A slight diversion... Maunsell Navy Sea Forts

While doing the research on the last post about the Nab Tower I was interested to see that the unique "floating concrete base and sink it" technology for creating fortifications at sea was re-used in the Second World war... I think most people may have seen these (and to coin a phrase from Mr Kinch on the previous post, they are seriously batty - straight out of "War of the Worlds"): 

 

...lovely photograph, but they are the Army version, and I was more interested in these: 

 

...which are the Navy version. So the story goes, Maunsell was an architect and went to the MoD at the beginning of WW2 with designs for various forts. The naval fort design was the latest of several that Maunsell had devised in response to Admiralty inquiries. Early ideas had considered forts in the English Channel able to take on enemy vessels. The forts, built in the Thames estuary and operated by the Royal Navy, were to deter and report German air raids following the Thames as a landmark, and attempts to lay mines by aircraft in this important shipping channel. There were four naval forts: Rough Sands (HM Fort Roughs) (U1) Sunk Head (U2) Tongue Sands (U3) Knock John (U4) 

 

The design was a concrete construction; a pontoon barge on which stood two cylindrical towers standing 18 metres in height, 7 metres in diameter. Each tower had 7 floors of which 4 of these floors were used for crews quarters (the wall thickness of the reinforced concrete towers was 9 centimetres) on top of which was the gun platform mounting two 3.75-inch guns. In the centre of the deck was the officers quarters, medical room & kitchen. Mounted on the roof of this living area were two 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns and the operations control room on the roof of which was 2 forms of radar. So basically a double Nab Tower with a single concrete float, but a lot more armament - but fundamentally the same design. Makes you wonder if Maunsell had studied Menzies original design... 

 

Everything was done in a rush - clearly invasion fever was at it's height - the towers were fitted out at the same time their crews went on board (about 100 men who lived in the legs). Like the Nab they were towed into position (with crews on board) and then sunk to rest on the seabed (with crews on board!) There were concerns that the same might happen as to the Nab (a list of 3 or 4 degrees) but this didn't happen. Rough Sands was the first fort and was sunk 11th Feb 1942 in 37' water. Following shows how they were placed...  

 

 

Interesting... but no more than a diversion!

I have been to... the Nab Tower

In my alter ego as a yachtsman I had cause to visit the Nab Tower last week on my boat [click here]... in light of the recent post by Bob Cordery [click here] (jealous? moi? ) where he also mentioned it, I thought I'd put a little post up with a more wargaming slant... always a pleasure when the two hobbies coincide, and this was one of those occasions......

The Nab Tower is located about 5 miles east of foreland (the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight) and although it is now primarily a navigation mark and lighthouse (it marks the start of the deep water channel into the Solent used by large ships going to the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth) it was originally designed as part of a First World War submarine defence.

In 1917 the British Admiralty, alarmed by the losses of allies shipping to German U-boats, planned a series of twelve giant fort towers, codenamed M_N, that would support steel anti submarine nets. They would be deployed from Dungeness to Cap Gris Nez, protecting the Dover straights. Guns mounted on the towers and surrounding mines would protect the constructions from enemy intervention and destroy enemy submarines (other accounts say only 8 towers were planned). The towers were to be 90ft high and 40ft across standing on an 80ft hollow concrete base that could be flooded to put it down into position. The design was by civilian designer, Mr G. Menzies (bit of a shame, I can't find out anything about him).

The towers were to be armed with two 4-inch guns with the idea of closing the English Channel to enemy ships. They accommodated 100 men & all their equipment

By the end of the war in 1918 only one had been completed, at a fantastic cost (at the time) of over two million pounds, and was located at Shoreham Harbour, awaiting deployment. Another part-built tower was eventually dismantled in 1924.

The picture shows the first two being constructed in Shoreham Harbour (just down the coast from me)

In 1920 The Admiralty offered the completed tower to be used as a lighthouse, to replace the Nab lightship which had reached end of life.

The completed tower was towed by two paddle wheel tugs to the Nab rock (see left!), buoyancy was provided by the honeycomb construction of the concrete base, creating 18 water-tight compartments. While dignitaries stood atop the tower (hah - no health and safety in those days! ), valves were opened to allow sea water to flood the vast tanks. As the tower slowly sunk to its resting place it began to list, leaving it with a 3 or 4 degree list that it still has today.

The Tower was manned as a lighthouse, and during World War II it also provided some defence to the Solent approach, and shot down several aircraft. The lighthouse is still functional but since 1983 it has been unmanned.

Links:

http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/Solent/Solent.html (two whom I need to acknowledge the photo of the tower being constructed - please contact me if you'd rather I removed it)
http://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses/lighthouse_list/nab_tower.html

Review - "On His Majesty's Service" - Allan Mallinson

The long wait is over (3 years!) and the latest Matthew Hervey novel, the eleventh, is set in the Eastern Balkans...

