Site of Second World War ‘Diver’ Site No. N48, Deal Hall, Southminster (EHER 21315)

Now destroyed. The site of a Second World War heavy anti aircraft (Diver) Battery in the Diver Box at Deal Hall. It was armed with eight 3.7-inch Mark IIc guns on 13th August 1944. On 28th February 1945, it was armed with 3.7-inch guns and equipped with Predictor AA No.10 Mark I and Radar AA No.3 Mark V, and manned by 219 Battery of 124 Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment.

November 2008. World War Two Defences in Maldon survey. A report, compiled in 1996 from wartime documentation, lists the ‘Diver’ anti-aircraft gun sites in East Essex in summer/autumn 1944. Site No. N48, on the Dengie at Military Grid Reference M455154, is recorded, on 13 August 1944, as being equipped with eight 3.7 inch MK IIc guns. No manning is given. <1> An aerial photograph taken in May 1946 shows the area around Deal Hall very clearly. No formal camp layout is visible although the possible soil marks of 3 or more guns can be made out alongside the road to the immediate NE of the farm buildings. It is possible that the farm itself was used for accommodation. <2> 1960 aerial photographs of the Dengie show a number of long Nissen-type huts, erected post-war, clearly sited as agricultural buildings. A number of them can be seen at Deal Hall and the surrounding farms. It is not known if these were commercially produced curved-roof barns or Nissen huts bought up, dismantled and re-erected in longer sections at their new site. <3> During a site visit in 2008, it was noted that none of them appear to survive. <4> NRHE data transfer: no new information. NRHE summary description: Site of a Second World War heavy anti aircraft (Diver) Battery in the Diver Box at Deal Hall. It was armed with eight 3.7-inch Mark IIc guns on 13th August 1944. On 28th February 1945, it was armed with 3.7-inch guns and equipped with Predictor AA No.10 Mark I and Radar AA No.3 Mark V, and manned by 219 Battery of 124 Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment. <2>