Monday 7 November 2016

RN Noirmont Manor at Belcroute Bay

Belcroute is beautiful quiet bay with great views and the bonus of some bunkers to look at too. Here at the corner before the final stretch down the to slipway (near the other end of the long driveway that starts on the sharp bend of Mont Es Tours near the Somerville) there's something buried... and also, behind, amongst the bushes...

.. a little tobruk / ringstand (Wikipedia)...
.. closer...
.. inside. The gun here was an MG311 in an FT17 tank turret (Wikipedia) (you can see an FT17 turret on the wall in the War Tunnels car park opposite the tunnel entrance - the one at the museum near Lewis Tower is an APX-R (see Wikipedia)...


.. it's right on the wall, and before it was bricked up there was access from below in the manor gardens via the loop rungs wall ladder you can just about see in this shot.
Moving down the hill then, and there's a little concrete either side here, possibly a site of a roadblock to delay liberators?
A little farther down and a gun position is visible at the top of the slip, and I can't help wondering if this gateway was open during the war?
On the left, a garage for the pak (wheeled anti-tank gun) and steps up to an MG / lookout position.
Pak garage again, note the bit at the side, behind on the left.
Looking through the grill, there's an interesting opening back there on the left...
.. it definitely looks like there's a lot more buried concrete all the way down to a filled in position and...
.. original german barbed wire and a metal post still present.
Back up a little, and shall we head up there?...
It's a fairly simple climb, but looking back here gives an idea of the height.
After clearing away some gorse and overhanging branches, here's the position. There would be a great view over the bay but for the trees in the way.
If you stand on the end of the pak garage you'll get a view down the slipway, and look up there in the manor garden...
.. interesting! Not very well hidden at the moment :)
And so, down to the gun position...
.. and looking back from the slipway.
A memorial on the wall.
Looking back up the hill from the pak position. The anti-tank gun was a 7.5cm FK 231 (f) (Wikipedia). Other weapons deployed here included MG34 (Wikipedia) machine guns of the le. and s. varieties, and it took a fair bit of googling to find s. = schwer = heavy, and le. = leicht = light!

Storage nearby.
The views from here are great, all the way around from the harbour and Elizabeth Castle, to St.Aubin's Fort here captured here...
.. to the back of St Aubin's southern pier.






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