With no war on the horizon, Hervey's ambition's to finally command his beloved Light dragoon regiment are kicked into touch as the government of the day announces budget cuts that impact deeply on the army (sound familiar?? 😏) and in particular his light dragoon regiment, who are to be reduced considerably, to the point where a colonel would be wholly inappropriate... as a sop, Hervey is offered command of a regiment of foot currently based at Gibraltar, but while he makes his mind up, is seconded as an observer to the Russian forces currently at war (Russo–Turkish War of 1828–1829) with the "sublime porte" (Turkey) in the Balkans.

Not surprisingly, Hervey and his compatriots are soon in the thick of it and despite being an impartial observer and a neutral, is more active than perhaps he should be.. directly leading to other possibilities for Hervey, and the offer of promotion and a command within the Russian forces. I get the distinct impression Mallinson would very much have liked to serve with a Cossack regiment himself as the parts of the book dealing with them are particularly good.

End to end excellent, and some very good news to finish - but I do wish I could give him a good slap and bring him to his senses with regard to the current Mrs Hervey!! 

Steve the Wargamer rates this 9 out of 10 - if only because it allows for the possibility of improving on perfection!
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Separately, the WWII re-basing project is complete, and has provided a welcome filip to the painting totals for the year - I thought long and hard about it but given the amount of effort that has gone into the activity (158 bases!) I felt it only right to give some token value to the activity - one point per base seems "right"...

I've also cleaned up and prepared the next American Civil War regiment - just need to undercoat them and get on with applying the brush... this regiment will represent Wheat's "Tiger" Zouaves, and I give due warning that I'm really not interested in comments and posts that the Tiger Zouaves were only ever company strength, not regimental, and that they didn't really have brown coat, etc etc etc. 

I'm a hopeless romantic, and no American Civil War project of mine would be complete without the little brown jacketed fellows.. besides, unlike the Union army, from what I can tell the Confederacy only had one regimental strength unit of Zouaves (Coppen's), and their uniform is just too similar to the Union regiment I've just completed, case closed...  I only hope that when they are finished they look even half as good as these...

Cheriton 1644 by John Adair

Longer term readers of the blog will know that the English Civil War battlefield of Cheriton is one of my "local" battlefields - I've visited the site many times, and in fact posted a blog on it [click here] in 2008.

As background reading for the battle (and I continue to have a slightly alarming fascination for the period that needs to remain in check before I start yet another period!) I have long wanted a copy of John Adair's "Cheriton 1644" - it's been on various "wish lists" for almost 15 years as far as I know - so you can imagine how chuffed I was to get a copy on eBay earlier this year for a very reasonable £7 ... every copy of it I ever saw was in the £40 - £50 bracket as it's long out of print.

I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to read it and this holiday proved to be it (though it was slightly surreal to be laying on a sun bed whilst doing it! 😁)

What we have is a chunky book (about 230 pages in my edition which is believe is the most common (only?) one) - the first section of which (90 odd pages) deals with the campaign that Cheriton formed a part of, so we have some general detail on the actions at Alton, Basing House and Arundel in the lead up to the battle. I enjoyed this section (partly because there were a number of mentions of locations very close to where I live) but undoubtedly other books cover it in more detail.

The second section (about 70 pages) covers the battle, but the bigger part of this section details the make up of the armies, with only 25 pages for the actual battle, though there is a very spiffy aerial photograph with a plastic overlay showing the positions of the armies.

The third section (about 60 pages) is a selection of primary sources, casualty returns, letters, articles from the newspapers of the day etc. The best chapter is a a detailed view of the regiments in the Parliamentarian army.

Adair came to this book after a detail biography of Waller (the Parliamentarian commander) and he admits himself that with all that background detail the book is biased towards the Parliamentarian view, he simply didn't have as much detail on Hopton - which shows... I'd have loved a similar chapter on Hopton's regiments for example.

As I mentioned in my first blog on Cheriton, there are a number of views as to where the battlefield actually was - when I did my first post I did a lot of research, and the Battlefields trust website, and the information boards at the battlefield itself tended towards the "northern position", Adair argues (very well I have to say) for the "southern position" - I'd love to visit the battlefield again to review the ground but from memory a number of the actions in the battle make more sense if you adopt his view on the initial deployments...

So was it worth it?? Broadly, yes.... well written, very easy to read, good detail, and about a particular favourite battlefield that I've walked several times - Steve the Wargamer gives this one a solid 8 out of 10.

...and he returns...

...sun kissed, from the shores of the Ionian where he lay for two solid weeks on various laying down apparatuses (aparatii??) in close proximity to all fluid types (sea water, pool, and Mythos), at all times, and on the island of Kefalonia.. and no, not once did I hear a mandolin, but I did eat a lot of feta cheese and tzatziki.... 😋

Many books read, but with daytime temperatures of about 34', sun every day, and not a cloud in the sky, although the spirit was willing the flesh was weak, and not much actual wargaming activity was undertaken (I took my trusty travelling kit with me), but I did read some good books... reviews anon, once I've waded through two weeks of emails..... 😏