Site of Second World War ‘Diver’ Site No. K8, The Naze, Walton-on-the-Naze (EHER 21365)

Site of a Second World War heavy anti aircraft ('Diver') battery in the Diver Strip at Walton Hall Marshes. It was armed with eight 3.7-inch Mark IIc guns equipped with Predictor BTL, and Radar AA No.3 Mark V when it was deployed here on 24th November 1944, and was manned by 432 Battery of 136 Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment. It formed part of 40 Heavy Anti Aircraft Brigade deployment.

A report, compiled in 1996 from wartime documentation, lists the ‘Diver’ anti-aircraft gun sites in east Essex in summer/autumn 1944. Site No K8, at Military Grid Reference TM 711422, is recorded on 24 November 1944 as being equipped with eight 3.7 inch Mk IIc guns manned by 136 Regiment 432 Battery. <1> An aerial photograph taken in July 1946 shows the area very clearly. The site was on the north end of The Naze. In a large field here over 40 huts lay in four distinct rows, mainly Nissen-type. To the east, on the pre-war golf course, can be seen a great many earthworks, ditches, bomb craters and military structures. Among these are the parch marks of a single row of eight guns (TM 2661 2422 to TM 2655 2447) with their control huts behind. It is known from the same wartime records that ‘Diver’ Site K7 was also deployed in this area with four guns although the position of these has not been discovered. It is thought that both K7 and K8 shared the same accommodation in the 40 plus huts. They would have had separate gun positions, the single row of eight apparently belonging to K8. Visited by F. Nash in February 2010 The area of the huts is now an open field. However, the rubble of their demolished remains lines the south edge as a long, unbroken pile beneath the tall bushes. Clearly, it was bulldozed here when the field was cleared. Two photos were taken of the field edge and rubble. <3> The area of the row of eight guns is now thicket and scrub with grass tracks and paths through it. While some features were mapped as part of the original NMP, further features were mapped as part of the 2009 update programme, however the 'Diver' site was not obvious on the aerial photograph viewed in 2009. A structure with associated platforms was mapped on the original NMP although it was not classified as a possible 'Diver' site. <4> No new information from the NRHE.