No.D3 Yellowham Wood map
Please do not enter the woodland without the farmers permission as it is used for shooting.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
No.D3 Yellowham Wood map
Map of area W.
Embarcation.
Weymouth sea front.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood map
Plan of the woodland : the green track is the main access. Starting at A the guard hut and moving up the hill to the main camp.
Used in the spring of 1944 as a "marshalling area" for soldiers going to France for D-day and then possibly reused as POW camps afterwards.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood air photo
Yellowham was Marshalling area 'D', sub area 'W', Camp No. D 3 Yellowham. It was staffed by the 773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, there duties were to clean, build, camouflage, staff and organise these camps for the purpose of feeding, supplying, entertaining, guarding and administering to the 1500 combat troops and 220 vehicles that were here.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood hut A
Guard room hut A.
'A' the first hut at the bottom of the hill just off the track was the Guard Room. The hut could have been a wooden hut or a Nissan hut.
I am trying to locate the units that used the wood but I think they may have been members of the 16th US Inf. Destined for Omaha Beach. I know 'A' Company were at D1 which is Puddletown just over the hill to the NE.
Guard room hut A.
Loading at Weymouth.
Loading at Weymouth.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood hut A
Guard room hut A.
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No.D3 Yellowham Wood hut A
Guard room hut A entrance.
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A wooden hut.
A wooden hut.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood main access track
Looking up the hill towards the main camp.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood main access track
Looking up the hill towards the main camp.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood hut B
Hut 'B'. You can just make out the steps up and the base of this hut. There are three huts like this. Dimensions are, the main hut (all dimensions in feet and inches) 40ft x 24ft and the extension with the steps 36ft x 15ft.
Plan.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood hut C
Hut 'C' higher up the hill. Not too exciting I know but when I am told "There is nothing left to see", I usually find something.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Around hut 'C' are several screw picket posts. It would be nice to think that this was the hut which had the plans for the D-day beach that the soldiers camped here were to land on. From the book 'The Bedford Boys' "sentries were posted everywhere to keep us from escaping. Barbed wire curled along high perimeter fences, giving D-1 the look of a POW enclosure.
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No.D3 Yellowham Wood
There are two pieces of this type of pottery (I have no clue as to what they were used for) it was made at West Howe Pottery on the outskirts of Bournemouth. Now all that remains of the pottery is a road named Elliotts Road, West Howe, Bournemouth.
Elliotts of West How.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Thread to bolt down a piece of 4x2 timber for the hut. I am not sure what style of hut was built in any of the D-Camps, I would like to know. They could be wooden huts or an asbestoses type as I have found asbestos on one site.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
There are two of these frames, I have again no idea if they are contemporary to the camp.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Hard to see in these pictures but this is a metal matt laid down to help vehicles to climb, what would have been a muddy track without churning it up and making it unusable. I think it was Bar & Rod and Sommerfeld tracking. I have also found it on Omaha Beach Wn60.
Bar & Rod/Sommerfeld tracking.
Bar & Rod/Sommerfeld tracking.
Bar & Rod/Sommerfeld tracking.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
The track was purpose built and has quite heavy foundations
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Bars and rods.
Bar & Rod/Sommerfeld tracking.
Bar & Rod/Sommerfeld tracking.
Bar & Rod/Sommerfeld tracking.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Drainage and mains water supply. They would have needed a lot of water up here.
Drainage
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Cable man hole, there is also one at D4 Came Park.
Yellow - the man hole.
Red ----- a cable.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Not sure of this structure. At D4 Came Park is a circular building, here its a half circle.
Plan.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Trenches all over the area.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
Tree markings.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
--1944--
Buffalo
Could it be Buffalo New York.
No.D3 Yellowham Wood
© 2013 Richard Drew