An oral history interview with Lady Belinda Montagu. Interview Date 22/11/13
Lady Belinda Montagu was a young girl at the start of the war but old enough to remember and witness the build-up of troops and equipment leading up to D-Day. Before going off to boarding school she was free to cycle or ride her pony with others across the Forest and thus able to observe the military activities close to her home on the Cadland estate. This included operations at Fawley, Calshot and Lepe, including the preparatory work needed for the D-Day invasion. Like many others of her age, she recalls the air raids and bombing of Southampton, rationing and meeting American troops. Altogether a realistic account of what life was like for a youngster living in the New Forest during the war years.
Interview Quick Clips:
All material is ©2016 New Forest National Park Authority.
Full transcription of interview recordings:
Download transcription (PDF)
Interviewed by: Sue Jackson
Transcription by: John Martin
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
You can find out more about the New Forest’s vital role in D-Day from Mulberry Harbour, to holding camps, road widening, advanced landing grounds, PLUTO and Embarkation by visiting our main page on D-Day in the New Forest.
An oral history interview with Fred C Hambly. Interview Date 15/08/13
Fred joined the RAF as an apprentice during the war in 1943 aged 15 years old. After the war Fred was posted to RAF Orford Ness doing secret armament experiments and was then posted to RAF Beaulieu in 1946 to the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment (AFEE) testing various types of parachute. Aircraft dropped men, vehicles and weapons at East Boldre and then went and collected them before doing it all again.
Based at Beaulieu Airfield for about 18 months in 1946/47 Fred also worked on early German rotary-wing aircraft (helicopters) that had been captured and brought over. In 1945 the first helicopter to cross the English Channel was the Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 on its way to RAF Beaulieu.
Fred has good recall of the layout of the airfield as well as recollections about German prisoners-of-war and generally what a cold, miserable, muddy place it was. During the bitter winter of 46-47 the heating fuel ran out and they had to chop down trees to keep warm, despite strict orders to the contrary.
Interview Quick Clips:
All material is ©2014 New Forest National Park Authority.
Full transcription of interview recordings:
Download transcription (PDF)
Interviewed by: David Larder
Transcription by: John Martin
Audio Editor: Gareth Owen
For further reading and articles on Beaulieu Airfield please visit: Beaulieu Airfield Overview
An oral history interview with Barbara Smith. Interview Date 22/09/13
Barbara worked at Millersford Range measuring the blasts from various bombs. She recalls mixing with very scholarly scientists whom she would never have met otherwise. She also very fondly remembers a lovely social life.
Interview Quick Clips
All material is © 2015 New Forest National Park Authority.
Full transcription of interview recordings.
Download transcription (PDF)
Interviewed by: Sue Jackson
Transcription by: John Martin
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
You can find more memories of Millersford Experimental Work Below
Armaments Research Department – Millersford Overview
Group Photo with names – SAE Millersford – 1945
Vera Storr – Memories of a secret Blast Tester at Millersford Range
Betty McCarthy – Memories of assistant photographer at Millersford Range
John Robinson – Blast Pressure Group. Armaments Research Test Range – Millersford Range
An oral history interview with Betty Sheffield. Interview Date 24/04/13
Betty’s memories of the war mainly surround her husband’s work in the Royal Army Dental Corps where he treated troops, in particular on the lead up to D-Day where patients had to be accompanied by two Military Police officers to avoid any discussions about the plans. Betty also remembers the amount of boats on D-Day itself and the hour after hour of ‘planes flying over.
Interview Quick Clips:
All material is ©2014 New Forest National Park Authority.
Full transcription of interview recordings:
Download transcription (PDF)
Interviewed by: David Larder
Transcription by: William Ward
Edited by: Thad Barker-Mill
An oral history interview with Frank Rosier. Interview Date 25/08/13
A Chelsea boy of 17, Frank Rosier joined the army specifically to be trained for the D-Day landings. He joined the 2nd Battalion Gloucesteshire Regiment, landing on Gold Beach on D-Day. Frank recalls being in Scotland on infantry training when the order came through that they were to report to Christchurch and undertaking the three week walk to get there. Frank’s battalion entered a sealed camp near Brockenhurst two weeks before D-Day. In this interview Frank recalls life as a 17 year old infantry man and his (mis)adventures in the New Forest.
Interview Quick Clips:
All material is ©2019 New Forest National Park Authority.
Full transcription of interview recordings:
Interviewed by: Sue Jackson
Transcription by: Sue Newman
Checked by: John Martin
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
An oral history interview with Mrs Alice Hoare. Interview Date 17/05/2013
During the War, Alice worked in service for Lady Tottenham at Burley and then for a lady in Burley Road. At 18 she joined the Land Army and has some wonderful memories of working on the farm at Godwins Croft and then at Waterditch. She worked hard on the dairy farm but loved the work. She has memories of the jobs she had to do including haymaking, harvesting and hedge trimming. She was taken to dances with the Land Army. She met her husband while working at the farm and married in 1945.
