Three types of vessels of roughly the same size can be confused: ‘barges’, metal ‘lighters’ and ferroconcrete ‘lighters. This is compounded by the term ‘barge’ sometimes being used to describe a lighter. Thames Sailing Barges These have a sailing rig, or at least did when active. In the distant past, they partly evolved from wooden …
The fighting men who landed on D-Day needed to be fed so ten Landing Barge Kitchen (LBK) were built for the task. These were adapted from steel Thames Lighters by fitting two petrol engines and building the kitchen on the lighter. Crossing from Langstone Harbour to Sword Beach on D-Day, with the 35th LB Flotilla, …
There is a Ferro Concrete Petrol Barge (PCB), or Lighter, in the Harwich area. These were originally built for use on D-Day but were found to be unsuitable. It is (85’x22′) and was in the cutting to the East of the Sailing Club serving as the clubhouse until replaced by LBK6. It was then moved …
On 6 June 1944, Allied troops landed on the Normandy beaches and the battle to liberate Europe began. 80 years on since D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defence of our freedom. The small village of Woolverstone had a vital part to play in these tumultuous times.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, London was the largest city in the world and road transport was powered by horse: fifty-thousand horses were required just to keep Victorian London’s public transport running, another ten thousand horses for hansom cabs, and countless more to substitute for white vans made around 300,000 horses producing, say, …
Dummy Landing Craft were built at Waldringfield and moored on the Deben before D-Day to deceive the Nazis. These were probably the largest craft ever to be in the river.
1801 Nelson in HMS Medusa with Capt. Gore is guided by Spence to scrape out to sea.