Up Rocket Projector Battery Chatham Z1 |
| Hob Uid: 1454727 | |
Location :
Medway
Hoo St. Werburgh
|
| Grid Ref : TQ7539173619 |
| Summary : Site of Second World War sixty-four single barrelled UP rocket projector battery Chatham Z1 at Chattenden. It had GL Mark I radar in 1942, and was manned by 111 Battery of the 12th Royal Artillery Regiment. The footprint of this installation can be seen on aerial photographs taken in 1944, and has been mapped as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. The remains appear as areas of flattened grass indicating the former projector sites, which were arranged in a four-row grid, each row comprising four clusters of four projector sites. Earth covered shelters and possible deposition sites for ammunition or stores can also be seen. The traces of the projector battery are indistinct on the 1944 photographs, suggesting that the sixty-four rocket arrangement may have gone out of use by that date. Five areas of hard standing in the southern half of the site, apparently supporting small structures, may indicate a later configuration of rocket projectors. By 1945, aerial photographs show that the projector site had been overbuilt by pairs of temporary buildings or Nissen huts belonging to the temporary magazine at Lodge Hill Camp (Monument 1545549). No clear traces of the GL radar mat could be identified in the immediate vicinity of the rocket projector site on the 1944 aerial photographs, although a semi circular area at TQ 7549 7342, enclosed by the southern perimeter fence of Lodge Hill Camp, could indicate a disused GL site in a part of the camp occupied, in 1944, by military support buildings. Alternatively, a GL site located 1256m to the south east (recorded separately as Monument 1547246) could have served this rocket projector site. |
More information : Site of Second World War sixty-four single barrelled UP rocket projector battery Chatham Z1 at Chattenden. It had GL Mark I radar in 1942, and was manned by 111 Battery of the 12th Royal Artillery Regiment. (1)
The footprint of this installation can be seen on aerial photographs taken in 1944, and has been mapped as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. Its location was more accurately identified as centred at TQ 7535 7361. The remains appear as areas of flattened grass indicating the former projector sites, which were arranged in a four-row grid, each row comprising four clusters of four projector sites. Earth covered shelters and possible deposition sites for ammunition or stores can also be seen. The traces of the projector battery are indistinct on the 1944 photographs, suggesting that the sixty-four rocket arrangement may have gone out of use by that date. Five areas of hard standing in the southern half of the site, apparently supporting small structures, may indicate a later configuration of rocket projectors. By 1945, aerial photographs show that the projector site had been overbuilt by pairs of temporary buildings or Nissen huts belonging to a temporary magazine at Lodge Hill Camp (Monument 1545549). (2-4)
No clear traces of the GL radar mat could be identified in the immediate vicinity of the rocket projector site on the 1944 aerial photographs, although a semi circular area at TQ 7549 7342, enclosed by the southern perimeter fence of Lodge Hill Camp, could indicate a disused GL site in a part of the camp occupied, in 1944, by military support buildings. Alternatively, a GL site located 1256m to the south east (recorded separately as Monument 1547246) could have served this rocket projector site. (5) |