View of fire command post from SW.

Description View of fire command post from SW.

Date 28/5/1996

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

Catalogue Number SC 672607

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 73268 CN

Scope and Content World War II Battery Observation Post and World War I magazine, East Breckan or Clett Battery, Holm, 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 north-western and southern entrances to the Flow, but Kirk or Holm Sound, the deepest and fastest flowing of the eastern channels also required special protection which this battery at East Breckan was intended to provide. This was the channel through which a German U-boat entered Scapa Flow and sank HMS Royal Oak in October 1939 when the battery lay un-manned. This small building is the Battery Observation Post (BOP) which was built in the immediate aftermath of the Royal Oak disaster in early 1940 to direct the two newly-built 12-pounder gun emplacements. It was erected at the rear of the site on top of a redundant World War I magazine or ammunition store with its chimney-like vent. The magazine had doorways in each end wall, the head of one being visible in this view, but the associated access-trenches from the magazine doors to the guns were infilled, and are now traceable only as low depressions in the field. 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/672607

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap