Casemate 77

FORTS and WORKS, No 20 January 2006.

From the Defence of New Zealand Study Group (DONZ), this A4 Newsletter comes out about twice a year, depending on material, in b&w; has 20pp in this issue and is well illustrated with line drawings and photos. 'DONZ exists to foster and publish research into New Zealand's military history, lead field trips, and encourage conservation of remaining sites and resources'.

The current issue contains articles on: Dardanelles Defences (nice gun pics), by Ian Maxwell.

On display in Canakkale, Krupp 35.5cm (14-in) and a British 6-in. (Ian Maxwell, Forts and Works)

Peter Cooke, Box 9724, Wellington 6030, NZ. petercooke@paradise.net.nz

Palmerston Forts Society: REDAN

Editor David Moore continues to maintain the variety and quality of material in the Redan, three times a year journal of the PFS; A4, 52pp, with a 4pp colour section in the centre. No 66 February 2006 carries articles on:

Nodes Point Battery, Isle of Wight (Ian Stevenson)
More on Vavasseur 4-in QF mountings (David Moore)
The Boer Krupp guns (M C Heunis)
The Completion of the Main Magazine Restoration Project at Fort Nelson (David Moore)

Coast Defence Study Group (CDSG): JOURNAL

Vol 18 Issue 4, November 2004

Tours - Modèles in America.
The Portsmouth Armory and the Coast Defenses of Portsmouth

Vol 19 Issue 1, February 2005

What We Do - and Don't - Know About the Sea Forts of Tokyo Bay - good stuff this, with excellent photos of the forts before and after the 1923 earthquake.
Some Notes on Canadian Hotchkiss Six-Pounder Coast Artillery Guns.
The US Navy and the Coast Defenses of the Spanish Empire.
Battery Arizona and the Kahe Point Military Reservation.
Reviews: Andrew Saunders's Bernard de Gomme.

Vol 19 Issue 2, May 2005

A Military History of Diamond Head and Fort Ruger.
The National Land Defense Board and the Land Defense of Endicott-Taft Seacoast Forts.
Kaena Point Military Reservation

Vol 19 Issue 3, August 2005

A Military History of Diamond Head and Fort Ruger (Part 2)
Early-Modern Seacoast Defenses of Tokyo Bay (Part 1)
Addendum: Additional Information, Kaena Point Military Reservation.
Note: A sailor's View of Grande Island, Subic Bay, PI.

Vol 19 Issue 4, November 2005

Early-Modern Defenses of Tokyo Bay (Part 2)
Recollections of Fort Kamehameha, c1924-25
The Canton Island Defense Force in World War II
Notes: Defying Aerial attack: Batteries A and K, 60th Coast Artillery (AA), on Corregidor

M1888 12-in Gun No 1, Battery Spencer, Fort Baker, CA, c1920. (Bolling Smith Collection)

Vol 20 Issue 1, February 2006

Torre de Belém - Lisbon's 'wedding cake' fortress
1945 Study of Seacoast Baty requirements, Hawaiian Is.
Spanish Towers in the Philpines - there are hundreds.

Vol 20 Issue 2, May 2006

Fort Wayne: Detroit's 'Seacoast' Fortification
Oahu's WWII Fixed seacoast Batteries
Commandant of Vladivostok Fortified Region

Soldiers in civvies with their girlfriends(?) at Battery Mendell, Fort Barry; by George Durland 1908. (John Martini Collection)

The CDSG Newsletter is published quarterly, in Feb, May, Aug and Nov; it is available on the website: www.cdsg.org The February 2006 issue carries the Chairman's Message celebrating 20 years of publications, and very strongly ties activities to NUMBERS of MEMBERS. We do well to keep this message in mind.

Council on America's Military Past: Journal(formerly Periodical) Vol XXXI Fall 2005. A5 112pp.

CAMP focuses on America's historical installations and military biography; this issue carries four articles and 31 book reviews covering a very eclectic range of topics. Articles concern Fort Drane, 1836-1837 (fighting Seminole Indians in the Florida swamps with variable success); The Corps and the Colorado (Army Engineers survey the ground before any building is done as the US expands westward); Marston Mats (corrugated mats for soft ground, expeditionary airfields); and Château-Thierry (WWI, Doughboys stop German thrust in 1918).

Europa Nostra

Europa Nostra is a Pan-European Federation for Heritage, part funded by the EC, which has as its aim the promotion and co-ordination of the scientific study of ancient structures and fortified buildings, castles and dwellings with an historic character, or of their ruins, and of their associated parks and gardens. In 2004 their Scientific Council held its 40th meeting in Figueres and Rosas, Spain, and has published Scientific Bulletin 59 (2005) to record the proceedings. Entitled The Re-use of Large European Military Complexes in the List of Redundancies, this 148pp A4 PB is packed with excellent articles, very well and profusely illustrated, on an extremely topical subject. The full double cover colour photo of the Fortress of San Fernando in Figueres is splendid.

Of the 20 papers 17 are in English and three in French, with an English summary; in them words such as 'future', 'master plan', 're-utilization', 'transformation', 'rehabilitation', 'conservation', 'display', 're-use', 'tourism', and 'natural protection' are, happily, abundant.
A very nice publication indeed.

San Fernando Fortress, Figueres. (Europa Nostra).

Contact Europa Nostra Secretariat, Lange Voorhout 35, 2514 EC The Hague, The Netherlands. Email: office@europanostra.org

SAILLANT.

SAILLANT is the Journal of the Dutch Stichting Menno van Coehoorn. It is produced quarterly in A5, 24-48pp, semi-gloss, with colour covers of consistently excellent photos.

VESTING.

VESTING is Journal of the Belgian Simon Stevin Vlaams Vestingbouwkundig Centrum. It is produced quarterly in A4, about16-20pp, matt paper, and includes their Newsletter Vestingflash.

Charles Blackwood.