Maunsell Forts

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by Peter Clare, Aug 5, 2007.

  1. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

  2. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    Worth having a look.

    Maunsell Towers


    Interesting website on an unusual aspect of the war. did not realize that they were still in use so long after the war!
     
  3. David Layne

    David Layne Well-Known Member

    Was that where "Radio Caroline" was situated?
     
  4. David Layne

    David Layne Well-Known Member

     
  5. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    Quite interesting. Reminds me a bit of that fort Boyard.
     
  6. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    Was that where "Radio Caroline" was situated?

    Caroline was a ship based radio station
     
  7. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    They look spindly-legged but I guess the Germans lacked the ability to deliver the necessary ordinance to bring them down. They obviously could not get a ship with large enough guns close enough because of the Royal Navy and I'm guessing that aircraft would not be able to drop adequate bombs on or near enough to the legs to damage them.
     
  8. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    There is a substantial fort to the north of Felixstowe.It is obviously an anti aircraft platform but not to the Maunsell design.It has two legs which are similar to the North Sea oil rigs design.I think it might have been partially dismantled in the last 30 years.
     
  9. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    Like this?

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    Knock John sea fort

     
  10. adrian roberts

    adrian roberts Senior Member

    All 3 forts saw action during the Second World War, and there is no doubt that they proved their worth. So much so in fact that anti-aircraft command called for the construction of more sea forts on the Thames in the immediate post-war period,


    I'm surprised it says they saw much action considering they weren't in place until late '43. How many air raids were there after that time? Possibly they may have got a few V1s, but only when they came conveniently close. Does anyone have any accounts of them actually being in action?
     
  11. Andy in West Oz

    Andy in West Oz Senior Member

    Unreal, didn't even know these existed! Thanks guys!
     
  12. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

  13. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

     
  14. T. A. Gardner

    T. A. Gardner Senior Member

    There are actually two types. The one pictured above is a "Navy" fort. There was also an "Army" type that consisted of four mulit-story buildings on a lattice framework connected by walkway bridges.
     
  15. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    Yes, those were the ones mentioned in the first post, I referred to them as spindly legged.
     
  16. T. A. Gardner

    T. A. Gardner Senior Member

    The book The Architechure of War has some good photos of these forts as well as some plan drawings.
     
  17. WotNoChad?

    WotNoChad? Senior Member

    Here's some basic info on the Maunsell (or Thames Estuary) forts:

    [​IMG]

    Basically these were built along the North Kent coast to offer air defence against the Luftwaffe who used the coast as a navigation aid, being that it's a long stretch of coast running sixty-five miles east to west from Margate to the outskirts of London.

    Originally air defence was sited along the coast to disuade the Luftwaffe, but they simply adjusted their course to be out of range of the land based batteries. So in 1941 and 42 a series of forts were built off the coast, in the North Sea.

    Many still stand today, and can be clearly seen from the coast. Below is a view from Whitstable.

    [​IMG]

    Maunsell Sea Forts
    MAUNSELL ARMY SEA FORTS
    New Page 1

    and some pictures;

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  18. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Maunsell....Mausell....not the same engineer who designed railway locomotives and rolling stock for Southern Railway before the war???
     
  19. WotNoChad?

    WotNoChad? Senior Member

    I must admit I don't know either way, I know he ended up running his own company specialising in pre-stressed concrete mainly for bridges - the Hammersmith Flyover being one of his projects.

    Nowadays it'd be unlikely for an engineer to go from loco's and rolling stock to bridges wouldn't it? But with the war generation absolutely anything is possible.
     
  20. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Nowadays, yes - the idea of "big name" engineers has died a death in the UK - along with most of the UK's engineering too, it has to be said! It remained for a while longer on the continent, with "big" names like Ferdinand Porsche of course, and Ing. Fabio Taglioni at Ducati in the 1960's and 1970's.

    But looking closely - they ARE two different men. The railway engineer was RICHARD Maunsell...

    Richard Maunsell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    While the designer of the forts was GUY Maunsell...

    Guy Maunsell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    ....but there ae some strange congruences...

    First GUY Maunsell

    Guy Anson Maunsell (born September 1, 1884 - June 20, 1961) was the British civil engineer responsible for the design of the World War II naval Sea Forts and Army Forts used by the United Kingdom for the defence of the Thames and Mersey estuaries.
    Maunsell was born in India in 1884. In 1955 he founded the firm of G Maunsell & Partners in the United Kingdom which pioneered the use of prestressed concrete in major bridges. The Hammersmith Flyover, completed in 1961, made revolutionary use of this new construction method and many more structures followed. The firm expanded to Australia, Hong Kong and the Middle East and in time became part of the US-based AECOM Group.
    Maunsell is best known for his innovative, practical maritime engineering and pioneering the development of prestressed concrete in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong. His view was always that the interests of a client would be best served by an integrated approach to design and construction.
    He died in Ireland in 1961


    Now, RICHARD Maunsell...

    He was born on 26 May 1868 at Raheny, County Dublin in Ireland. After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, he began an apprenticeship at the Inchicore works of the Great Southern and Western Railway (GSWR) under H. A. Ivatt in 1886, completing his training at Horwich on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (as Nigel Gresley had done before him). At Horwich he worked in the drawing office, before occupying the post of locomotive foreman in charge of the Blackpool and Fleetwood District. From there he went to India in 1894, as Assistant Locomotive Superintendent of the East India Railway, being subsequently District Locomotive Superintendent of the Asansol District.
    He returned in 1896 to become works manager at Inchicore on the GSWR, moving up to become Locomotive Superintendent in 1911.
    In 1913 he was selected to succeed Harry Wainwright as CME of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. When that line was incorporated in the new Southern Railway, he became Chief Mechanical Engineer of the latter, retiring in 1937.


    NOT the same person - but there HAS to be family connection of SOME sort!!!
     

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