Monument record TQ 77 NE 1022 - Diver Box Diver Battery Ts23, near Swigshole, St. Mary Hoo

Abandoned WWII Anti Aircraft Battery. Photographs (1,2).

Site of Second World War heavy anti aircraft (Diver) battery at Decoy Farm. It was extant, and listed as unarmed in 1942. From 22nd September 1944 it was incorporated in the Diver Box and manned by 624 Battery of 148 (Mixed) Anti Aircraft Regiment, and armed with eight 3.7-inch guns with BTL Predictor, SCR584 and GLII Radars. It formed part of 28 Anti Aircraft Artillery Brigade. (3)

This Second World War anti aircraft site can be seen on aerial photographs taken in 1946. This battery formed part of the Thames and Medway Gun Defended Area, named Decoy Farm and given the number TS23. Two phases can be determined in this photograph. The earliest consists of four circular gun emplacements accessed via a track that led from the lane that connects Swigshole with Decoy Farm. This straight track headed north east before forming a loop around which the gun emplacements were arranged (centred on TQ 7916 7738). A large group of buildings were present to the south of Swigshole at TQ 7891 7741 and some if not all of these would have been associated with this earlier phase that was in existence by 1942 (see the previous authority). Another four gun emplacements and associated command structures (centred on TQ 7906 7737) are also visible immediately to the west of the original four emplacements. The most southerly of these four emplacements was built over the track that served the original battery. A rectangular area of disturbed ground (circa 60m by 11m) is at TQ 7898 7738; this may be an allotment.
The second set of emplacements (bringing the total for this site to eight guns) were constructed to combat the V1 flying bomb campaign that lasted from June 1944 to January 1945, known as operation Diver. Operation Diver had a number of gun zones, not all in operation concurrently and the Decoy Farm battery was one of those within an area around the Thames Estuary known as the Diver Box. This battery, which no longer survives, was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project.(4-5)

<1> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9477.

<2> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9476.

<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, 1946, RAF 106G/UK/1444 3004-3005 1-MAY-1946 (Photograph). SKE58738.

<5> Google Earth, EARTH.GOOGLE.COM 31-DEC-2003 ACCESSED 24-MAR-2011 (Photograph). SKE58739.