FORTRESS STUDY GROUP 

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ISSN 1367-5907

Chairman:

W H Clements, 6 Lanark Place, London W9 lBS.

chairman@fsgfort.com

Secretary:

Alastair Fyfe, 15 West Park Avenue, Roundhay, Leeds LS8 2HG.

secretary@fsgfort.com

Membership
Secretary:

Alan Fyson, 4 Acacia Close, Petts Wood, Orpington, Kent BR5 1LL.

membership@fsgfort.com

Treasurer:

T H Bell, 12 Castle Close, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, PE3O 3EP.

Editor of
FORT:

Terry Gander, 9 Le Bourgage, St Anne, Alderney GY9 3TL, Channel Islands.

fort@fsgfort.com

Editor of
Casemate:

Charles Blackwood, Braemont, Cilcain Road, Pantymwyn, Mold, CH7 5NJ. Tel: 01352 741556.

casemate@fsgfort.com

Librarian:

Keith Phillips, 22 Exton Gardens, Portchester, Hants PO16 8EB

librarian@fsgfort.com

Reviews Editor:

G Dowdall-Brown, 1 Pelican Lane, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 1NU.

reviews@fsgfort.com

Webmaster:

Richard Clisby,

webmaster@fsgfort.com

Our Website address is www.fsgfort.com Please send contributions to and questions on the website direct to Richard.

IFC Representative:

David Bassett, 11 Fordwell, Llandaff Village, Cardiff CF5 2EU.

dave.bassett@ons.gov.uk

Scotland:

Norman Clark, 127F Links Street, Kirkaldy, Fife KY1 1QL.

N E England:

Alan Rudd, 36 Millfield Grove, Tynemouth, NE30 2PZ.

Humber:

Alan Williamson, 109 Minster Moorgate West, Beverley, E Yorks HU17 8HP. Tel: 01482 870527

Northern Ireland:

Bill Clements, (see 'Officers')

Midlands & N W England:

Bernard Lowry, The Severals, Bentleys Road, Market Drayton, Shrops TF9 1LL.

N Wales:

Medwyn Parry, Erglodd, Taliesin, Machynlleth, Powys SY2 8JR.

S Wales:

Roger Thomas, English Heritage, 37 Tanner Row, York YO1 6WP.

E Anglia:

Alistair Graham Kerr, 19 Hungate Lane, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9TN.

Chatham & SE England:

Alan Fyson, 4 Acacia Close, Petts Wood, Orpington, Kent BR5 1LL.

Portsmouth and South:

Keith Phillips, 22 Exton Gardens, Portchester, Hants PO16 8EB.

SW England:

Michael Clark, Brookfield, Rectory Drive, Staplegrove, Taunton TA2 6AP.

Channel Islands:

Trevor Davenport, The Haize, Val Fontaine, Alderney, Channel Islands.

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.
Back numbers of nearly all Casemate are available with Nos 1-40 bound in three volumes, and Index for 1-44, at various prices from:
Charles Blackwood, Editor, address see below.

2010 September, North Wales.

2010 - April: Mauritius. - awaiting confirmation and information.

2010 Sept 11-19: Briançon Area, SE France.     NOTE DATES!

The FSG Tour next year will take us from the Rhône Alps to the High Alps of France. It has been timed for September to enable us to reach some of the forts likely still to be snow-bound earlier in the year.
Starting at Geneva Airport at around 13.00/14.00 hours on Saturday 11 September the Tour will finish same time, same place, the following Sunday, 19 September.
Accommodation for most nights of the tour will be at the Hotel Mont Brison in Briançon (the highest town in France). The hotel is modern, having balcony rooms, options for single occupancy, all with en suite facilities - and the owner is a fortress enthusiast! Our final night before returning to Geneva is intended to be at a hotel in Grenoble to allow us to visit some of the surrounding forts.
We shall be seeing over twenty fortifications ranging from late mediaeval to Maginot and Vallo Alpino. Of particular interest will be the spectacular World Heritage Vauban forts and citadel of Briançon, and several of the high mountain forts above the town. Further afield, we expect to visit Fort Barraux, the earliest bastioned fort in France, and the vast fortress complexes of Tournoux and the Barrière d'Esseillon. Further details of some of these mountain forts can be found in the articles that appeared in Casemates 79, 80 and 83.
Final costs are not available at the time of going to press, although the total cost should be comparable with previous Tours. However, due to exchange rate fluctuations over the past months, payment may be quoted and collected, at least partly, in euros.
A flyer with booking form and further details of the arrangements will be in the January 2010 Casemate.

