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📌 WWII 5.25-inch Gun Battery (consisting of three Gun Emplacements) Anti-Aircraft Training Camp, Weybourne [TG 0968 4382]

An extremely rare World WarTwo (one of few in England) 5.25-inch Battery, consisting of three Gun Emplacements, located within the western extent of Weybourne Anti-Aircraft Training Camp, the site is centred on TG 0975 4381. The group consists of a Command Post building and three 5.25-inch Gun Emplacements, one of which was constructed in the post World War Two phase of the camp, potentially post 1953. A national plan was devised in 1944 to construct 5.25-inch batteries across Britain, although the Weybourne guns may have been installed as late as 1946, although there are no available aerial photographs of the camp in between 1941 and June 1946, so it is possible that the guns were constructed earlier. However on the 1946 aerial photographs there are obvious signs of relatively recent construction and activity around the site.

 

The Command Post building is centred on TG 0982 4387 and measures 55ft 9in by 19ft 8in. This building now houses the Environmental Centre operated by the University of East Anglia.

The eastern emplacement is centred on TG 0977 4381, a circular encasement, 39ft 4in in diameter, surrounds the gun and a 18ft long magazine is located to the immediate southeast. The central emplacement is centred on TG 0972 4381 and the post war gun is located at TG 0968 4382. A loop of access trackway runs to the south, which continues to the south towards the airstrip.

 

The site of the World War Two and post war Weybourne Anti-Aircraft Training Camp located alongside the cliffs at Weybourne to the north west of the village. The camp originally started out as a temporary summer camp for the Anti-Aircraft Division of the Territorial Army in 1935. At first the majority of the camp consisted of wooden and tented structures, although in 1937 it was decided to make the camp permanent and more fixed structures and defences were erected. The camp closed in 1959. During World War Two the camp was surrounded by a perimeter Anti-Tank Ditch and defended by a system of Gun Emplacements and Barbed Wire obstructions. The interior of the camp consisted of groups of Nissen huts and barracks and other military buildings. The cliff top to the north was covered by a line of Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns and Batteries, Slit Trenches and Pillboxes.

 

RAF Weybourne was a World War Two Anti-Aircraft Establishment, ''X'' Flt, No. 1 Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation Unit were based at the station between 16th May and 14th September 1939, with ''T'' Flt, No. 1 Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation Unit there between 25th February and 29th April 1942. No. 6 Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation Unit were based there between 7th December 1942 and 30th November 1943. Associated with the Anti-Aircraft Gunnery, the station operated the De Havilland DH-82B Queen Bee target drone aircraft, a radio-controlled target tug version of the Tiger Moth II.

 

Although the published closure date known for this airfield relates to the World War Two airfield, the Army maintained an Anti-Aircraft Training Camp across from RAF Weybourne using Bofors 40mm Anti-Aircraft Guns linked to AA4 Mk.7 Gun-Laying Radar. When that closed in 1958 the radars were transferred to the RAF. A very small permanent detachment was maintained there using the obsolete radar into the 1980's for cross-tell training, decoy work and to extend low level coverage. In the late 1980's, after the obsolete radars were removed, trials were carried out to confirm the site's suitability for deployment of the new mobile radars that were coming into service.

 

A Marconi Type 91 ''Martello'' radar was moved from RAF Trimingham to Weybourne in September 1996, operated by 432 Signals Unit acting as a Ready Platform (along with RAF Hopton and RAF Trimingham) for the IUKADGE Series II (United Kingdom Air Defence Ground Environment) Radar System controlled from the R3 Underground Control Centre at RAF Neatishead. In October 1997 the Type 91 at RAF Weybourne was de-built, replaced when the Type 93 at RAF Trimingham became operational.

 

Information sourced from -

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Weybourne

www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?ui...

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Uploaded on April 17, 2020
Taken on May 27, 2017