[williamtheyounger]

It was very interesting reading these articles about Druridge Bay, as a youngster in the early 50s, the meteors from RAF Acklington used floating targets in the water off shore, flying low over the dunes. There was also three old tanks, one yellow coloured, land side of the dunes, also used as target practice. There was also two large huts, also on the land side of the dunes used by the RAF staff. The planes also dragged targets behind them, and other planes used these as targets in mid-flight over the sea. Sometimes they split the rope pulling the targets, which were made out of parachute material. Some of these targets sometimes dropped into local fields. There was then an almighty rush from locals to recover these targets as they were worth money if returned to the RAF. We were not allowed to be near the beach when the red flag was flying, however I was on the shore and fell asleep one day, and woke up to see that target practice had started. I laid low and watched the planes flying low before firing at the floating targets. It was more dangerous if I had moved. The tanks were used by us kids as Toys, and we tried our best to dislodge the turret to get at the huge ball bearings which were used to move the turret gun. We called the concrete building gun pits, and played hide and seek in them, we found one which was hidden well down below the dunes. Happy Times