Exmouth-based military historian Simon Fogg has created a video tour of the former Dalditch Royal Marines’ training camp on Woodbury Common.

The video, available to watch on YouTube, is a follow-up to his book, published in 2019, about the camp which existed during WWII, between 1941 and 1946. At its peak Dalditch was home to more than 6,000 Marine recruits going through their training before being deployed to battle.

Simon researched the history of the camp thoroughly for the book and collected a large number of photos and artefacts. He’s used these in the video to illustrate what each part of the site was used for during the wartime years.

He said: “In this 80th year of the D-Day landings in 1944, I thought it would be all the more poignant to help preserve our local bit of wartime history.

“The total running length of the video spans three hours, but I have included ‘chapters’ in the YouTube upload for each part that I cover for easier access.

“Each video part of the camp is roughly 5-10 minutes long and covers pretty much everything of the camp that still exists or is still accessible, along with an accompanying background history of each part and where to find it.

“This is everything from Nissen huts, Mess halls, various ranges (small arms, flame thrower, PIAT gun) and other weapons training, and anti-gas decontamination chambers, to name a few. The video also includes parts of the wartime history outside of Dalditch camp, such as the dummy airfield bombing decoy on the Northern part of Woodbury Common.”

“It has been a real pleasure putting this together, helping to preserve this part of the Royal Marine history. I hope that it can be of interest to those wanting to research the history of the commons, the Royal Marines training, or to those who are curious about the origin of some of the remaining brickwork that can be encountered while out walking.”