Restored
first world war anti-aircraft gun, rushed into service in 1915 to
counter new threat of aerial bombing from Zeppelins, to be heard again
at Dover Castle
A booming noise that was once painfully familiar will be heard again this weekend from high on the white cliffs of Dover: the sound of a British 3-inch first world war anti-aircraft gun, now one of only six surviving in the world and the only one restored to firing condition.
The gun has been installed on a reconstructed timber platform just below the officer’s mess at Dover Castle
and will be fired again by volunteer gun crews this weekend. It has
been sited beside a battery first built in the 19th century, and
repeatedly upgraded as a fire command post right to the end of the
second world war because of its panoramic view over the harbour and the
Channel.
In late 1914, the spotters keeping 24-hour watch – the command post
was equipped with bunk beds, and originally had gas lamps and a cooking
stove – would have gazed out through the long narrow windows, and seen
the nature of war change forever.
Production of the gun was rushed when it was realised that the war
would see a terrifying new threat, against which Britain had virtually
no defences: bombs falling from the air from planes and Zeppelins easily
crossing the 21-mile stretch of the Channel from the continent – the
airships had a top speed of more than 80mph, and could carry up to two
tons of bombs.
Dover was their first target. A blue plaque
in the town far below records the site of the first aerial bomb attack
on the UK. The bomb was dropped by a seaplane on 21 December 1914, and
although nobody was killed, a gardener cutting evergreen branches for
Christmas decorations was blown out of his tree. A map on display in the
new exhibition in the command post shows the town splattered with
scores of red dots, each marking a bomb that fell over the years that
followed.
By 1915, the first anti-aircraft guns were installed, eventually
ringing the town, with a searchlight mounted on the great medieval tower
of the castle. They proved their worth on 9 August 1915, when an
identical gun to the newly installed one hit a Zeppelin in the night
sky, which managed to limp back to the Belgian coast and land in the
sea.
Paul
Pattison, an English Heritage historian, regards the 3-inch
anti-aircraft gun, designed so that its cruciform platform could fold up
and have wheels attached for towing, as an admirably simple and
effective design, which with modifications remained in service well into
the second world war. It was finally declared obsolete in 1946, but
even then many were sold around the world.
“It’s a very good bit of kit. There’s absolutely nothing surplus or
fancy in it,” he said. “It has been made to do one job and it did that
very well.”
He has been scouring the world for parts, and finally tracked down
the vital missing telescopic sights, originally mounted on a rocking bar
over the top of the weapon, on a gun salvaged from the Sinai desert and
now in a museum in Haifa, Israel. The museum, understandably, wanted to
keep them, but the parts are now being recreated to be attached to the
Dover gun.
The gun was part of a mass of obsolete military equipment salvaged by
English Heritage from the old army ranges at Shoeburyness. It was first
restored, though not to firing condition, in the early 90s, and spent
years installed at Pendennis Castle, originally a Tudor fortress in Cornwall.
Volunteer gun crews have been specially trained to fire the gun daily
until at least October. “It should be audible all over Dover, and
probably much further on a still day,” Pattison said, adding wistfully:
“We’re not allowed to fire it with a full charge – there was some
concern that we might actually bring the entire cliff face down.”
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