Interview Quick Clips:
All material is ©2016 New Forest National Park Authority.
Full transcription of interview recordings:
Download transcription (PDF)
Interviewed by: Colin Gibson
Transcription by: Krysia Truscoe
Checked by: Sue Kackson
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
The site of a Canadian sawmill setup to increase the production of timber during the First World War. Key uses for this timber was pit props – to support the roofs of subterranean tunnels (e.g. for cool mining or military tunnels at the front) and for trenches e.g. flooring, sides and buried ‘bunkers’. Canadian lumberjacks were then also sent to war leaving a shortfall is the workforce. The sawmills employees were then supplemented with Portuguese timber workers, Portugal being neutral.
The Portuguese timber workers left nothing behind after the war, other than the chimney and fireplace of their mess hall and this has become a memorial to them.
Some features are still visible today 9as well as the fireplace) and were also seen on aerial photographs of 1945 and on the Lidar survey. Features include earthworks, trackways, bare soils marks, possible spoil heaps and buildings.
During research Minstead Manor and Minstead Lodge (essentially another manor) came up interchangeably throughout the war diaries, but are in fact separate places. Both were usually listed as a sub HQ of V corps (for separate units, such as RE or a brigade HQ). Research eventually led us to a now demolished manor (MA1431) for one site and a still extant lodge (Minstead Lodge) for the other. The now demolished manor site is included in the projects final report.
In the War Diaries the lodge site came up less frequently than the manor. But is referred to in appendix ‘A’ of the “5 Corps Order of Battle and Location Statement No.1.” dated 4 Dec 1941 (WO 166-249 – Sept-Dec 1941 (158)).
In this entry it is listed as the HQ for C Troop, Royal Engineers. It’s certainly possible that Canadian forces made use of it, given their occupation of the forest for a while.
It is probable that the lodge was requisitioned as a sub unit HQ and throughout the course of the war a variety of units will have occupied it. Any HQ will have probably been given the usual militarisation treatment.
Morant Hall, also known as New Forest Hall, once stood on the Lyndhurst Road approximately opposite Greenways Road, Brockenhurst.
Soon after the establishment of the Lady Hardinge Hospital for Wounded Indian Soldiers in c.1914 at what is now Tile Barn the facilities quickly became overcrowded. The hospital had tented and galvanized roofed buildings as patient accommodation and had commandeered Balmer Lawn and Forest Park Hotels.
Morant hall was set up to take some of these patients in an attempt to relieve some of the overcrowding treating the Indian troops of the Meerut and Lahore Divisions, who fought on the Western Front, and were patients at the Lady Hardinge Hospital. The hall became known as the Meerut Indian General Hospital and was managed by a committee of local citizens and could provide accommodation for up to 120. There is a Meerut Road in Brockenhurst in their memory.
When the Indian hospital was closed and moved elsewhere the main facilities were taken over by the No.1 New Zealand General Hospital and continued in use until 1919. Auckland Avenue and Auckland Place commemorate the stay of the New Zealanders. When these New Zealand troops arrived, in 1916, the Hall became a British Red Cross Auxiliary facility (also known as a Convalescent Depot) called Morant War Hospital.
Read more about the Lady Hardinge Hospital for Wounded Indian Soldiers: Here
This item has been handed in, but it is unclear what it is or what it was used for.
The device has a wind-up motor and when activated one can see some points opening and closeting within. It is all housed in a wooden box, on the front of which is a small plate with “Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt E. V.” and “DVL”.
On the device is stamped “H. Wetzer Pfronten Bayern No 1200. Scratch here is also (DVL) A7/01286.
On the front of the device is a clock face showing 60 seconds, four input sockets labelled “Kontaktgabe” (contact input) I and II. In addition there are five sockets labelled 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 10 Sek. Sek being the abbreviation for Sekunden (Seconds) we think.
We would love to know what it is and what is did or does and what it was used for. Do you have any ideas? Please add your thoughts in the comments box.
March 2014:
Helmut Kalteis, Marketing Director for Endress+Hauser Wetzer GmbH+Co. KG, Nesselwang, Germany has kindly got in touch with the team and has passed on a number of documents regarding this object. As you may have guessed these are all in German but we are working our way through them to fully understand what this object was, its function and purpose.
If you can read German maybe you could help? Here are the three documents:
- FONFA Object – 100 Jahre Luftfahrtforschung (100 Years of Aviation Research) (91.5KB)
- FONFA Object – 140320 Wetzer Chronographen (Wetzer chronograph) (This is a very large file and we are working to make it a little smaller for upload.)
- FONFA Object – ATM – Archiv fur technisches messen (ATM – Measure Archives for technical) (1.32MB)
