Second World War HAA Gun Site "TN13 Bucklands", Bowater's Farm, Thurrock (EHER 9082)

Second World War heavy anti aircraft battery TN13. Eight concrete gun emplacements with their connecting roads and vehicle parks, magazine and command post. The battery forms two groups of anti-aircraft artillery. The earlier group comprises four octagonal emplacements of concrete cornered by asphalt, which measure some 16 metres across. Inside the emplacements, the ten bolts which fixed the guns to the ground survive, as do the ammunition lockers against the walls. Between the middle two emplacements is a rectangular magazine building. At the rear of the group is a larger building which formed a command post and which included height and range-finding equipment, although this no longer survives. The group houses 4.5 inch guns from the mid-1940 to 1944. To the east is a second group of four emplacements, these examples comprising a deep circular pit, with an adjoining sunken engine room to the west or south west. A gun turret, which no longer survives, capped the circular pit, and housed a 5.25 inch gun. This group superseded the 4.5 inch guns in 1944 and continued in use until after the war. This anti-aircraft battery is the last surviving example in this area of Essex. Scheduled.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. The monument included eight concrete emplacements in two groups, with their connecting roads and vehicle parks, magazine, and command post. The earlier group comprises 4 octagonal emplacements measuring some 16 metres across. Earthen banks protect the outer sides of the 2 enclosures. Ammunition lockers and a rectangular magazine building some 12 metres long survive, as does a larger building which formed the command post. This group housed 4.5 inch guns from mid-1940 to 1944. To the East lies the 2nd group of four emplacements comprising a concrete lined deep circular pit some 16 metres across, with an adjoining sunken engine room. A gun turret originally capped the pit and housed a 5.25 inch gun which superseded the 4.5 inch guns in 1944 and continued in use until after the war. <1> Site Assessment = Anti-aircraft batteries were widely distributed around England, with a marked concentration in the South East around London. As a result of development pressure in the South East, few have survived. The example at Bowater's Farm is the last surviving example of such batteries in this area of Essex, forming the latest part of a series of important defensive installations at Coalhouse Point which illustrate the development of coastal defences from the Tudor period to the mid-20th century. <1> This prominent spur commands broad views over the Thames and Tilbury Docks to the west making it an obvious location for a gun site. The half battery of four concrete emplacements for 4.5 inch heavy anti-aircraft guns is remarkable not so much for its design or layout, as for its completeness, with a number of the fittings and even painted signs surviving, although the guns were removed before the end of the war. The wartime history of the site, known officially as N13, is well known from the war diaries of the units which served there; the guns saw frequent action during the blitz and later against the vengeance weapons known to the gun crews as 'divers'. Towards the end of the war, women took on much of the work, both in the command post and on the guns themselves. After the war this site was retained by the military for the deployment of the new 5.25 inch heavy anti-aircraft guns. Unlike their predecessors, these highly sophisticated guns relied on a few very accurate shots to bring down the target; the aiming was computerised and the firing carried out automatically from the command post. This building still survives, located in a concrete bunker a kilometre (more like 0.25km) away to protect the sensitive instruments from the blast of the guns. Although aerial photographs show that work began on the new emplacements in 1944, and that they lasted well into the 1950's, the documentary history of this period is shrouded in secrecy. (A Cold War site.) The name changed to Igloo 2 (derived from the shape of the emplacement). Again although the guns are gone the interiors of the gun pit and the powerhouse preserve some of their original fittings. <2> <3> Aerial Photographs. <4> The HAA Battery at Bowater's Farm exhibits through its surviving remains the development of an anti aircraft battery from the early months of the Second World War until the stand down of anti-aircraft artillery in 1955. At present the remains of the gun emplacements are scheduled (Essex 12709, scheduled 31 July 1991). It is recommended that the schedule should be extended to include the structures built after 1945. These reflect the continuing importance of this site, and the necessity to provided protected infrastructure for the increasingly complex electronic instrumentation necessary to lay the guns against ever-faster targets. It is recommended that the scheduled area be extended. <5> See the 2007 English Heritage report on East Tilbury for a discussion of the battery and other defences in the context of a wider Area Appraisal. <6> Documented in contemporary records as"TN13 Buckland", a WWII Heavy Anti-Aircraft gun site. <7> - <10> Equipment and manning at the site is documented at various dates: Manning Date Guns Radar Regt Bty 30 Apr 1940 2 x 3.7" (m) 61 171 2 Jun 1940 4 x 4.5" 265 8 Jul 1940 4 x 4.5" 59 265 20 May 1942 2 x 3.7" (m) 2 1 22 Jun 1942 2 x 3.7" (m) 9 Dec 1943 184 (M) 627 2 Nov 1944 4 x 5.25" 15 Jan 1946 - <11> In May 1994, RCHME carried out a detailed survey of the site as part of the East Thames Corridor Project, following consultation with Essex County Council. <12> <13> Mentioned as one of the London coastal defences. <14> Recorder- M. Shackel, and R. Clements. <15> It was manned by 1 Battery of the 2nd Royal Artillery Regiment in 1942, and by 627 Battery of the 184th (Mixed) Royal Artillery Regiment in 1943. It was retained as an Off-Site Nucleus Force Battery in 1946. <16> Additional references <17> <18> <19> <20> <21>