Monument Number 1547569 |
| Hob Uid: 1547569 | |
Location :
Kent
Gravesham
Shorne
|
| Grid Ref : TQ6944574760 |
| Summary : A Second World War Emergency Battery comprising two 5.5-in. guns emplaced on earthen mounds next to each other in concrete-roofed gun houses. These formed part of the Thames river defences. The battery was bulit in 1941, decommissioned by 1945 and demolished c. 1976. The guns fired from a pedestal mounting through a wide opening in either gun house. There were adjacent magazines and war shelters for the gun detachments.The battery was established around 1895 with two 6-pounder quick-firing guns mounted to cover a projected minefield adjacent to the battery at Shornemead Fort. The heavy guns were removed before the First World War. In the Second World War the quick-fire emplacements were overbuilt by two emplacements for 5.5-inch breech-loading naval guns when it was reopened as an emergency battery.The battery was located to the east of Shornemead Fort which housed the WW2 Battery Command post and Minewatcher's post. The emergency battery, Shornemead Fort and and associated pillboxes, searchlights and the embarkation hard used during the D Day landings (Operation Overlord) were protected by extensive barbed wire entanglments divided into cells around each part of the battery complex. |
More information : A Second World War Emergency Battery comprising two 5.5-in. guns emplaced on earthen mounds next to each other in concrete-roofed gun houses. These formed part of the Thames river defences. The battery was bulit in 1941, decommissioned by 1945 and demolished c. 1976. The guns fired from a pedestal mounting through a wide opening in either gun house.
There were adjacent magazines and war shelters for the gun detachments. No traces remain. (1)
The earthen and structural remains of the battery could be seen at TQ 6944 7482 to the east of Shornemead Fort.
The battery was established around 1895 with two 6-pounder quick-firing guns mounted to cover a projected minefield adjacent to the battery at Shornemead Fort. The heavy guns were removed before the First World War. In the Second World War the quick-fire emplacements were overbuilt by two emplacements for 5.5-inch breech-loading naval guns when it was reopened as an emergency battery.
Shornemead Fort housed the WW2 Battery Command post and Minewatcher's post. The emergency battery, Shornemead Fort and and associated pillboxes, searchlights and the embarkation hard used during the D Day landings (Operation Overlord) were protected by extensive barbed wire entanglments divided into cells around each part of the battery complex.
This site was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. (2) |