FORTRESS STUDY GROUP

CASEMATE - The FSG News Letter ISSUE 76 May 2006

ISSN 1367-5907


Vickers 6-in, 152.4mm made under licence in Spain, left hand gun of twin turret, Punta Comorro Bajo, Spain. (Charles Blackwood)	Petrovaradin (Peterwardin) Fortress, Austrian built, 18^th. century, on the Danube 50 miles above Belgrade. Detail of Plan of 1761-2 (Novi Sad Town Archives, from Nenad Seguljev).

NOTE: Any picture with a red border will expand with a click, maybe twice.

Glimmingehus fortified house, Scania, Sweden; started 1499 for firearms use, the similarity to Scottish tower houses is marked.

(Svein Wiiger Olsen)

Dr. Gordon Barclay, MA, PhD, MIFA, FSA, FSA Scot., Editor FORT 2006.

(Alistair Graham Kerr)

Charles VI Gate, ravelin between St. Joseph's & St. Innocent's bastions. Petrovaradin (Peterwardein) Fortress (C18^th.) on the Danube in Serbia.

(Courtesy of Elias Hatzakos, from his gallery on www.pbase.com )

From the Editor

Happily, for FORT 34 2006 we welcome a new Editor; see Chairman's Message.
Sadly, though, we have lost some long established members; their obituaries are in this issue.
Recent Casemates have been rather C19th/20th orientated; can we have some earlier material please, to balance things out a bit.
I am pleased to record that Svein Wiiger Olsen has sent in the first contribution for our Members' Gallery slot. Lets have some more.

Please Note:

When submitting material via email, CD or floppy, please always send illustrations as separate attachments, preferably in Jpeg format, never in the text.
This is your magazine, so response to, and comment on, the contents, style and presentation are always welcome. Charles Blackwood, Editor.

Index 76

Officers of FSG
Chairman's Message.
Future Events.

Obituaries

Peter Cobb;
Douglas Darroch;
Richard Harbottle;
Simon Hendrik Poppema;

Requests for Information
Correspondence
Items for Sale

FORT NEWS
Fort Augustus; Blyth Battery; Grandcamp Maisy; Grain Tower; ROC St Agnes; Gibraltar; Hull; Woodside Castle; Fort Picklecombe. US: Battery Park; Fort Clatsop

FEATURES.

Members Day 11 March: Charles Blackwood.
A Trip to Sardinia: Mike Osborne.
The Armstrong Protected Barbette Batteries of Tangier: Dennis W. Quarmby.
Ghar el Melh: Dennis W. Quarmby.
Barrier Forts close to Riva, Lake Garda: John Goodwin.
Fort Bourguignon in Pula: Aleksander Jancovic Potocnik.
Bunkermuseum: Aleksander Jancovic Potocnik.
Guns in Spain and Gibraltar - CDSG Tour October 2005: Alan Bailey.

Conference Report.

The Town Fortress in the 21st. Century: Burden or Benefit. Feb 2006.

BOOKS.
D.P.&G. Military Publishers:

Fortification: Its Past Achievements, Recent Development and Future Progress.
Notes on Land and Coast Fortification.
Handbook for the 64-pr. RML Converted Gun of 58 and 71 cwt..
Handbook for the 12.5 inch RML 38 ton Gun Marks I and II, Land Service.

The Great Siege: Knight v Turks MDLXV.
The Siege of Malta 1565.
Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear; Russia's War with Japan.
The Tide of Sunrise. A History of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905.

OSPREY:

Fortress 37; D-Day Fortifications in Normandy.
Fortress 38; American Civil War Fortifications (2) Land & Field Fortifications.
Fortress 39; Russian Fortresses 1480-1682.
Fortress 40; Ancient Greek Fortifications 500-300 BC.
Fortress 41; The Channel Islands 1941-45: Hitler's Impregnable Fortress.
Fortress 42; The Vauban Fortifications of France.
Fortress 46; Castles and Tower Houses of the Scottish Clans 1450-1650.

The Magdeburg International Conference - Printed Report.
Patrimoine Militaire.
Britain's Mediaeval Castles.
Castles in Medieval Society: Fortresses in England, France and Ireland in the Central Middle Ages.
Flash Spotters & Sound Rangers; How they lived, worked and fought in the Great War.
Command and Control on the Western Front; The British Army's Experience 1914-18.

Some of these articles are available here, to the general public. All are available in the FSG Members area.

OFFICERS OF THE FSG

Chairman: David Bassett, 11 Fordwell, Llandaff Village,Cardiff CF5 2EU. Email: dave.bassett@ons.gov.uk
Secretary: W H Clements, 6 Lanark Place, London, W9 lBS.
Treasurer: T H Bell, 12 Castle Close, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, PE3O 3EP.
Editor of FORT: Dr. Gordon Barclay MA, PhD, MIFA, FSA, FSA Scot., 5 Derby Street, Edinburgh, EH6 4SQ. Email: gordon@barclaygoring.fsnet.co.uk
Editor of Casemate: Charles Blackwood, Braemont, Cilcain Road, Pantymwyn, Mold, CH7 5NJ. Tel: 01352 741556, Email: charles@braemont.freeserve.co.uk
Librarian and Reviews Editor: G Dowdall-Brown, 1 Pelican Lane, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 1NU. Email: dbrupert1@btopenworld.com
Webmaster: Richard Clisby, email: richard.clisby@btopenworld.com
Our Website address is www.fsgfort.com Please send contributions to, and questions on, the website direct to Richard.

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE.

FORT 33, which will be the last of our specialist editions covering the Second World War, is currently being printed and should be with you about the same time as this edition of Casemate.

