Military Archaeology

Well, many high explosives, particularly the double base ones, not exactly environmentally friendly. Most contain high levels of things like phenyls, amines, picrates, lead, mercury, toluene along others, and with various petroleum products as stabilizers. If the site was used for lots of explosives detonation this could lead to contamination at various levels. As to why one bunker remains intact I have no idea. It is likely though, it was simply forgotten or too much trouble to get rid of.
By way of comparison, there is a "blast proof" building on Davis Monthan AFB's munition dump locally dubbed "The big ugly." It to remains standing mainly because demolishing it is far too much trouble.

 

According the the National Archives site the documents regarding the Admiralty Underwater Explosion Research Establishment are subject to 30 year closure.

This is what they say about the site:

The Naval Construction Research Establishment (NCRE) originated as the Admiralty Underwater Explosion Research Establishment (UNDEX) in 1943, becoming the NCRE in 1946. It was based in Rosyth dockyard, expanding to St Leonard's House in Dunfermline in 1949 for administrative and laboratory space. Its aims were to discover how to make warships more resistant to underwater explosions and how to make better use of underwater explosives in attack. Its work developed to include research on surface ship and submarine structures, noise reduction, and the vulnerability of ships and submarines to weapons. The establishment was controlled by the Director of Naval Construction until 1958, and then by the Director General of Ships. In 1978 it was one of the research establishments amalgamated to form the Admiralty Marine Technology Establishment (AMTE) which in turn became part of the Admiralty Research Establishment in 1984.

 

TA,
Cheers, makes sense.

Stevin,
How the *'@£ did you manage to find that one?! I've been trying for two years!
Does it say whether Prae Brae was an explosives store or just a lab, by any chance? Either way, a dispersed location would make sense.
I'm guessing that its records for the wartime period would have been declassified by the 1980s too.

 

I think this is the right place for this one......
Apparently a school in England discovered it's wartime air-raid shelters still contained murals painted to keep the kids occupied during raids. They've now succeeded in getting National Lottery money to preserve the paintings.
School's WW2 air-raid shelter murals conserved with lottery cash

 

Hi Gordon. The wonders of the net. I got that from the National Archives site (http://www.catalogue.nationalarchiv...CATID=414&CATLN=3&Highlight=&FullDetails=True)

Records of the Advisory Panel on Underwater Explosion Research, responsible for the Rosyth works, are in ADM 1/15149 and ADM 279 . Reports of NCRE are in ADM 280 , ADM 213 and ADM 229
(http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/Leaflets/ri2038.htm)

and

A collection of semi-official papers of several directors of naval construction made by their secretaries; the papers refer to the official work of the directorate and to other professional and private concerns of the directors.
The first transfer of papers into this series mainly consists of files collected by the Director of Naval Construction's (DNC) Secretary and not registered on internal or Admiralty files. They are in two sub-series; the first consists chiefly of semi-official and private correspondence to and from three successive DNC's.

Sir William Berry DNC 1924-1930

Sir Arthur W Johns 1930-1936

Sir Stanley V Goodall 1936-1944


The second sub-series consists of so-called 'DNC's Reports', which are in fact a collection of notes and memoranda on official and professional subjects concerning the DNC, or from 1942 and 1944 when the post of DNC was held jointly with that of Assistant Controller of War Production, the Deputy Director of Naval Construction (DDNC).(http://www.catalogue.nationalarchiv...CATLN=3&CATID=332&SearchInit=4&CATREF=ADM+229)

It was the only hit that I got when I googled it....On to Kew!

 

Cheers Stevin!
As you say, on to Kew....after I get my eyes tested for missing that lot myself.....

 

I thought this was intriguing!
Is it a spy craft?

 

I wished they had shown a photo of the object. The Germans used a pod that had a parachute that could carry 1-3 people and was attached underwing like a bomb to deliver spys.

