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Monument details
| HER Number: | MWX51311 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Second World War anti-aircraft (Diver) battery |
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Summary
A Second World War anti-aircraft (Diver) battery previously noted from documentary sources is visible on aerial photographs of 1946 as the earthwork remains of the eight pile platforms on which the guns were placed. These features were mapped from aerial photographs as part of the South East RCZAS NMP project.
| Grid Reference: | TR 0871 2732 |
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| Map Sheet: | TR02NE |
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| Parish: | ST MARY IN THE MARSH, SHEPWAY, KENT |
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Monument Types
- DIVER BATTERY (Modern - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
Full description
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Site of Second World War heavy anti aircraft (Diver) battery at St Mary in the Marsh, deployed here by 20th July 1944. It was progressively equipped with eight 3.7-inch Mark IIc static guns on Pile platforms, Predictor AA No.10 and Radar AA No.3 Mark V radars, and was manned by 419 Battery of 138 Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment. This formed part of the Littlestone Section of 43 Anti Aircraft Brigade Heavy Anti Aircraft Artillery (1).
A Second World War anti-aircraft (Diver) battery previously noted from documentary sources is visible on aerial photographs of 1946 as the earthwork remains of the eight pile platforms on which the guns were placed. The anti-aircraft battery is centred at TR 0871 2731, and extends across an area measuring approximately 137m south-west to north-east and 60m north-west to south-east. Six of the pile platform mounds are arranged in a v-shape in plan view. The remaining two mounds sit slightly forward of this arrangement.
By the time of the vertical aerial photograph of 1968; the pile mounds of the battery are no longer visible either as earthworks or cropmarks. This area was subsequently developed for housing, and the site of the anti-aircraft battery no lies beneath the houses between Elm Road, Hawthorn Close, and Cedar Crescent (2-3).
<1> Dobinson, C., Operation Diver : England's Defence Against the Flying Bomb, June 1944-March 1945, pp 195 (Monograph). SWX23707.
<2> RAF, 1946, NMR RAF/106G/UK/1439 3024-5 30-APR-1946 (Photograph). SWX23809.
<3> 1968, NMR MAL/68067 87-8 14-OCT-1968 (Photograph). SWX23775.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | <1> | Monograph: Dobinson, C.. Operation Diver : England's Defence Against the Flying Bomb, June 1944-March 1945. pp 195. |
| <2> | Photograph: RAF. 1946. NMR RAF/106G/UK/1439 3024-5 30-APR-1946. |
| <3> | Photograph: 1968. NMR MAL/68067 87-8 14-OCT-1968. |
