Cardross Battery

NS37NW 19 centred 3370 7728

A Second World war anti-aircraft battery situated SW of Cardross to the S of the railway. Consisting of four gun emplacements and a command post with two additional holdfasts and constructed in brick. Evidence of the accommodation camp exists on either side of the track in the form of hut bases. There were no separate magazines and records show that at one stage the battery housed 4.5-inch guns. Some of the emplacements are overgrown and all are in poor condition.

Information from Mr J Guy, August 1996.

Recorded by Mr J Guy as part of the Strathclyde Survey, 2001.

J Guy 2001; NMRS MS 810/11, Part 2, 153-4; Vol.2 (appendix), 14

Post-war vertical aerial photographs (RAF 58A/419 [part two], 5175-76, flown 19 June 1949), show that this heavy anti-aircraft battery was supplied with six gun-emplacements. Four of the emplacements follow the more traditional design pattern whilst two are of a different type. It is likely that the battery was given additional guns at a later stage in the war. Examination of the aerial photographs shows that the battery was also supplied with radar, as the pattern of a Gl-mat with centrally placed ramp is visible on the photographs immediately to the NW of the gun-emplacements. In addition, there are what may be two light anti-aircraft gun positions to the N and S of the heavy gun-emplacements. Two separate magazines can also be seen on the photographs. The six emplacements and the command centre are depicted on the OS 1:10000 scale map (1991).

The accommodation camp consisting of about 33 huts, mainly Nissen, is visible immmediately to the E and N of Murrays farmstead.

Information from RCAHMS (DE), November 2003