 

remember KG 200, with staffeln particpating in some rather stealth work of the time. the Ju 290 was all important with the heavy and big rear ramp door. the spys if called that would be bundled up tight like chord wood and literally lay on the ramp and by forces of nature would fly out and parachute at rather low altitudes. had a P-61 pilot friend: in 1945 tried to intercept at low altitude one of these big boy a/c but was unsuccessful due to the full moon effects

 

I got my KG-200 book out and it was called a Personen-Abwurf-Gerat. It is approx. 4 meters in dia. with foam padding to reduce landing impact and a section for luggage, then up to three agents in a plywood cask in two tiers of harness webbing then three parachutes under an aluminium cap. It was attached to underwing bomb attach points. They said they liked useing it because it was safer to drop agents at night with little or no parachute training and kept them together at landing with their equipment. They said the drawback was the container was hard to hide and dispose of quickly.

 

TA & Erich,
Thanks for the usual superb info, chaps!

 

One for Pillboxesuk!

These are shots of the WW1 pillboxes (built February/March 1915)at Braefoot Plantation coastal battery, Dalgety Bay, Fife.
The battery had two 9.2 inch guns, defended barracks, numerous buildings and its own supply anchorage-all of which still exist (apart from the guns! ).
The first pillbox has six sides, and has multiple loopholes on each side.





The second pillbox is rectangular.





The last one was built overhanging the cliff edge, and is almost unnoticeable now due to the heavy undergrowth. This is a shot from below.

 

This thread has been so facinating that I had to go on-line and look at what the American coastal defenses were like. In the San Francisco Bay area they are still maintained by the National Parks Service. I was amazed at how extensive they were. Here is a link to a map that shows them.

San Francisco Coastal Defense map

I tried to find out if any of the weapons had ever been fired at any enemy vessels or planes but couldn't find anything.

 

Nice one, Ice!
Heard about a few US coast batteries, but never actually studied them. Be nice if
someone in the general area could post a few snaps of some of these
installations?

 

Fort Point always seems interesting to me - probably because it's been used several times as a movie location.

http://www.nps.gov/fopo/home.htm

 

Fort Point does seem cool. I lived in San Francisco for a year or so in while in the US Navy. I visited the grounds of Fort Point and a couple of the battery locations on the North end of the Golden Gate bridge. I never went into the fort, though. I didn't realize how much there was to it.

What movies have been set there Martin?

 

This is Charles Hill coastal batery, near Aberdour in Fife. Built up from a pre-war militia camp, it was part of the middle line of defences spreading out eastwards along the Firth of Forth from Rosyth. It was manned by 504 Coast Regiment RA (TA).
It was equipped with twin-mounted 6 pounder QF (Quick-Firing) guns for engaging fast-moving enemy surface craft, and the anti-submarine boom nets started from here and stretched across this part of the Forth.
This is the gun platform:



And the holdfast bolts....



This is one of the front casemate walls, complete with camouflage paint and firing instructions.



And the watch office, again with original camo paint.



And on the wall behind the platform is this original V for Victory; obviously done behind the WO's back!

 

This is the magazine...



And these are the Defence Electric Lights in front of the battery for night-time engagements.





To the left of the battery stands the Lyon Light for defence illumination.





In the background is Aberdour golf course, which itself was the sight of an HAA battery (Rosyth North Gunsite 8), long demolished when the course was built post-war.

The Battery Observation post stood to the right of the casemate, but is long demolished.

[ 09. September 2005, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

For self-defence, the battery had a 75mm gun, (position long gone), and this spigot mortar. This could also be used for the Blacker Bombard, to lob shells at the shore immediately in front of the DELs.



And there were two of these UP (Unrotated Projectile, ie rockets) positions, one on either side of the spigot. These rockets were designed to scare an attacking dive-bomber pilot enough to throw his aim off.



The UP ammo was kept in the Monk's Cave, a 16th century hermitage on the site.



As I said earlier, an anti-submarine boom strecthed from here across to Inchmickery island, and from there to the south side of the Forth in WW1.



This was revived in WW2, except that an anti-torpedo net was laid across the top of the A/S boom. This is the WW2 boom mounting, and at the far end pillar, a great heap of the a/t net still lies in a heap where it was dumped. It can only be photographed at low tide though.



This is no.1 engine house, all that survives of the accomodation part of the site. There was a back-up engine room, but that is long gone.



[ 05. November 2005, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

It's interesting to see that there's still a lot of WW2 architecture surviving in Scotland - much of this type of thing in Southern England has vanished in the last 25 years.

( Amazing also to have captured the 16th Century hermit on film ! )