William Baker Brown

“ Now the parapet slopes gently down to the front and is rounded at the sides, so as to present no definite edge or angle to the enemy, and concealment is furthered by allowing grass or small scrub to grow over the parapet and round the guns. In order to obtain complete concealment from view the background behind the guns must be carefully studied from the point of view of the attack. Sites on the sky-line, and marked contrasts of colour or shape, should be avoided. In some cases extensive planting, amounting to landscape gardening, is justified. ”

“ The shelters in the fort itself can thus be kept at the minimum required when actually manning the guns. The protection of the guns and magazines against bombardment is provided, in the British service, mainly by an earthen parapet over a substantial roof or wall of concrete, but immediately round the gun an “apron” of concrete is necessary to withstand the shock of discharge or “blast.” ”

“ Such a beam directed at an incoming ship gives effective illumination up to a mile or more from the source of light, but has the disadvantage that it must be moved so as to follow the ship’s movements. ”

“ Of these, the 9.2-in. was considered powerful enough to attack armour at any practical range, while the 6-in. gun was introduced to deal with lightly armed vessels at shorter ranges where 9.2-in. guns were unnecessarily powerful.
A few larger guns of 10-in. calibre have actually been used, but though the British navy has now sealed a 12-in. 50-ton gun as the stock size for battleships, for the heavy armament of the coast defences the War Office remain faithful to the 9.2-in. calibre, preferring to develop improvements rather in the direction of more rapid fire and higher muzzle velocity. ”

“ It is in fact the old principle of the sunk fence, and has this further advantage, that the fence, being visible from the parapet, can be kept under fire by men posted between the guns without any special flanking galleries. ”

“ Occasionally two or more batteries are placed inside one line of obstacles, but usually each 2-gun battery is complete in itself.
Cases arise, e.g. with sites on the top of a cliff, where no obstacle is required; in such places the parapet merges into the surrounding ground. ”

“ This instrument has been applied on a high site to control guns placed low, or where guns are so placed as to be liable to obscuration by fog or mist the position-finder can be placed below the fog-line. In either case direct laying is provided for as an alternative. In some defences batteries equipped with old pattern 9-in. muzzle-loading guns, mounted as howitzers for long-range firing, have been placed in folds in the ground so as to be quite invisible from the sea and therefore invulnerable. Such batteries are fought entirely by the position-finder. ”

“ With the increased speed of warships, a method of attack on fortifications was evolved by running past the main defences and either taking them in reverse, or disregarding them and attacking the dockyard or other objective at short range. ”

“ Each beam thus lights only one ship at a time, and the movements of several beams crossing and recrossing have a very confusing effect, with the consequent risk that a proportion of the attacking vessels may slip through unnoticed. ”

“ There is some loss of range when using these fans as compared with search-lights, but by occupying both sides of a channel and placing the defences against torpedo boats at the narrowest point, an effective illumination can be obtained in moderate weather.
Heavy guns can, of course, be fired against torpedo boats, but their rate of fire is relatively slow, and at first they had also the disadvantage of using black powder, the smoke of which obscured the lights. ”

“ This was made more possible at most defended ports by the pushing forward of the defences which has been already alluded to, and it is especially dangerous where dockyards or towns are situated some way up a river or estuary, so that once the defences are passed there is a large stretch of water (e.g. the Thames, the Solent, and Cork harbour) in which the enemy can manoeuvre. ”

“ The intelligence system includes communication with the naval signal stations in the vicinity, one of which is specially selected for each port as the warning station and is directly connected to some part of the defences. ”

“ This is most easily arranged in the tropics, where plant growth is rapid. In all cases the guns and their mountings should be coloured to blend with the background and thus avoid hard lines and shadows. ”