Military History > Gun Batteries

South Foreland Battery

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Alastair:
Thank you, Dave. I have been convinced of the rolling in of concrete debris for a long time. Time everyone who walks over the site knew they were walking on the actual battery.

Dave Smith:
Alastair. I for one, enjoyed your article, thanks. I agree with your surmise that it was easier to roll the rubbish & stuff they couldn't easily sell into the top of the existing path. You will have to, surrupticially ( why does my word check tell me that's wrong but doesn't tell me what is right?grr) , take a pick axe & dig up a bit- who knows what treasures!

Alastair:
Tour of the South Foreland Battery Part 4
Concrete Path has joined Sea View Road at a T junction.To the right is an open patch of grassland. This was Gun No 1, connected to its magazines behind by a tunnel, exactly the same as in Gun No 4. To the left, a little farther down the road, is the entrance to the magazines for Nos 1 & 2 guns,which, if you stand at the entrance and face the sea, are at 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock. No 4 gun was unique in having separate shelters for Officers and O/R - Nos 1, 2 and 3 had the shelters combined at the entrance to the tunnel leading off the gun pit.
There was a shelter more or less opposite where the Nissen huts were and next to that was the Battery Observation Post. This was a two storeyed concrete building with an observation slit running its full width looking out to sea. Immediately next to it is the remains of the entrance to the Battery Plotting Room, which is underground and received the information from the OP next door.
To the left is grassland, under which is the Deep Shelter. There was one entrance by the Galley, one opposite No 3 gun and one opposite the Plotting Room. The shelter was of standard WW2 construction, as seen in the tunnels at Dover - Circular tunnel cut from the chalk with a concrete floor lai and lined with sheets of corrugated iron held in place with regular hoops of steel braces.
To the right, near the lighthouse were the Officer's Quarters and Admin buildings, all of similar construction to the other buildings mentioned, i.e. single storey with flat rooves. On the seaward side was the Chain Home Low Radar. All this has disappeared and is now part of the farmer's field. There was also a Deep Shelter Here.
After the war, the guns were cut up and sold for scrap and a firm was eventually paid to remove what was now an 'Eyesore.' The Battery had defended our country but was now decreed an Eyesore by the local Council so it had to go. The royal Engineers would have demolished the site for nothing but would not have removed the debris, so a local contractor was paid to do it.
This is where I have my own theory. It is my firm belief that the contractor didn't remove the rubble from the buildings, only the metal he could sell. The rubble was tipped into the gun pits, understandably, but the rest, I think, was spread along the road and rolled flat. My reason for thinking this is the level of the ground outside the magazines of 1 & 2 guns There is no way the ground would have been 18" higher than the magazine floor when shells had to be wheeled out. Similarly, in the Concrete Path look in the cattle grid. Two feet down is a layer of concrete. I believe that to be the original Concrete Path.
That's my theory, anyway. Hope you have enjoyed my description of the site. Thousands of people have walked over it not having any idea of what they were walking over.
Alastair

Alastair:
Tour of the South Foreland Battery Part 3
Carry on down the path past the Incinerator and Sceptic Tank through the Boundary Fence and on to the railway. Here there was a wooden Platform as at the Chalk Pit but this one was bigger. Whereas the Chalk Pit platform had to deal with mainly Ammunition for No 4 gun and fuel oil, this one dealt with both Ammunition for guns 1, 2 and 3, fuel oil, coal and provisions for the entire Battery.
Back up the path, turn right passing the Battery Office and then the Officer's Mass on the right hand side. All the buildings mentioned, with the Exceptionof the Nissen huts, were of the same design, just differing in size according to use. They were single storey with flat roofs, like the one remaining building that was the Galley.
A large expanse of ground comes next, which I suspect was a parade ground. Chalk, rather than concrete, due to camouflage. Opposite this on the left hand side were three Nissen huts to house those operating Number 1 Engine House, which stood to the right of the concrete path which leads off to the left. It was called 'the Concrete Path' because it was a path made of concrete. The fact that it was called that at all implies that it was not there originally, at least, not in that form.
Turning on to said Concrete Path, there is a cattle grid, about which, more later. On ther right the Engine House No 1 and opposite that, on the left a shooting range. The Marines had to keep up their shooting skills, no doubt. Two more Nissen huts on the left and beyond them the magazines for No 1 gun. Exactly the same as those for No 4 gun, set in the ground with their roofs flush with the surface. The ground here was clear in 1941 with no vegetation as there is now .On the left is a large mound which conceals the magazines for Nos 2 and 3 guns. These were built above ground and covered in earth but with a reinforced steel 'burster over themin the earth. The idea was that if a shell or bomb landed it would explode, or burst, before it hit the magazine itself.
The Concrete Path joins Sea View Road here and I will continue later.

Alastair:
Thanks, Dave, I didn't know that. Presumably it would have been from the Low radar by the lighthouse.
Alastair

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