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July 1943 to June 1944
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July 1943 to June 1944
Location: Hampshire
This is the story of the wartime activities at Cricket Camp, now part of Hampshire County Council's Manor Farm Contry Park. This information has been put together from information given by Naval and Marine ex-servicemen and from researches undertaken by members of the HMS Cricket Memorial Committee. It is expected that there is still more to be discovered and the research is on-going, supported by the Countryside Agency Local Heritage Initiative.
H.M.S. CRICKET (Cricket Camp) - MANOR FARM COUNTRY PARK
PART 1: July 1943 to 6th. June 1944
Preface
It is an unexpected corner of Hampshire. Around it the noisy traffic of motorway and arterial road seems strangely at odds with the quiet woodland which lies at the end of Pylands Lane. The area of Hoe Moor Copse, known colloquially as Old Moor Copse, has now returned to the wild that existed when a Mr.Thistlethwaite entertained shooting parties at nearby Brixedone (or Brixedene) House before World War Two. Also at this time local children were invited every year to Freehills House to celebrate Empire Day and other occasions, with tea-parties and sports days provided by the owner, Colonel Ferney and held in the big meadow in front of the house.
Cricket Camp, in both its military and later civilian role, swept aside the peaceful pre-war life of the area and replaced it with what amounted to a small town which housed , at one time, some 4000 people. Yet now virtually nothing remains to show that this place once seethed with activity and drama and the sign directing visitors to "Cricket Camp Scout Centre" provides no indication of the rich history that lies behind the name Cricket.
The Beginning
In 1939 the Admiralty searched for suitable sites for naval training camps which were near to existing defence establishments but well hidden from aerial reconnaissance. By the end of 1940 a "Combined Operations" base had been formed at Warsash (H.M.S. Tormentor) under the command of an Australian, Commander Cook R.A.N. Here the Navy undertook training in the handling of the new special landing craft. The boats from Tormentor were used to evacuate the commandos who had been engaged in the destruction of radar and wireless installations at Bruneval, France, in 1942.
A decision to extend the scope of Combined Ops. training on the Hamble river involved the acquisition of land at Hoe Moor. After extensive construction work H.M.S. Cricket was commissioned on the 15th. of July, 1943 as a Royal Naval shore establishment, initially in charge of a Commander Piper, R.N. The camp comprised some 120 individual buildings, including a large NAAFI with cinema, a small hospital and an extensive complex of nissen accommodation huts surrounding central ablution facilities. An armament depot and a sewage works suitable for a small town were also constructed, all served by a network of roads.
At the bottom of the hill, a brisk five minute trot from the camp, Hoe Moor Creek was dredged and widened to give access to about a dozen docking bays which were excavated from the river bank. Three large country houses, Brixedone, Durncombe and Freehills, were requisitioned to provide Officers' and WRENS quarters (separately, of course!)
The Landing Craft
L.C.A.s (Landing Craft Assault) and the smaller L.C.P.s (Landing Craft Personnel) were built in large numbers, based on designs from John Thornycroft & Co. Ltd. of Woolston. Thornycroft became the parent company and sub-contracted the building work to various other businesses all around the country. Locally the boats were built by F.J. Deacon at Bursledon, Luke Bros. at Hamble and the Southern Railway works in Eastleigh. There is also an unconfirmed story that the Bark Store by the river at Botley was utilised by Thornycroft for keeping L.C. spares.
The L.C.A.s and L.C.P.s were designed to carry troops only and were usually conveyed to the assault beaches by Landing Ships Infantry (L.S.I.s). These were, in the main, converted cross-channel steamers. The gravity davits on these vessels were adapted to meet the requirements of loading and launching minor landing craft. The bulk of D-Day invasion forces were carried to the beachheads on the L.S.I.s and were transferred to the embarked L.C.A.s for the final assault.
The L.C.M.s (Landing Craft Mechanised) were designed by Thornycroft to carry a 14 ton tank at a speed of 7 knots. They were larger vessels than the L.C.A.s and were constructed locally by Thornycroft, Vosper at Portsmouth and the Southern Railway. Further L.C.M.s were produced in the U.S.A. and were made available to the Royal Navy under Lend Lease.
A flotilla of landing craft comprised some twelve to sixteen vessels and research to date indicates that seven flotillas were based at Cricket by the time of the D-Day landings. These were:- 141 (later 480) Minor Landing Craft Flotilla, with twelve LCP(R) s.
- Flotillas 126, 513 and 514, with L.C.A. craft.
- Flotilla 470 - L.C.U.s
- Flotilla 606 - L.C.M.s
- Flotillas 590 and 591 - L.C.A. Hedgerows
July 1943 to June 1944 continued >>
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