The SAAF Forum

When was this gun removed? Hermanus has smaller guns mounted above one of their bays.
I have a friend who can access the bunkers etc under the gun mount if anyone is interested.

_________________
"Kwassie"

That I have no idea. The coastal artillery (marines) was finally wound down sometime in the fifties and they began removing many of the isolated guns at that time - but the whole system, headquartered in Wingfield, was kept, ostensibly, in mothballs till 1975. As I said before - despite the fact that no ammunition had existed since the 1950s,

There is a nice summation here
http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/viewFile/360/397
about the batteries around Cape Town - but there were major installations at all the ports around the coast and minor gun emplacements at areas where landings were deemed possible.
Persistent rumours about German submarines landing men around the South coast - especially in the Bredasdorp area - to supply, train and equip Ossewabrandwag types abounded during the war and was a motivating factor in this. Studies of submarine daily logbooks postwar show no evidence that this happened though. Bredasdorp being a particularly difficult area for submarines to operate in. In fact the daily track record of the most prolific U-boats around the coast showed they avoided the area.

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/my-mothers-exploits-during-wwii-2009-06-12

Gives a bit of information on the women that staffed the guns batteries.

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n58 ... 1337537036
Kommetjie Radio/Radar Station remains, 1942? I belive the granite in the rocks effected the system and it was moved to Wireless road where it still is for the SAN today. There is a good walk up and down from the church.

Great, must walk up there one weekend

_________________
Brent Best

There were also guns that were situated at the SA Naval Medical Centre in Simon's Town (apparently called South Battery). The hardware was removed a long, long time ago, but the infrastructure remains relatively intact. They were positioned just behind and next to the Main Medical Centre building overlooking the old oil fields. I doubt whether this would be common knowledge as they were not visible from the road, unless you were looking for something specifically like that.

One of the magazines & adjoining tunnel was converted (around 1980/1) by the SANMC staff into a bar with it's own tenpin bowling alley!

It is NOT a good idea to on a drinking spree when down below, as the cold, fresh air will NOT be kind to your sobriety!
(Ask me how I know this?)

I was stationed there from June 1978 to December 1979 and did my last camp there in 1984.

It was an extension of Noah's Ark battery and often called the "Hen and Chickens" battery. Close in counter battery and harbour defence installation.

Hmmm. You're that old!

Thanks. Any further info? How many guns in total, etc? I think there were around four/five, IINM.

Looking at Google Earth now and I think I can count five placements.

I have no real idea - Mac Bisset would be able to help here. The guns were removed immediately post WW2 - but I think there were a couple of 6 pounders and a couple of 4 inchers. But honestly I do not know. Noah's Ark had a couple of 6 inch guns. Mac Bisset puts in a couple of hours a week at the Simon's Town museum so maybe a phone call in that direction might give some clues.

Just a clarification of the above picture - the fortifications/gun emplacements on the right of the picture are Noah's Ark battery - which was built in the late 1800s and at one stage had a pair of 9.2 inch guns which were replaced after WW1 with 6 inch guns. Where the naval memorial now is. The gun emplacements visible to the left of the photo are the WW2 extension - the so called "Hen and Chicken's" battery. Which may not even have been an independent battery at all - even if it was seen as such by some observers - but merely part of Noah's Ark.

Fortifications around Simon's Town date back a long time - witness the Martello Tower built during the Napoleonic era.