200 yard Moving Target Ranges

PNK;33635 wrote:

Station ORBs

Be prepared for some surprises, Peter

I have found these to be unbelievably variable in quality. There was clearly no British Standard on 'How to write an ORB'.

As an example years ago I was researching MUs - I just wanted briefly to know what their function was. An AIR29/xxxx is usually a bound volume often containing a number of individual ORBs. e.g. 55 MU to 59MU.

The first one you look at may well tell you nothing apart from what the weather was doing on a particular day, which AVM visited the site, and how many of the staff visited the VD clinic. At the end of 200 pages you know nothing about the unit. In one instance I never found out what its function was.

The next ORB begins "No.XX MU opened on the 23 Aug 1941, under the command of Sqn Ldr zzzzzzz. The function of the unit is to supply MT spares to airfields in southern Lincolnshire and Rutland. The HQ is at aaaaaa, the following buildings have been requisitioned as stores - bbbb, cccc, dddd, eee. In addition Fred Bloggs garage at 77 High Street will be used for repairs". Excellent stuff.

The Thornaby ORB is good up to around 1940. Throughout the whole of the BoB period it tells you nothing, apart from the weather, and the daily number of amber and red alerts. OK is wasn't an 11 Group station but it did have its share of excitement during the period.

Often far more interesting are the ORB appendices (not all ORBs have them) They often contain photos, drawings and details about particular functions of a station. Again very variable. Here's a quote from another thread on the forum:

Had a look at the Elsham ORBs in TNA on a recent visit. I was interested in the GCA tests carried out with Bomber Command c.July 1943.
There are two ORBs - one covering 1941-45, and the other was the Appendices (similar dates). The ORB itself was very boring and produced nothing relating to GCA.
Very often, however, ORB Appendices are much more fruitful - providing detailed information regarding specific incidents at the station. The Elsham one was excellent to the summer of 1942. There is then an 18 month gap and its gets good again from January 1944 onwards. There is not a single entry for this missing period. Very disappointing, and have no idea of the reason.

Graham

PNK;33671 wrote:

And another one! Morpeth

Excellent Peter - we'll soon have all 13 now:-D. I'd love to know when the MTRs were proposed.

I recently came to the assumption that these ranges were proposed early WWII. This is based on Warmwell, however most of the other evidence suggests 1941/42 ish.

Now that we know the Air Observation Schools were responsible for gunnery practise a few things fall into place.

Morpeth was designed as a fighter satellite, becoming an AGS in 1942, along with Mona (Mona - a possibility?).

Further to a remark I made earlier, Wigtown became an AOS in 1942, so I'm now happy that it had an MTR.

Bishop's Court was by 1943 an AOS, then an AGS.

Staverton was briefly an AOS in 1943, having been a navigation school - it later became an (O)AFU. I think we can rule that one out.

Graham

Guess who's found SIX of the elusive wartime photo's of Snettisham in operation.........!!

To save cluttering this thread up I've started a dedicated one in the Training Schools folder HERE .

A Happy PB