Detail of entrance to ammunition store with concrete plinth.

Description Detail of entrance to ammunition store with concrete plinth.

Date 5/10/1996

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

Catalogue Number SC 668075

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 3121

Scope and Content Loading platform, ammunition store, World War II Heavy Anti-Aircraft ammunition depot, Ore Farm, Hoy, Orkney Islands In World War II the famous Scapa anti-aircraft 'box barrage' was made up of 25 Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) batteries, including two mobile units, supported by numerous Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) posts and rocket sites. Six of the fixed HAA batteries were on Hoy, four equipped to fire 4.5-inch calibre shells, and two the more basic 3.7-inch calibre, 98mm and 113mm respectively. Only one of these six batteries has been completely removed and on the opposite side of the road from its site at Ore Farm, south of Lyness, is a central ammunition depot which served these batteries. Of the original six ammunition stores, possibly one for each battery on Hoy, four survive intact. This is a detail of one of the loading/unloading platforms outside the entrance to an ammunition store, across which the shells and fuses would be transferred from lorries into and out of the store within. A set of rollers, over which the arms would be conveyed in wooden trays, remain on the platform. 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/668075

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap