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This was the one and only Deep Shelter at St Margaret's that I hadn't done, Mainly as in previous years I hadn't found it, I got a text from Space Invader saying he was at a loose end and did I fancy going and doing some thing local, I thought yeah why not so off we went and found ourselves here.
A nice aerial shot of the site;
A bit of history about the site, Its construction and the fire power employed;
This was a coastal artillery battery with four Mark X 9.2 inch guns and a network of bunkers and ammunition stores, northeast of the lighthouse on the road to St Margarets. The site was cleared after the war, but traces remain albeit heavily overgrown.
Excavations started on 28 December 1940 and the first gun arrived on 25 March 1941, although No. 4 gun was not test fired until 28 November of that year. Their best-known action came a few months later, on 12 February 1942, when the light battleships Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen attempted the Channel Dash from Brest back to Germany. The K band radar at South Foreland started to track the ships of the Brest Group coming up the Channel towards Cap Gris Nez. At 12:19, the first salvo was fired; since maximum visibility was five miles, there was no observation of fall of shot by either sight or radar. The "blips" of the K-set clearly showed the zig-zagging of the ships and full battery salvo firing began without verifying fall-of-shot. 33 rounds were fired at the German ships, which were moving out of range at 30 kn (35 mph; 56 km/h). Initially it was thought that four hits had been made, but the Germans revealed that all had missed.
By the end of the war the four guns had expended 2,248 shells, most in the months before and after the Normandy landings. 28 enemy ships were confirmed sunk between all the coastal batteries around Dover and the deterrent effect was significant
A couple of Original photos from when the site was in full operation
And the pics taken from my visit to the Shelter
Thanks for taking the time to look through my Pics, I had a great time visiting this place, I would Highly recommend going to experience it for yourselves !
!
A nice aerial shot of the site;
A bit of history about the site, Its construction and the fire power employed;
This was a coastal artillery battery with four Mark X 9.2 inch guns and a network of bunkers and ammunition stores, northeast of the lighthouse on the road to St Margarets. The site was cleared after the war, but traces remain albeit heavily overgrown.
Excavations started on 28 December 1940 and the first gun arrived on 25 March 1941, although No. 4 gun was not test fired until 28 November of that year. Their best-known action came a few months later, on 12 February 1942, when the light battleships Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen attempted the Channel Dash from Brest back to Germany. The K band radar at South Foreland started to track the ships of the Brest Group coming up the Channel towards Cap Gris Nez. At 12:19, the first salvo was fired; since maximum visibility was five miles, there was no observation of fall of shot by either sight or radar. The "blips" of the K-set clearly showed the zig-zagging of the ships and full battery salvo firing began without verifying fall-of-shot. 33 rounds were fired at the German ships, which were moving out of range at 30 kn (35 mph; 56 km/h). Initially it was thought that four hits had been made, but the Germans revealed that all had missed.
By the end of the war the four guns had expended 2,248 shells, most in the months before and after the Normandy landings. 28 enemy ships were confirmed sunk between all the coastal batteries around Dover and the deterrent effect was significant
A couple of Original photos from when the site was in full operation
And the pics taken from my visit to the Shelter
Thanks for taking the time to look through my Pics, I had a great time visiting this place, I would Highly recommend going to experience it for yourselves !
!
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