Second World War searchlight battery at Clanvereno Bridge, Wenden Ambo (EHER 19714)

The site of a Second World War searchlight battery at Wendens Ambo. It was manned by 33 Searchlight Regiment. The battery was operational from October 1941. It formed part of a network of searchlights named Area DN02, which along with another such area (DN01) formed a defensive belt in the Essex-Cambridgeshire-Suffolk borders area, which also extended into Hertfordshire. Searchlight sites typically comprised a small ring-ditch to provide the crew with shelter during an air raid, a predictor emplacement for calculating the height and range of targets, a light anti-aircraft machine gun pit, a generator and hutted accommodation for the crew. Based on comparison of aerial photographs of different dates, it is believed that this site was destroyed by about 1949.

Site consists of five upright circular structures on 1946 aerial photographs. The main structures is approximately 10m in diameter. The other structures are much smaller, although similar shape and construction. The emplacement had been destroyed by 1949 and no visible remains could be seen on later aerial photographs. <1> <2> NRHE data transfer: The site of a Second World War searchlight battery at Wendens Ambo, situated at TL 498 363/ MGR (military grid reference) L 947551. It was manned by 33 Searchlight Regiment. The battery was operational from October 1941. It formed part of a network of searchlights named Area DN02, which along with another such area (DN01) formed a defensive belt in the Essex-Cambridgeshire-Suffolk borders area. <3> Searchlight sites typically comprised a small ring-ditch to provide the crew with shelter during an air raid, a predictor emplacement for calculating the height and range of targets, a light anti-aircraft machine gun pit, a generator and hutted accommodation for the crew. <4>