Dr Gordon Barclay MA, PhD, MIFA, FSA, FSA Scot. has very kindly agreed to be Editor of FORT.
Both of Gordon's degrees are from Edinburgh University. He has in recent years moved on from his first interest, the Neolithic and Bronze Age of eastern Britain, and is working on 1940 anti-tank stop lines in Scotland. A paper on the 'Cowie Line' will appear in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland this summer and he is working on a survey and documentary study of the 'Command Line' in Fife and Perthshire. Gordon was editor of Proceedings, Scotland's main archaeological journal, for three years to November 2004. He was Head of Scheduling in the Historic Scotland Inspectorate until January, when he moved to be Head of National Policy.
He attended the FSG committee meeting this March and has already started work on FORT matters. We wish Gordon well and very much appreciate his enthusiasm and the expertise he is bringing to this role. We all need to support him as Editor and the best way we can assist is to contribute articles and encourage all who have suitable material to provide articles for inclusion in FORT - or Casemate.

On a sadder note I regret to report that Alan Pearsall died on Friday 30th March. Alan served on the FSG committee for 20 years - in recent years as FSG representative on the International Fortress Council. He brought to the FSG his encyclopaedic knowledge of the maritime and industrial elements of fort design, context, operations and remains; and frequently brought his wide ranging, academic and lateral perspective to discussions and articles on forts. Alan was the Curator of Manuscripts and Head of the historical section at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where his funeral was held in the chapel on 27 April. Alan's wit and knowledge will be sadly missed.

Material for Casemate should reach the Editor by the of end October, February and June, at least 2 months before the next issue is due.
The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the Editor or individual contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Fortress Study Group.

Early numbers of Casemate are available from Bernard Lowry, The Severals, Bentleys Road, Market Drayton, Shropshire, TF9 1LL, UK.
Casemate 71 and later are available at £2 + p&p from: Charles Blackwood, Editor, Braemont, Cilcain Road, Pantymwyn, MOLD, Flintshire CH7 5NJ, UK. Email: charles@braemont.freeserve.co.uk

FUTURE CONFERENCES AND AGMs:

2006. Sep 1-4: Weymouth (Alistair Graham Kerr)

2007. Orkney & Shetland (Doreen Grove)

OVERSEAS TOURS:

2007. April: Eastern Germany, start at Berlin(Hans-Rudolf Neumann; hrv.neumann@t-online.de

2008. Slovenia (Aleksander Jankovic Potocnik)

OTHER GROUPS, 2006:

27 Aug-14 Sep: China/Vladivostok; Tour; Hans-Rudolf Neumann; hrv.neumann@t-online.de

Sep 27-Oct 2: San Francisco; Ann. Conf; CDSG; John Martini; jamartini@earthlink.net

Oct: Les Invlaides, Paris; Ann Meeting; IFC; Carlos Scheltema; carlos@scheltema.org

Oct 8-9: Chateaux, France; Congress; IFF; Regis Berger; fort@villey-le-sec.com
(Thanks to Terry McGovern for list. Ed.)

FSG Annual Conference, Weymouth.

There are still places available for what should be a terrific Conference, based at the Allenby Barracks, as guests of The Royal Corps and Armour Centre Officers Mess, Bovington, home of the famous Tank Museum; Alistair is looking for an attendance of 100.
There is a very promising series of lectures, and a most interesting and varied programme of visits, from castle to concrete, tanks, turrets, forts and batteries.
Contact Alistair at 19, Hungate Lane, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9TN.

© 2006 - The copyright of the contents of this site is held by the FSG and the authors unless otherwise stated.

Fortress Study Group is a registered charity No. 288790.

FORTRESS STUDY GROUP

CASEMATE - The FSG News Letter ISSUE 76 May 2006

ISSN 1367-5907

Vickers 6-in, 152.4mm made under licence in Spain, left hand gun of twin turret, Punta Comorro Bajo, Spain. (Charles Blackwood)

Petrovaradin (Peterwardin) Fortress, Austrian built, 18th. century, on the Danube 50 miles above Belgrade. Detail of Plan of 1761-2 (Novi Sad Town Archives, from Nenad Seguljev).

Glimmingehus fortified house, Scania, Sweden; started 1499 for firearms use, the similarity to Scottish tower houses is marked.

(Svein Wiiger Olsen)

Dr. Gordon Barclay, MA, PhD, MIFA, FSA, FSA Scot., Editor FORT 2006.

(Alistair Graham Kerr)

Charles VI Gate, ravelin between St. Joseph's & St. Innocent's bastions. Petrovaradin (Peterwardein) Fortress (C18th.) on the Danube in Serbia.

(Courtesy of Elias Hatzakos, from his gallery on www.pbase.com )

From the Editor

Index 76

Officers of FSG Chairman's Message. Future Events. Obituaries

The Town Fortress in the 21st. Century: Burden or Benefit. Feb 2006.

Some of these articles are available here, to the general public. All are available in the FSG Members area.

OFFICERS OF THE FSG

FUTURE CONFERENCES AND AGMs:

OVERSEAS TOURS:

OTHER GROUPS, 2006:

Petrovaradin (Peterwardin) Fortress, Austrian built, 18^th. century, on the Danube 50 miles above Belgrade. Detail of Plan of 1761-2 (Novi Sad Town Archives, from Nenad Seguljev).

Charles VI Gate, ravelin between St. Joseph's & St. Innocent's bastions. Petrovaradin (Peterwardein) Fortress (C18^th.) on the Danube in Serbia.

Officers of FSG
Chairman's Message.
Future Events.

Obituaries