Casemate 85

From Charles Trollope

Colchester pillbox: It was good to see that pretty picture of one of Colchester's pillboxes (Casemate 84, inside rear cover). It has survived because it spent many years as the local transformer station supplying power to the post-war housing estate.
Colchester remains well placed to defend itself against another 1940s-style invasion. To the north and east the anti-tank defences of the River Colne and the railway embankment are still there and are backed by a line of heavy duty Type 22 and 27 pillboxes of the Divisional Stop Line. To the south the line of the AT ditch, although filled in, is still open country. The ditch was used after the war for the new main sewer and has not been built on. The pillboxes here are in a double line, six still exist and if you want to stub your toe there are some fine Blacker Bombard pivots buried in the grass.
The centre of Colchester used to have pillboxes but these have all gone and the invader would now be faced with something much more impenetrable - the Colchester traffic!

Ambleteuse: You have some nice pictures of the fort (Casemate 84 pp11-13). The harbour was built or should I say cleared of sand, at least twice, by Vauban when he built the fort and again for Napoleon's descent on England. Ambleteuse is still an official port of entry to France, as a friend and I demonstrated to the French some twenty years ago, by turning up in in a yacht and raising our yellow flag. They were very good about it and came out in a rubber dinghy with a large leather book dating back to the 19th century - the previous entry was over thirty years before.

From Dave Wood

Tyne Turrets: One of these is Roberts Battery, constructed during WWI but seeing no service, and it has been explored in part. The huge underground works required for servicing the turreted twin 12-in BL Mk VIII guns are intact and photographs can be found on www.28dayslater.co.uk. On Google the mark of the circular gun pit can be seen clearly, although filled in.

[On the website the battery is hard to find as it is called 'Huge bunker complex' but this is just someone being coy. Look in 'Underground Sites', page 32, 3rd from bottom. There are 9 photos and two plans, ex-National Archives (below). This is an interesting website as there are simply masses of photos to be found, though the commentary can be ignorant and misleading. We visit the Battery on our 2009 Conference but somehow I don't think we will be going below. See also FORT 12 pp97-104. Ed]

From Ian Stevenson

Battery Point, Portishead: There seems to be some confusion and misunderstanding about the 6-in battery at Portishead (Casemate 84 p6); there were in fact two batteries called Portishead covering the Bristol Channel.

Lord Morley's committee on the defences of the mercantile ports of the UK (1882) recommended that the line of batteries across the Severn at Lavernock, Flatholm, Steepholm and Breandown should have a number of 10.4-in RBLs in place of the existing 7-in RMLs; the committee's proposal for Portishead was 'that the dismantled battery at Portishead...should be remodelled to receive 3 x 7-in RML guns to command the navigable channel which at that point narrows to about 1800 yards'. The three guns were to be found from the surplus 7-in RMLs after the line at the Holms had been re-armed, which never happened.
The battery that was built at Portishead between 1901-2 was for two 6-in QFs, facing directly down the river. The Owen Report of 1905 stated that the battery was unnecessary as the Royal Navy had decided that Bristol was too remote to require fixed defences. The battery was disarmed and dismantled by 1907. In WWII the battery was reactivated and two 6-in MkXII naval guns were mounted; at the end of the war the battery was once again dismantled and abandoned. Despite the Navy's decision in 1905, it was decided early in WWI that Bristol did require defences and two batteries were built; one for two 4.7-in QF guns on naval mountings was at Avonmouth on the opposite side of the River Avon from the docks and the other for two 12-pdr QFs was built on land adjacent to the Royal Hotel and was called Portishead Battery. Both batteries lasted for the duration of the war. The site of the second Portishead Battery is within the boundary of a private dwelling and is to the east of the original 6-in gun battery.
Just to further complicate matters the WWII 6-in guns are stated to be MkVII or MkXII in official documents, but all such documents agree that they were naval guns so it is likely they were MkXIIs.

From Keith Phillips

Correction: In my article 'Three days in France' (Casemate 84 pp11-13), I mentioned the Siracourt 'V2' bunker, which is in fact a 'V1' site. The error was mine.