Thanks Peter. In which case, what is it that is pictured near the top in the two photos and which you have coloured red in your picture? I had assumed this was a stiffener (like the piece found) – I am obviously missing something!!!

I have been having a closer look at MikeHoulder’s Avro drawing. Peter, you have suggested that the piece we have been discussing is the stiffener shown in your picture of the rear bulkhead. Mike’s detailed drawing shows the lower fitting by the steps down into the rear of the aircraft, which can be seen in the lower of the two pictures at the top left below. This fitting appears to have an attachment for the steps. The main Avro drawing shows what I assume to be the rivet positions for the upper of the two fittings (but not the stiffener itself). I had thought that these two items would be similarly configured, but on further inspection, it seems that this may not be so.

At the bottom below (in orange) is shown the detailed Avro drawing of the piece which is nine-and-a-half inches long and with the angled indented ends. According to the drawing, the rivet positions at the point where the upper stiffener is fitted are as shown in the upper of the two diagrams below (depicted in yellow). It is difficult to read some of the measurements on the drawing, but the rivets on the two flanges of the stiffener appear to be asymmetric, with the distance between the outermost rivets in the top flange being eight-and-seven-eighths inches and that for the bottom flange being eight-and-a-half inches. This is all very curious – and the length of the fitting itself may be less than nine-and-a-half inches – but perhaps I have misinterpreted the drawing!

I have not yet heard from Laurent, who is probably having difficulty in locating our piece amongst all those in the collection. If we have identified its location correctly as being from the rear bulkhead, it seems more likely to be the upper of the two fittings, but without any measurements our potential identification may be inconclusive, particularly if the piece is fractured.

That’s brilliant, Peter. It looks spot on. Any chance of an unmarked higher resolution copy of the picture by e-mail, please?

And thanks again to MikeHoulder for putting us on the right track.

Peter,

I have been having a closer look at the indented stiffener. I do not yet have the measurements from Laurent, but I think our piece is identical to that pictured on Hennie’s thread. It seems to have seven rivets on each side, but one end appears to have fractured, making it difficult to be certain. If this is so, then, as MikeHoulder has commented on Hennie’s thread, the piece is too small to be a forward bulkhead stiffener – it seems to be about 8 inches long which is roughly one third of the size of the stiffeners illustrated in the diagram in my last post, although similar in design.

So it seems that my original question remains. Where else on the aircraft might a stiffener like this be used? Presumably on a smaller flat surface somewhere within the main fuselage? Can anyone help, please?

V1 sites in the Forêt d’Eawy

I have been in touch with Laurent and he agrees with my analysis of the aerial photographs in post #882, namely that the most fruitful areas for locating any remaining fragments are likely to be amongst the undisturbed trees on the lower slopes of the forest along the northern and eastern edges, as has proved to be the case thus far. At present, he is continuing to have difficulty in finding sufficient spare time to concentrate on further searches, but he has not given up!!

I have added another aerial view to the photo-gallery. This attempts to put the Forêt du Croc site in the context of the other V1 sites in the northern part of the Forêt d’Eawy to the south of Dieppe.

The Germans started to build V1 storage sites in 1943. The Allies named them ‘ski-sites’ because of the distinctive shape of the storage buildings. Two such sites constructed in the Forêt d’Eawy were at Les Pet!ts Moraux and Ardouval. They are marked in white on the photograph. Some of the buildings still survive at Les Pet!ts Moraux, including one with false chimneys added in an attempt to disguise it as a farm building. The site at Ardouval is largely preserved with most of its buildings still intact – some showing wartime damage. Neither of these sites became functional following Allied bombing in 1943, and after the site at Ardouval was abandoned, it was decided instead to build smaller sites, hidden in the forest around les Grandes-Ventes.

Typically these smaller sites built in the spring of 1944 (marked in yellow on the picture) comprised:
• the launch ramp (supported on metal struts with concrete bases or sometimes with earth mounds);
• the firing blockhouse (with slit windows for observation and control of the launch);
• an assembly workshop (a rectangular building where the wings were attached to the flying-bomb);
• an amagnetic building (an arched building from the ceiling of which the missile would be suspended to set its compass);
• small water reservoirs (for washing the ramp and fire emergencies); and
• underground shelters (for detonator storage or personnel).

All these features can be found amongst the remains of the site at the Forêt du Croc.

There might also be a reception building for delivery and temporary storage – no longer the easily identifiable ski-shaped buildings with their anti-blast curvature.

The British War Ministry prepared a listing of ‘Constructional Sites’ known as “Noball” targets, showing the geographical co-ordinates and map references of their locations. The reference numbers of the sites are shown on the picture – Les Pet!ts Moraux and Ardouval being amongst the early targets identified. The discovery of the smaller sites, built later, was often helped by reports from the local Resistance. The names on the picture (which are also listed below) show first the nomenclature in the “Noball” list, followed in brackets by the names by which they were known locally. There were three other sites hidden in the forest near les Grandes-Ventes to the south of le Hoquet which seem not to have been identified by the Allies, as they do not appear on the list of targets. These were at le Chemin Coursier, Route de la Loge, and la Route Charlemagne. These are marked on the picture in italics together with another planned site at Muchedent (Pubel) to the west, which did not become functional. To complete the scenario, there was another site further to the south at Maucomble (Carrefour 118), known by the Allies as Forêt de St. Saens, XI/A/238. The identified sites shown in the area pictured were:

La Briqueterie – Forêt des Nappes, XI/A/220: (la Laie Madame);
Ardouval II – Forêt d’Eawy, XI/A/221: (le Châtelet);
Val des Joncs, XI/A/234: (le Fond du Six Frères);
Forêt du Croc, XI/A/235: (Freulleville – le Croc); and
Le Hoquet, XI/A/257: (la Mare du Four).

Ardouval II – Forêt d’Eawy had been the target of a 109 Sqn night-time marking sortie by the Mosquito of Jim Foulsham and John Swarbrick on 27/28 June 1944. This was followed on 9 July by Ben Weightman and his 582 Sqn crew acting as Master Bomber on a daylight sortie to the same site using target indicator flares. The two crews came together for the fateful Oboe-Lancaster leader attack by ED908 (60-Z) on the Forêt du Croc on 20 July.

As can be seen from the numbering, there were over 250 ‘Constructional sites’ identified in northern France and Belgium. When the V-weapon storage dumps are included, there was an astonishing total of approximately 300 potential targets overall. A map displayed at the preserved Ardouval site at Val Ygot shows the locations of a total of 117 V1 sites in the Seine Maritime region alone.

To view in the photo gallery, click the link below. Click on an image to obtain a caption and start a slide-show.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=BCF75E8AD40ADF0D!164&authkey=!AJrxfdmdr6MXSdw&ithint=folder%2cjpg