Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery Station 21 - Puddington
Note that this site is on Private Property, is a Scheduled Monument, is in a Conservation Area has some Asbestos Sheeting (not part of the original site I think) and is a Wildlife Sanctuary. Permission from the owners of the site is required to visit.
The site is in an overgrown wood and consists of a command/control centre and four gun emplacements, each emplacement consisting of a surrounding octagonal wall with two entrances and four ammunition bunkers, making a total of sixteen ammunition bunkers.
The site was built in 1941 and is considered to be in "good" condition.
The command and control centre is partly demolished and some of it filled in with soil, what is left looks like it consists of two rooms, one of which is partly flooded and the other is fairly full of soil.
The gun emplacements have no sign of the gun mounts, there maybe something if dug out, but there are a number of piles of debris around the site which may be the remains of the gun mounts.
The Octagonal walls (minus two opposite sides for entrances) are very much intact and in very good condition, non are in danger of falling. the walls are approximately 5 feet high, above what I took to be the normal ground height.
The ammunition bunkers are mostly (but not all) structurally sound, some still have iron doors on part of the bunkers, the shell storage areas are open and many have some of the original wooden racking.
The first picture below is NOT from this site, but is from a very similar site to show what the site layout is like.
The rest of the pictures follow, as one ammunition bunker looks much like any other I will not try and label them. Because of the trees/growth it was not possible to step back and get a decent overview shot of one emplacement let alone the whole site unfortunately, towards the end I have tried.
That's the last picture - a bit repetitive, but thought I had better get all 16 bunkers. I will put up a numbered diagram if I can figure the order, maybe, maybe not!
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Quite correct Brocks, all those through-hole bunkers would have had those racks.
I was running out of terminology which is why I settled for "ammunition bunkers"
Does anybody know what storage bunkers with doors had in them? Were the fuses held seperately, presumably being anti-aircraft, the fuses would have been set for altitude.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Great bit of research. I think you're almost certainly right about separate fuse storage; they would have been set & fitted at the last minute to minimise the risk of accidents. I guess this is what the Storeton site would have looked like.
Your right DD about thoes seperate storage bunkers for the fuses, they would not be kept together. I have previously mentioned this site, i know it very very well mate, it was our training ground when we had the paintball teams years ago, i can easily get access if needed. It is a very well preserved site, thoes troughs wouldnt have anything to do with it, there used to be a big pig farm next door mate, shut down now. Havnt been there for years, Pm me next time bud!
