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Today I am in Dover visiting St Martins battery. More info here:
Western Heights Emergency Battery, a Second World War adaptation of the old St. Martin's Battery in Dover, can be visited by taking either North or South Military Rd. At the crest of the hill is a car park and viewpoint next to the Battery, which gives a commanding view of Dover Harbour. St. Martin's Battery was originally built in 1876 to mount 10" Rifled Muzzle Loaders (RML's) as part of a scheme to improve the defence of Dover Harbour and its approaches. In open gun pits and with each weapon supplied by a magazine alongside, it provided considerable firepower. At one point it was suggested that No.2 gun (in the centre of the three positions) be removed and the space utilised for another magazine - this idea wasn't adopted though, instead in 1890 a tunnel was driven into the chalk bank at the rear of the Battery which led to an underground ammunition store - a far better plan, as having a magazine between two exposed guns would have led to the total destruction of the Battery in the event of a direct hit. This tunnel and magazine remain today and the date of construction can be seen above the entrance to it. Eventually the Battery became obsolete due to the advent of longer barrelled, longer range and far more accurate Rifled Breech Loaders (RBL's) installed at Citadel South Front and Langdon Batteries, and by the early 1900's St. Martin's had been withdrawn from use as an active site.
St. Martin's was chosen as a handy place to site a more modern battery. Renamed 'Western Heights Emergency Battery', the sunken pits were filled in and holdfasts for 6" MkVII naval weapons were added, and reinforced concrete cover was also provided. Above the concrete, chalk was added for extra protection and along the front lip of the canopy an irregular brick wall was built to try to break up the outline slightly - a rather feeble attempt at camouflaging what was, after all, a highly visible structure. A light AA post was also sited on the roof of the Battery. Three weapons with shields were originally mounted but No.2 gun (dating from 1899!) was removed leaving positions 1 and 3 occupied. The defended perimeter of the Battery was marked by a wire entanglement that surrounded it, and slit trenches (one of which can still be found today) worked in conjunction with the pillboxes to provide close defence. Camouflage netting also covered the entire site to try and foil Luftwaffe reconnaissance flights, although this wasn't a great success.
The old Victorian tunnel and cartridge store was a handy place to provide sheltered accommodation to the men who manned the Battery (414 Coast Battery) but initially there was insufficient space. However, it was a good place to start - so in 1941 the Royal Engineers (No.172 Tunnelling Company) drove a further tunnel from one side of the existing system and proceeded to dig down... and down... What they constructed was enough to house all 4 officers and 150 other ranks in comparative safety. It was handed over by the engineers ready to be fitted out on 19th March 1941, and it gave a floor space of 3,150 square feet, which included sanitary and medical areas, all beneath a cover of around 30' of chalk. Two flights of stairs led down from the Battery entrance into the main tunnel, parallel to this was another tunnel which was linked by three shorter chambers. To the rear of this system the tunnels joined into a straight drive which emerged behind huge blast walls at Grand Shaft Barracks. Today the underground system is in quite poor condition with smoke blackening to the lining and the usual graffiti scrawled everywhere. (A gate has been added to the main entrance to deter visitors and vandals.) A collapse at the 'Y' junction of the main and spur tunnels has left a large cavity in the chalk and just past this point backfill from the sealed entrance at the Grand Shaft Barracks has blocked the tunnel completely.
An inspection report from 1942 reads (in part);
"414 Coast Battery, Western Heights. B.C. recently back from St. Helena. Fairly good guard. Guns clean but worn. This battery is not nearly as tidy as it might be."
In 1944 the Battery was stood down and placed on 'Care and Maintenance' due to the unlikelihood of a German naval assault on Dover Harbour - the tide of war had changed and Allied forces were on the Continent and in command of the English Channel and the air. After the war both of the guns were removed (1947) and by the 1950's, when Coast Artillery had died as a concept, the whole site had been abandoned by the army.
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