Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Battlements off the Wirral coast in Liverpool bay

wondering if time team wanna go deep underwater to find traces of this thing that used to be in the mersey

what are those things?

Temporary battlements off the coast of Wirral in Liverpool bay iirc, during the war.

Think they were pulled down sometime in the 50's cant be sure though...

I red about them a while back.

They're like these:



Which are located in the Thames Estuary.

fook me! they look like something from Dr Who!

interesting

thats great station, didnt know they were there

those forts in the mersey where taken down during the early part of the 50s. you could see the when you stood on the prom by the baths at hoylake

Same as the ones in the English Channel, go past them on the ferries to Europe or can sometimes see them flying low! Same place that "Fort Boyard" was filmed i think, or was that a Napoleonic one?

One carefully placed Torpedo or Shell, and those things would crumble like a sand castle.

Not the best design int he world I imagine

Torpedoes weren't that accurate to hit vertical "pipes" and to get close enough to lob a shell would have been very high risk. Don't forget this was WW2 not Star Wars technology.

The other factor to note is that 90% of successful defence is visual or perceived deterrents.

Used to see them from the I.O.M ferry. I agree with jimbob (welcome to the site !!), they were given the chop early or mid '50's.

IF you can get a copy from your library (whilst it's still there), try and get "Walls of War" by Keith Mallory & Arvid Ottar. Pub. Astragel Books. ISBN 0 906525 14 4. This shows the details of the Thames Forts which were built to same design as the Mersey Forts.
Shows the construction, plans etc. Conditions aboard weren't a barrel of laughs.

To be hit by a WW2 torpedo, it would have to be a "lucky" shot.

More pictures of Mersey Maunsell AA forts can be found in this topic

I have a video of the 'generic' Maunsell forts, I'm sure it has pcis of the Mersey ones being built at bromborough, I'll have a look tonight.