Following a visit to the area and finding this unusual looking location on google earth i thought i would take a look. i didnt know what i was looking at until @hhh pointed out that it was a heavy aa battery from ww2 and it all fell into place.
The HAA sites were largely permanent consisting of four guns mounted in the centre of their own circular earthen embankment each of which had concrete lockers for storing ammunition.
These four emplacements were evenly positioned in a semi-circular ‘C’ shape around a central battery command post with the bulge of the ‘C’ pointing roughly in the opposite direction to the area being defended so as to cover the approach to the target.
The command post housed a spotter’s telescope, rangefinder and predictor computer. This equipment was used to calculate the distance, speed and height of approaching hostile aircraft. This information was then passed to the guns where it would be used to set the fuses on the projectiles and tell the gunner where to aim.
The 4.5 inch and later 3.7 inch guns that HAA batteries were equipped with were used to engage high altitude bombers and fired high explosive projectiles designed to explode underneath or above a bomber, causing damage as hundreds of hot metal fragments flew through the air around it
only 3 of the gun emplacements remain now and part of the sunken command posts
aerial pic courtesy of google maps
I only got 1 pic of the internals of the central command area as it was flooded to about 1m (underground) but this is what i got of it all.
Nissan Hut
Nissan hut interior
Central command area interior
Command Area
ammo store
Mounting Point for AA Guns
Thanks for looking
The HAA sites were largely permanent consisting of four guns mounted in the centre of their own circular earthen embankment each of which had concrete lockers for storing ammunition.
These four emplacements were evenly positioned in a semi-circular ‘C’ shape around a central battery command post with the bulge of the ‘C’ pointing roughly in the opposite direction to the area being defended so as to cover the approach to the target.
The command post housed a spotter’s telescope, rangefinder and predictor computer. This equipment was used to calculate the distance, speed and height of approaching hostile aircraft. This information was then passed to the guns where it would be used to set the fuses on the projectiles and tell the gunner where to aim.
The 4.5 inch and later 3.7 inch guns that HAA batteries were equipped with were used to engage high altitude bombers and fired high explosive projectiles designed to explode underneath or above a bomber, causing damage as hundreds of hot metal fragments flew through the air around it
only 3 of the gun emplacements remain now and part of the sunken command posts
aerial pic courtesy of google maps
I only got 1 pic of the internals of the central command area as it was flooded to about 1m (underground) but this is what i got of it all.
Nissan Hut
Nissan hut interior
Central command area interior
Command Area
ammo store
Mounting Point for AA Guns
Thanks for looking
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