Thought I would do a quick post on what I think are the remains of 'clutter screens' for Diver battery S3 before they disappear altogether! This battery consisted of four 3.7" anti-aircraft guns. I have already mentioned 'clutter screens' on an earlier post, and suspect they were gun-laying mats, to create a false horizon or fixed datum for gun-laying radar. It was about two yrs ago these remains first appeared at Thorpeness Common due to cliff erosion. They would appear to be the base of the scaffolding support for the chicken wire; presumably when the battery site was removed at the end of the war the scaffolding just being cut off at ground level. Remains of the chicken wire can still be seen, although no sign of the metal bands and rods that I posted about in the blog on Diver site S1 (although remains of these can be found further west on the track running past the common). Not much exists in the remains of the accommodation camp - a few concrete bases for huts and the odd drain manhole.
Also took some more photos of this pillbox (a Suffolk Square) at Sizewell - I am still puzzled about the odd 'arched' embrasures (right hand side in photo 5 and 6) with another two on the east side of the pillbox. As can be seen from the photo of the interior of the pillbox, the heights are also slightly different. This is the only Suffolk Square I have seen these type of embrasures in.
A weeks holiday over the last week, but did not manage to get much exploring in as I concentrated on visiting the local Suffolk Record Office branches - I now have enough material to contemplate a second website - Home Guard (including HG defence schemes) and Civil Defence Schemes - a logical step really as the Second War (along with the First) involved the entire population (i.e volkskrieg - 'peoples war' as the Germans referred to it).
Image 1: Map of location of Diver Battery S3
Image 2: Remains of scaffolding - Sept 2010
Image 3: Remains of chicken wire - Sept 2010
Image 4: Remains of scaffolding - as in May 2009
Image 5-7: Suffolk Square Pillbox, Sizewell Sept 2010
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