2011and 2012: Not yet confirmed; 2011 is now likely to be NW Italy, based at Lucca; 2012 location to be confirmed, possibly Hungary.

Decisions are based very much on who is willing and able to run a Tour, and successful correspondence.

Nov 7:

Prague; Ann Conf; Czech Assn; as above.

Nov 7:

Ijssellinie Olst, NL; Meeting; Menno van Coehoorn; Frits van Horn; excursies@coehoorn.nl

Nov 13-23:

BRAZIL; Tour; Independent; Christian Casartelli; casac@netcourrier.com - see below -.

2010

Feb:  

TBA; Ann Conf; Civil War FSG; TBA; info@cwfsg.org

Apr 13-18:

Puget Sound, WA; Ann Conf; CDSG; Chiswell/Kobylk; sjkobylk@aol.com

Apr 18-19:

Victoria, BC; Special Tour; CDSG; as above.

May:

San Francisco; Ann Conf; CAMP; Dale Floyd; caponier@aol.com

May 29-Jun 6:

Sevastopol/Yalta, Crimea; Private Tour; Hans-Rudolf Neumann; hrv.neumann@t-online.de

Oct 4-5:

Ouvrage Galgenburg, Metz; Fair - 18th Annual; IFF; TBA; a15@wanadoo.fr

Oct.:

Wilmington/Beaufort, NC; Special Tour; CDSG; Phil Payette; hrforts@aol.com

Oct.:

TBA; Ann Meet; IFC; Carlos Scheltema; carlos@scheltema.org

(Thanks to Terry McGovern for list. Ed.)

BRAZIL:

Christian Casartelli has organized a Tour to Brazil, to visit some of the main coastal batteries built to protect the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, Santos bay, Curitiba Bay, and Santa Catalina State. Fortifications date from 1555 to C20th and during the Tour 19 forts will be visited, most of which still mount their armaments, as they have stayed in military hands. There are numerous guns to see; BLs from Krupp, Canet, Schneider and Creusot and RMLs from Parrots and Armstrong. Provisional cost is €700+airfare to Brazil+ €840 hotel and dinners based on 10 attending.
Contact Christian at casac@netcourrier.com for further information and detailed programme.

Gift Aid Declaration: the UK Government allows the Group to claim back the tax paid on Members' subscriptions if the Member is a UK tax payer and has signed a Gift Aid Declaration. I have been asked to make it clear to Members that while the Declaration is valid for the duration of membership, if a Member's taxable circumstances change, then it is the Member's duty to inform the Treasurer.

Thomas Bell, Honorary Treasurer.

Books added to the FSG Library as at May 2009.

• Practical Geometry - Permanent Fortification (presumably produced for Army training purposes but without author, publisher, date or anything!)

• Twentieth Century Military Sites - English Heritage booklet.

• 4 HMSO Handbooks for the : 6-inch QF gun; 4-inch QF guns; 3-inch QF 20 cwt gun; 18-pdr QF gun.

• Osprey Publications, Fortress 78; The German Fortress of Metz 1870-1944; Fortress 79; Israeli Fortifications of the October War 1973.

• Charles Stephenson; Essay & reprint of Servant to the King: Paul Ive and the Practice of Fortification

Keith Phillips

CLOTHING; buy your stuff with an embroidered FSG badge!
Fleece, wind & waterproof lining £41; sweatshirt £17; polo shirt £13. Lots of colours to chose from. All + p&p at cost.
Available only from John Kemp, 28 Albert Street, Kirkwall, Orkney, KW15 1HL. Tel: 01856 873190 email:embroidery@johnkemp.co.uk, www.orknet.co.uk/scapa/jkemp.htm

FSG BADGES for lapels, caps and hats are available from: Alistair Graham Kerr, 19 Hungate Lane, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9TN. Cost £1; please send self addressed envelope, and in UK, 6 x 2nd class stamps as payment and postage.

I am very sad to report the death of Paul Kerrigan. Paul, who died in a nursing home in Ireland in June, had been a member of the FSG for many years and, while living in England in Eastbourne, was a regular attendee at Member's Days and Conferences. He moved to Ireland in 2002 but joined us for the AGM and conference in Ulster in 2003 when he lectured to the conference on Irish fortifications. Paul was an architect by profession and a noted Irish historian with a particular interest in Irish fortifications. He contributed articles on fortifications to a wide variety of journals including The Irish Sword, the journal of the Irish Military History Society, and the journals of numerous Irish heritage societies. However, undoubtedly it is his magisterial book Castles and Fortifications in Ireland 1485 - 1945 that will remain as a lasting memorial to a great Irish fort-hunter.

