View from North

Description View from North

Date 22/5/1996

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number C 73253

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 660522

Scope and Content Gun pit, Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, Hackness, South Walls, Hoy, Orkney Islands In World War II the famous Scapa anti-aircraft 'box barrage' was made up of 25 Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries, supported by numerous Light Anti-Aircraft posts and rocket sites, all manned by the Army. Heavy Anti-Aircraft artillery could fire 3.7- or 4.5-inch (98- and 113-mm) calibre shells to heights of over 30,000 feet (9,144m), while smaller, faster-firing Light Anti-Aircraft guns such as the 40mm-calibre Bofors had an effective ceiling of about 5,000 feet (1,524m). Barrage balloons, an RAF responsibility, were extensively used as a deterrent against low-level enemy air attacks, the steel tethering wire being capable of cutting into and bringing down an aircraft. This view shows part of one of the four gun pits which made up this typical Heavy Anti-Aircraft battery, one of a series in South Walls forming the southern edge of the Scapa 'box'. The gun, mounted in a concrete base or holdfast, stood in the centre of the concrete huts on the right which were ammunition lockers, the huts on the left serving as crew and gun maintenance shelters. In the distance can be seen the ramped platform on which a mobile radar unit was mounted. Its purpose was to detect the direction and altitude of incoming enemy aircraft and thereby help to lay the guns more accurately in preparation against the attack. 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.

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