After spending a day in Dover visiting the usual suspects we decided to have a look at something different. To be honest I'd be wanting to see as cross channel gun position for a while and now was the chance.
There were Two 15 in guns at the Wanstone Battery in Dover they were known as Clem after Clementine Churchill and Jane after the pin-up. The guns had a range of 38,000 meters and were taken from a stock of guns from the battleship King George V.
They attacked the German guns (though they were too inaccurate and slow to fire on ships), and were protected from German aerial attack by anti-aircraft emplacements. Their separate and well-camouflaged cordite and shell magazines were buried under deep layers of earth and connected to the guns by railway lines.
(Info from Wiki)
Ariel photo of the site taken after the war.
Not sure if this is Jane or Clem but it is one of the 15in guns at Wanstone.
One of the magazines in the back ground with I think the control building in the foreground
Close up of the other magazine
Inside the magazine
Control room (I think)
Generator rooms
Back filled pit that housed the gun
Towers for camouflage netting
Rails to service the gun
Maybe not as interesting as some of the other sites in Dover but still great to see some above ground building left over from WW2. This gives you an idea of what Fan Bay or Foreland may have looked like.
Photo's were taken in the poring rain and in near darkness.....
There were Two 15 in guns at the Wanstone Battery in Dover they were known as Clem after Clementine Churchill and Jane after the pin-up. The guns had a range of 38,000 meters and were taken from a stock of guns from the battleship King George V.
They attacked the German guns (though they were too inaccurate and slow to fire on ships), and were protected from German aerial attack by anti-aircraft emplacements. Their separate and well-camouflaged cordite and shell magazines were buried under deep layers of earth and connected to the guns by railway lines.
(Info from Wiki)
Ariel photo of the site taken after the war.
Not sure if this is Jane or Clem but it is one of the 15in guns at Wanstone.
One of the magazines in the back ground with I think the control building in the foreground
Close up of the other magazine
Inside the magazine
Control room (I think)
Generator rooms
Back filled pit that housed the gun
Towers for camouflage netting
Rails to service the gun
Maybe not as interesting as some of the other sites in Dover but still great to see some above ground building left over from WW2. This gives you an idea of what Fan Bay or Foreland may have looked like.
Photo's were taken in the poring rain and in near darkness.....