View of Fire Command Post from South West

Description View of Fire Command Post from South West

Catalogue Number SC 446621

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 73070 CN

Scope and Content World War II Battery Observation Post, Ness Battery, Stromness, Mainland, Orkney Islands In both World Wars coast batteries were built to protect the channels into Scapa Flow and Kirkwall Bay, where there was an important contraband control. The greatest concentrations of firepower were at the main southern and north-western entrances to the Flow, the latter covered by a series of coast batteries centred, in World War II, on Ness Battery at Stromness. This is the front of the building which served as the wartime command centre of Ness Battery and the surrounding area. It had three main functions: as Battery Observation Post, directing gun operations at the battery; as Fire Command Post co-ordinating operations at all four batteries which covered Hoy Sound; and as Port War Signal Station, observing shipping and communicating intelligence to other signal stations. The first two functions were discharged by the Army (Royal Artillery) and the third by the Royal Navy, a division which is reflected in its two-unit, semi-detached appearance. At the heart of the Orkney archipelago, Scapa Flow was the main fleet anchorage for the Royal Navy during both World Wars. Its vital importance led to the creation of one of the most concentrated defence networks in Britain. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/446621

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap