Solent Landmarks Needles Battery History Guns Barbette
| Some
of the Main features
New guns up the hill did not leave the Victorian battery unused. The fortification was used to house observation posts, searchlights and gun control cells .
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| Guns
resued from the sea
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The Parade
Ground Looking down from the Terrepleine towards Needles point.
Four semicircular barbettes over look the sea to the right and a fifth emplacement over looks the needles itself. A sixth gun was mounted in the position now occupied by the disused coastguard watch tower. Two of the Victorian 9" RML guns can be seen on recreated mountings and the circular plate of the experimental AA gun stands out clearley on the parade ground. A tunnel leads off fro the small structure beside the AA gun down to a Searchlight position built in 1899.The strip of smooth paving running behind the guns was used to transport the ammunition from the magazines.The guns had to be rescued from the bottom of the cliffs where they had been thrown when disused. The other salvaged guns are now on display at Southsea castle, Fort Widley and Fort Brockhurst. |
| The
New Needles Battery
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| Guns
that saw action
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The new battery was sited
higher up the hill on ground that could absorb the shock of heavier guns
without falling into the sea! It mounted three 9.2" guns that required
11 men each to fire and threw a shell of 380lbs. The dominating position
of this battery can be clearly seen from this photograph. It was this battery
that opened fire on E boats during the second world war.
Click here for a view of a 9.2" gun |