Monument record TQ 77 SE 1316 - Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery Thames And Medway Ts8 in Upper Upnor

Tower Hill Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery - S8 is visible in the aerial photographs of 1946 at Upper Upnor. The site covers an area 145 metres in width and 145 metres in length, and consists of 6 gun stations to the north of the barracks.(1,2)

Site of a Second World War heavy anti aircraft battery on Tower Hill. It was armed with four 3.7-inch static guns in 1942. It was manned by 237 Battery of the 76th Royal Artillery Regiment in 1942, and by 571 Battery of the 169th Mobile Royal Artillery Regiment in 1943. It was retained as Nucleus Force Headquarters Battery in 1946. (3)

This Second World War Heavy Anti Aircraft (HAA) battery can be seen on aerial photographs taken during and immediately after the war. This battery, which was part of the Thames & Medway Gun Defended Area (GDA), was situated on Tower Hill, Upnor and was centred on TQ 7537 7013. The photographs show two distinct phases for this site. The battery is marked on a German map dated 1940, the earliest available air photos were taken on 18th May 1942. It consisted of four octagonal emplacements each with five ammunition recesses following the standard arrangement of two forward guns flanked by another two set back at 45 degrees. These emplacements, the central command post and the magazine (between the two forward guns) were set into the ground. To the west and south west of the guns was a small group of buildings and a small gun emplacement with two ammunition recesses at TQ 7532 7004. This group was enclosed by a line of barbed wire and was further defended by the steep slope of the hill on the south and west and a defensive ditch on the north and east. The domestic quarters, also in place by 1942 were circa 150m to the north-east, centred on TQ 7549 7037 and linked to the battery by a road which also served the guns. A small a group of allotments were created by these buildings.

Alternations to the site had been carried out by 1944 and but can be more clearly seen on photos taken in 1950. The main change was the addition of two more gun emplacements one to the east, the other to the south. These were square, with cut corners and had four ammunition recesses and further storage outside the emplacement gates. A second small emplacement was at the north-west at TQ 7531 7016. Some of the buildings at the south west had been demolished replaced by what appears to be a concrete magazine set into the ground. Barbed wire to the north suggests that the entire site (battery and domestic quarters) was enclosed.

Aerial photographs taken in September 1947 show four emplacements still with guns - three from the original layout and one of the later additions - the two most southerly emplacements no longer in use. No guns are present by 1950 and quarrying had begun on the south-eastern side of the hill. Air photos taken in 2007 show the site to have been demolished and further quarrying has removed the area of the guns. Part of the roadway around the domestic quarters still survives. This battery was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project.(4-9)

<1> SecondSite, 2004, Isle of Grain, B2001 Culvert, Excavation, Site Notes (Unpublished document). SKE13432.

<2> Historic England, 2012, National Mapping Programme survey: Hoo Peninsula (Digital archive). SKE32442.

<3> Dobinson, C, 1996, Twentieth century fortifications in England, volume 1. Anti-aircraft artillery : England's air defence gunsites, 1914-46 (Monograph). SWX23706.

<4> RAF, 1942, RAF HLA/542 2071-2072 18-MAY-1942 (Photograph). SKE58723.

<5> 1942, U S 7GR LOC348 2061 27-MAY-1944 (Photograph). SKE58724.

<6> RAF, 1950, RAF 58/550 5058-5060 14-AUG-1950 (Photograph). SKE58725.

<7> RAF, 1947, RAF CPE/UK/2303 5184-5185 10-SEP-1947 (Photograph). SKE58406.

<8> Next Perspectives, 2007, Next Perspectives PGA Tile Ref: TQ7570 21-APR-2007 (Photograph). SKE55984.

<9> RCHME/EH/HE Aerial Photographers comment, German map of part of Kent with military sites depicted as symbols. Stand 20.11.40 Blatt Nr. 116 (Verbal communication). SKE58726.