Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Citadel Battery was built in c. 1900 to defend Dover Harbour and was equipped with 9.2 inch guns between 1901 and 1902. Gun emplacement 1 is located at the western end of the complex and is one of three. Each emplacement is essentially identical, with only slight variation in the positioning of particular features, construction is of concrete and steel throughout. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GUN EMPLACEMENT (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1900 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

Three gun emplacements were constructed and armed at the Citadel Battery between 1901 and 1902, these were for 9.2-inch BL mark X guns on barbette mountings. A Report of the Committee on the Armament of Home Ports, dated 1905, severely criticised Citadel Batttery: it considered, first of all, that the 9.2-inch guns did not provide sufficient cover against bombarding cruisers, especially with the position-finding equipment in use. In 1910, the parapet carriages for the machine guns were replaced by tripod mountings, and in December of the same year one of the 9.2-inch guns (no II or B gun) was removed to Woolwich and the emplacement remained empty thereafter. The two 9.2-inch guns and two machine guns remained as mounted armament until 1916, when the machine guns were withdrawn. In 1919, two 6-pdr sub-calibre guns (for practice) were mounted on the 9.2-inch weapons. The three emplacements are arranged in series, each one comprises a gun pit defined by a barbette, 2.2m high, which splays to the rear and joins with parapet walls which run between the emplacements. Each emplacement is essentially identical, with only slight variation in the positioning of particular features. Construction is of concrete and steel throughout. At Gun Emplacement 1 the centre of the gun pit floor is occupied by the gun holdfast, comprising two rings each of 26 steel bolts, each bolt 5cm in diameter by 17cm high. The rings measure 4.10m and 3.56m in diameter respectively. A gulley, rebated for metal inspection covers, runs a dog-leg course across the gun floor from the western flank of the barbette, this was to carry hydraulic pipes from the accumulator to the gun, providing power for the gun to traverse and elevate. The gulley joins a rectangular pit, 1.35m by 1.03m by at least 1.43m deep, with a ladder built into one corner. The flanks of the barbette contain three ready-use ammunition lockers, each 1.83m wide by 1.02m deep by 1.09m high, and a shallow shell recess is moulded into the base of the barbette around its curved seaward side. (1) The battery remained in use thoughout the Second World War but the guns' shields was adapted such that the guns could be traversed 360 degrees. This was so that they could fire in any direction if needed. (2)

<1> RCHME, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 8: The Citadel Battery: An early 20th-century coastal battery (Unpublished document). SKE17504.

<2> John A. Guy, 2013, Verbal communication from John Guy, defence expert working in the Dover area (Verbal communication). SKE24831.

Sources and further reading

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