WWII / Cold War Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, Keepers Lane, Trimley St Mary.
Originally created as a World War Two Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery mounting four 3.7-inch Mobile Guns in 1941 with GL Mk.II Radar, when it was manned by 385 Battery of the 121st Royal Artilley Regiment. It became Diver Strip Battery H2 in 1944 equipped with four 3.7-inch Mk.IIb Guns equipped with GLIIIC Predictor, GLII and S2MA Radars. It formed part of 40 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade. All the gun sites in this area came under the control of the Anti-aircraft Operations Room at Mistley in Essex. This Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery was retained into the late 1940's as an ''Off-Site'' and part of the Nucleus Force. The Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery is positioned near to the mouth of the Orwell River, on a plateau to the north-west of the port of Felixstowe, and includes the structural remains of a Cold War Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery site comprising four Gun Emplacements with associated buildings, the former Generator and Gun Store building, Command Post and partly ruinous brick Radar Tower, and a Telephone Test Cubicle also survive, along with sections of the approach track.
The four Gun Emplacements are located on concrete spurs which extend from the corners of a roughly square concrete platform measuring 131ft east-west and 164ft north-south located at TM 2764 3615. The centre of the platform is covered with dumped material. Each circular Gun Emplacement is approximately 32ft in diameter and constructed of reinforced concrete. Although two of the four emplacements are heavily covered with vegetation, all appear to have survived well, with a central Gun Pit approximately 4ft 11in deep to accommodate the traversing mechanism of the gun and hydraulics of the automatic loading system. Attached to the rear of each Gun Pit is an Engine House which contained a diesel generator, hydraulic pumps and an air compressor to power the recoil system. None of the equipment, mechanisms or pipe work appears to have survived.
Approximately 157ft to the south-east of the emplacements, on the west side of the track, is the generator house and gun store, a single storey, flat-roofed, reinforced-concrete, L-shaped building with heavy steel-shuttered doors and windows. At the southern end of the building, the gun store has small square apertures near to roof level and steel-louvre ventilation openings. Opposite the generator house, approximately 65ft eastwards from the east side of the track, is the telephone test hut, a brick and reinforced concrete structure with a flat roof. Approximately 525ft further to the south of the generator house and gun store on the east side of the track lies the Command post, a flat-roofed, reinforced-concrete structure with a steel-shuttered door. To its north-west lie the remains of the brick radar tower and ramp.
Sourced from:
www.ancientmonuments.uk/119781-anti-aircraft-site-at-sear...
www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?ui...
WWII / Cold War Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, Keepers Lane, Trimley St Mary.
Originally created as a World War Two Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery mounting four 3.7-inch Mobile Guns in 1941 with GL Mk.II Radar, when it was manned by 385 Battery of the 121st Royal Artilley Regiment. It became Diver Strip Battery H2 in 1944 equipped with four 3.7-inch Mk.IIb Guns equipped with GLIIIC Predictor, GLII and S2MA Radars. It formed part of 40 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade. All the gun sites in this area came under the control of the Anti-aircraft Operations Room at Mistley in Essex. This Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery was retained into the late 1940's as an ''Off-Site'' and part of the Nucleus Force. The Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery is positioned near to the mouth of the Orwell River, on a plateau to the north-west of the port of Felixstowe, and includes the structural remains of a Cold War Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery site comprising four Gun Emplacements with associated buildings, the former Generator and Gun Store building, Command Post and partly ruinous brick Radar Tower, and a Telephone Test Cubicle also survive, along with sections of the approach track.
The four Gun Emplacements are located on concrete spurs which extend from the corners of a roughly square concrete platform measuring 131ft east-west and 164ft north-south located at TM 2764 3615. The centre of the platform is covered with dumped material. Each circular Gun Emplacement is approximately 32ft in diameter and constructed of reinforced concrete. Although two of the four emplacements are heavily covered with vegetation, all appear to have survived well, with a central Gun Pit approximately 4ft 11in deep to accommodate the traversing mechanism of the gun and hydraulics of the automatic loading system. Attached to the rear of each Gun Pit is an Engine House which contained a diesel generator, hydraulic pumps and an air compressor to power the recoil system. None of the equipment, mechanisms or pipe work appears to have survived.
Approximately 157ft to the south-east of the emplacements, on the west side of the track, is the generator house and gun store, a single storey, flat-roofed, reinforced-concrete, L-shaped building with heavy steel-shuttered doors and windows. At the southern end of the building, the gun store has small square apertures near to roof level and steel-louvre ventilation openings. Opposite the generator house, approximately 65ft eastwards from the east side of the track, is the telephone test hut, a brick and reinforced concrete structure with a flat roof. Approximately 525ft further to the south of the generator house and gun store on the east side of the track lies the Command post, a flat-roofed, reinforced-concrete structure with a steel-shuttered door. To its north-west lie the remains of the brick radar tower and ramp.
Sourced from:
www.ancientmonuments.uk/119781-anti-aircraft-site-at-sear...
www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?ui...