View of search light emplacement No.3 from South
C 73042 CN
Description View of search light emplacement No.3 from South
Date 26/5/1996
Catalogue Number C 73042 CN
Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images
Copies SC 673983
Scope and Content World War II searchlight, Hoxa Battery, Hoxa Head, South Ronaldsay, 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, the latter covered by the coast batteries on Stanger Head on Flotta and here on Hoxa Head on South Ronaldsay. Searchlights or fighting light emplacements were positioned in series in front of the coast batteries so that they could sweep the surface of the water. One of the two standard types associated with coast batteries in Orkney has a broad, rounded front, as seen here. The searchlight mechanism and lens were set within the building, behind a metal shield made up of a number of sliding steel shutters, and were powered by electricity generated in the engine room. Concrete foundations in the centre and right foreground indicate the position of an earlier, possibly World War I, searchlight emplacement on this site. 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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