Bill Clements

John Bray has been experimenting with Google Calendar, and has set up a public calendar for Fortification Events in Europe. Go to http://tinyurl.com/kkjtax for a web page and http://tinyurl.com/ng9nde for an ical format to go into calendar programs (the original urls are probably too long for people to retype). Tinyurls promise never to expire. John is happy to let other people add events, they just need a Google account.

John has found that as people have been adding coordinates to Wikipedia entries, it is now easy to set up their categories with maps showing them all. He's been doing this in the UK, and is moving onto the US. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Forts_in_Portsmouth for an example.

Channel Islands:

Trevor reports that the Festung Guernsey Project continues to do a grand job clearing and restoring bunkers.
On Alderney, the Alderney Society has mounted an exhibition of original Victorian plans of the fortifications, to be open during 2009. In July Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex visited Alderney and the Museum and Trevor spent 10 minutes with the Prince taking him through the exhibition and chatting about the Victorian Harbour and the building of the forts.

Bala Hissar; from Bill Woodburn:

Out of interest, the Afghan Ministry of Culture, who are responsible for archaeological sites, have sought our copyright permission to translate the paper into Dari (the local Persian), and I hope Pushto, for local research use. It has also gone into major archives and institutions in Kabul. So I hope that I am getting somewhere with my plea that you kindly echoed in your last sentence. (Casemate 85 p47)

Tyne Turrets (Casemate 85 p7);

David Clarke points out that the drawing of the Tyne Turrets is his copyright and being used without permission. He has a job to understand how the website contributor can even have got hold of it.

(My apologies to David; the only attribution in the site referred to a plan extracted from the National Archives; the drawing has no attribution. This is not uncommon on internet sites where stuff is used pretty freely without acknowledgement or attribution. Ed)

The Later Coast Batteries of Wales (Casemate 85 p19); ; from John Lindop:

'Do you hear there?', as they used to say on the Tannoy when I was a Jolly Jack Tar, and very many thanks for Casemate 85, as usual full of fascinating material, especially the article The Later Coast Batteries of Wales; and of particular interest re Butlins Holiday Camp, Pwllheli aka HMS Glendower as I did part of my training there and can add a bit.
Billy Butlin was working for the MoD and was asked to find a suitable site for a Naval training camp well away from enemy influence and with a view to conversion to a holiday camp when the war was over. There is little difference in my experience.
Pen-ychain was the choice and the purpose, as laid out in Nore Command General Orders, 20 September 1940 was for HMS Glendower to be relief establishment for HMS Royal Arthur (another Butlin's at Skegness, where I 'joined' the RN) and to be administered by CinC Western Approaches.
From 1 October the function to be Part 1. (Disciplinary) Training for HO (Hostilities Only) Seamen, SBAs (Sick Berth Attendants), Cooks and Stewards.
Part 2. Technical Training for HO Seamen and DEMS, Acting Seamen Gunners.
Part 3. Training for HO seamen who had completed parts 1 and 2.

My eventual aim was to be a radar operator, which I became, but prior to commencing that technical training one was required to do a Seaman course and a part of that was Torpedoes and Gunnery. We started the gunnery course in the gunnery shed in the middle of the camp, under cover, on 6-in Vickers Armstrong (I think) guns with some sort of Arabic or Turkish inscriptions on the breech.
Following that was instruction on the 20mm Oerlikon, then firing them from the battery at the end of Pen-Ychain Point, and the pits were still in situ and as new when I visited a few years ago. Next was instruction on the 4-in QF, including firing them, most probably from that very same holdfast depicted in the article; ah, the nostalgia!
Solid shot was used with a reduced charge so there must be thousands of rounds on the sea bed just off the point.

The building described in the article was indeed the ammo store which, together with the guns, we had to guard at nights, suitably equipped with WW1 Mk1 Lee Enfields and five rounds of much dented ammo to ward off the might of the Wehrmacht. The sole defence armament continuously manned was a single 20mm Oerlikon in the middle of the camp but I don't think it was ever fired in anger. Happy days?? All at 2/- a day - what value!

Lines of Torres Vedras. (Casemate 85 pp 22-24); from Roger Thomas.

John Grehan's book is very good, but unfortunately the depiction of the eastern ends of the two northern lines is incorrect; they do not link up in the area of Bucellas (see map below).
The redoubts covering the Bucellas Gap are a separate group and the 2nd Line descends down to the Tagus at Póvoa de Santa Iria. The spot representing Pero Negro is in the wrong place, it is actually just west of the Zizandro, but I suppose at this scale it is probably nit-picking as there isn't an awful lot of difference in them.

(I spotted Grehan's map was different from the definitive one in Jones, a large fold-out map, but it was clearer and simpler and easier to copy. I am suitably taken to task for being lazy. Ed)

Post-Medieval Archaeology
42 (2008), 229-275; Jezz Meredith, 'Excavation at Landguard Fort: an investigation of the 17th-century defences'.

From John Kenyon

Coast Defence Study Group: JOURNAL,
Vol 23 Issue 2, May 2009 (96pp, glue bound): Coast Artillery Organisational History: Part I CA Regiments (48pp) ( Koko Head, Fire Control and Searchlight Station and Military Reservation, Maunalua, Oahu, TH ( The Coast Artillery on Shemya Island (AK), 1943-47 Below;

Defence of New Zealand Study Group (DONZ):
Forts and Works No 25, June 2009 (A4, 24pp):

• PS Rangiri, the last remnant of New Zealand's First Navy (very nice little 7pp article on this paddle steamer gunboat - much of the hull remains preserved - embellished with some splendid contemporary prints).

• Puketua Defended Area (pillboxes, road blocks and AT ditches).

• That Mokau Mine.

• Krupp 77mm Field Gun near Hamilton.

• Russian Gun on the Waitemata.

• JL3 The Controlled Mine Station, Moturua Island, Bay of Islands Fortress.

the Institute of Historic Building Conservation:
Context 109, May 2009: The editorial is headed 'If you seek their monuments, look down' referring generally to the conservation of subterranean structures but including, as semi-underground, WWII pillboxes. Simon Loaring and David Hunt (Pillbox Study Group members).

From Alastair Fyfe.

Current Archaeology No 232:
In this issue there is a look at the Defence Estates Otterburn training area in Northumberland. One of the articles looks at the trench system at Silloans. Martin Brown [source]. 'It's a long way to Tipperary...': the archaeology of the Great War at Otterburn'. 'From barrow to bunker: Archaeology on the Otterburn Training Area; plus a note about the discovery of the Royal Fort at Bristol.

The Defence Estates have also issued a booklet on the ranges. The Otterburn Ranges: All quiet on the Western Front. The remarkable 'practice trenches' ..... Available from DTE Otterburn, Otterburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE19 1NX. Mark for the attention Chris Livsey.

From Alastair Fyfe and John Kenyon

ORKNEY: Fighter Sector HQ and Gun Operations Room, Kirkwall.

Since April there has been a campaign to try and persuade Orkney Islands Council to re-think its long-standing proposal to demolish this Combined Operations Block, known locally as 'The Black Building', and to replace it with serviced plots for private housing. The campaign has been vigorously led by Dr Ken Hambly, Chairman of the Holm Heritage Group, and has been strongly supported by FSG whose appreciation of the special importance of Orkney's surviving wartime heritage was strengthened by its annual conference there in September 2008.

Initially, Orkney Islands Council agreed to receive a detailed historical appraisal of the building prepared by Geoffrey Stell. Received by OIC on 22 April, this document was not made available to councillors in a crucial debate over the future of the building that took place six days later on 28 April when a majority of councillors voted in favour of continuing with the programme of demolition. Picking up on comments made by some councillors in the course of that debate, Dr Hambly then invited Historic Scotland to make an emergency assessment of the building. Historic Scotland agreed to do so and, armed with the historical report and local technical advice, their officers inspected the building on 3 June. Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of Orkney Islands Council responded to a formal complaint lodged on 8 May by Geoffrey Stell into the Council's handling of his report by conducting an internal enquiry. The Chief Executive's verdict, issued on 19 June, found that officials had acted in accordance with normal guidelines in not making the report available to councillors but acknowledged that the complainant should have been given more advance information on local authority procedures. The local MSP, Liam McArthur, who had taken an active interest in the issue, was copied into this correspondence.

Geoffrey Stell

To bring this story to a sad and disappointing ending, on 1 July Dr Hambly received a letter from Historic Scotland, who have decided not to list the Black Building or to support the group in any way. Extremely disappointing. OIC have since made it clear that in the light of HS's refusal to protect the Black Building, the Council's decision to demolish it is now confirmed. RIP. Ed

ORKNEY: Burry Battery Twin 6-pdr:

Better news from Orkney where Sheila and Albert Spence, of Northfield Farm (see FSG Conference report in Casemate 84 p24) have been doing some serious cleaning up in the battery.

The clearance operation has revealed the surviving details of this twin 6-pdr emplacement, including the bolt ring and fixing brackets, in near-perfect condition.
Replacing a couple of 12-pdr QF guns, this twin 6-pdr was installed between November 1940 and February 1941 and was operational until December 1943 when the nearby Churchill Barriers were sufficiently complete to render it redundant. The date '28 July 1941' is inscribed in the cement render on the front apron of the gun house. According to local contemporary testimony, the gun is said to have never been fired, even in practice.
A remarkable physical feature of this site is that it adjoins and partly overlies the remains of a prehistoric broch, probably the only C20th battery in Britain to do so.

From Geoffrey Stell

DOVER: Castle:

English Heritage have cleared most of the scrub and undergrowth from the outworks at Dover Castle. You can see most of them now fairly clearly.

From Philip Francis

DOVER: Western Heights:

Very successful Open Days on 30, 31 May, run by the Western Heights Preservation Society, saw about 1200 visitors and the best show yet. The WHPS has done a lot of cleaning up at the Drop Redoubt and Grand Shaft Barrack area and their latest acquisition is a replica 7-in RBL Armstrong (copied from one on HMS Warrior), of which there were 11 installed in 1861 on the Drop Redoubt. The aim is to raise funds to build a traversing carriage for it.

In a brave and commendable move the WHPS has applied to EH for permission to manage the Drop Redoubt.

From John Guy

USA: from the Civil War News Roundup online:

Tennessee; a study released by the National Parks Conservation Association found that four national parks encompassing former Civil War battlefields in Tennessee are under a modern-day assault; one of them is Fort Donelson, which is suffering from encroaching development; also staffing and federal funding shortfalls are causing challenges in maintaining the protected land.
'Once something is preserved, it has to be maintained and made accessible'. 'These other parks are preserved because they were the scenes of large battles and had large losses of lives. Here in Knoxville, what we had was a brilliant engineer who used many different strategies. The defenders were very intelligently protected.' Owing to Union engineer Orlando Poe's earthworks at Fort Sanders, Union Gen Ambrose Burnside's men suffered only 13 casualties, compared to 813 by the attacking Confederates in the 1863 battle in Knoxville.

USA: Fort Pike:

the New Orleans Times/Picayune reports that 'Storm-battered Fort Pike' reopens 11 June after being inundated by hurricane Katrina and suffering significant structural damage, on top of years of neglect. It was open last year until forced to close by the arrival of hurricanes Gustav and Ike which caused substantial damage. Lots has been done and more is planned. It is hoped the Federal Emergency Management Agency will confirm a verbal pledge to fund the projected $18 million to do the work.

USA: Washington:

Casemate 85 p10 noted the threat of mothballing facing several forts in Washington. FSG member John Bray wrote to the Parks Dept lamenting this prospect for Fort Flagler (below, John Bray) and has received a positive response.

'The state budget directs that all state parks will remain open 2009-11, provided that a new donation program tied to vehicle license tab renewal brings in adequate revenue.
The 2009 Legislature passed a Bill establishing the new revenue source to keep the state from mothballing approximately 40 state parks in the face of budget reductions. The donation program will start with September vehicle license renewal notices from the Department of Licensing. The notices will include an automatic $5 donation to keep state parks open (unless you choose not to participate.)
Your Washington state parks are there for you - and there because of you. Thank you, and enjoy.'

OLAVINLINNA CASTLE - Finland

Founded in 1475, the castle was built at the confluence of two waterways to defend the border between Sweden and the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The original three towers and curtain wall took ten years to build, under attack from Russia all the time. The building of the bailey and its two towers followed, completed by the end of the C15th. War broke out in 1495 and the Russians attacked the castle several times. Through the 16th. and 17th. centuries the castle was subjected to numerious attacks and felt the effect of the Great Northern War. In the summer of 1714 the first change in ownership occured, when the castle capitulated to the Russians after a fierce siege.
There was some disagreement over who actually owned the castle but the Peace Treaty of Uusikaupunki in 1721 returned the castle to Sweden. After many battles in the C18th., the Peace Treaty of Turku (1743) made Russia the owner of the castle. Extensive construction work improved the castle's defences by adding pointed bastions.
The castle was garrisoned to 1847, though it had lost its military importance in the Finnish War, when Finland became part of Russia (1809). The castle served as a remand prison for a short time, after which it gradually developed as a tourist attraction, with restoration through the C19th. and C20th., the last major work taking place between 1961 and 1975. The castle was designed for artillery from its inception.

{ from www.nba.fin }

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