Site of Second World War ‘Diver’ Site N74, SE of Packards (EHER 16043)

Now destroyed. The site of a Second World War heavy anti aircraft (Diver) Battery in the Diver Box South of Packards. On 3rd March 1945 it was equipped with 3.7-inch guns, and a photo from 1945 shows the soil marks of four guns alongside a command post and a row of huts. By 1960 the site had been destroyed.

June 1995. World War Two Defences in Maldon survey: desktop research. A Second World War 'Diver' type anti-aircraft battery, visible on vertical aerial photography. <1> <2> November 2008. World War Two Defences in Maldon survey: desktop research and site visit. A report, compiled in 1996 from wartime documentation, lists the ‘Diver’ anti-aircraft gun sites in East Essex in summer/autumn 1944. <3> Most of these can be seen, from the quoted Military Grid References, on 1945/1946 aerial photographs. However, an aerial photograph taken in August 1945 shows the clear soil marks left by four guns, their command post, and a row of huts, with no corresponding entry in the report. They lay in a field to the SE of ‘Packards’, the huts to the West of the gun positions. <1> By 1960, there were no marks remaining and, when visited in 2008, the site is now open landscape. <2> <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 South of Packards. On 3rd March 1945 it was equipped with 3.7-inch guns, Predictor AA No.10 Mark I and Radar AA No.3 Mark V, and manned by 134 (Mixed) Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment. It formed part of the 37 Heavy Anti Aircraft Artillery Brigade deployment. <3>