tripadvisor |
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Other blokes collects stamps, I collect gun ports... 😁
Was out on the bike the other day and wanted to see if any of the forward/front facing, gun ports were still visible on the Hilsea Lines despite the landscaping, and having been covered in the intervening years.. was surprised to find several - all bricked in of course, but one of them still has the remains of what must have been a steel shutter
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| No shutters but note the hinges for where they would have been |
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| Look at that arch of bricks... |
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| Remains of a steel shutter still visible.. note also the crappy quality of the brickwork to block the entrance compared to the others.. given the graffiti on this one I'd day that this one has been used for access more recently than the others by the "local youf"... 😏 |
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Laters, as the young people are want to say...
I've been enjoying your out & about posts this Spring! Interesting!
ReplyDeleteCheers David... love just wondering around Pompey, and if you keep your eyes open there's always something interesting to see... well to us anyway.. :o))
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