Heavy 3.7"Anti Aircraft Guns at Hastings

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by researchingreg, Feb 19, 2022.

  1. researchingreg

    researchingreg Well-Known Member

    British heavy anti aircraft Gun. I went to the fisherman's museum in Hastings and saw this photo of a battery of 3.7" heavy flak guns which fired 28 lb shells installed on St Leonards on Sea seafront. I researched these guns a bit and apparently in 1940 one enemy aircraft was shot down for every 18,500 rounds fired. However it was vastly improved and radar operated by 1944/5 and took an average of 156 rounds to shoot down a V1 doodlebug. The rate of fire ranged from 8 rounds to 20 rounds per minute and a battery consisted of 8 guns. It was our equivalent of the German 88mm.
    Hastings suffered 85 visits from the Luftwaffe from the first air raid on 26th July 1940 to the end of the war in 1945. During this time 550 HE bombs and 16 flying bombs or "doodlebugs" fell on the town, causing the loss of 154 lives. 260 people received serious injuries and 439 lesser injuries. There were also 12 oil incendary bombs and 750 small incendary bombs.

    There was widespread damage to houses in the town, with 463 houses being damaged beyond saving or completely demolished. 14,818 other properties also received damage but were salvagable. A considerable number of bombs also fell in the sea and caused no damage.
    Hastings had no anti-aircraft guns until 14th October 1940 so was left completely at the mercy of German planes that were free to circle the town dropping their bombs and then heading back across the channel. Anti-aircraft guns were installed around the town and heavy guns on the West Hill as a defence against flying bombs (V1’s) but the scale of the attacks often made defence impossible.

    See you tube video of 3.7" guns shooting down doodle bugs attached:
    Battery of 3.7" Anti Aircraft Guns on the seafront at St Leonards on sea.jpg The_British_Army_in_the_United_Kingdom_1939-45_H39728.jpg

     
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  2. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  3. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    My artillery sage commented when told of this thread that the plan was to have the anti-aircraft artillery along the coast firing over the sea and the RAF would have a clear sky behind to do what they did. There was also the clear danger from crashing incoming Doodlebugs. There is a book about this, somehow I expect members know that!
     
  4. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Operation Diver is the story of a battle: its action, people, landscapes, and remains. The battle was Anti-Aircraft Command's attempt to defeat the V1 flying-bomb, the first of Nazi Germany's `retribution' weapons, whose attacks dominated the home front in the final year of the Second World War. Beginning in the week of D-Day, the flying bomb battle lasted for nine months. In that time the men and women of AA Command became a massed, mobile army, shifting a vast carpet of guns to meet the V1's changing lines of attack. Beginning in Kent and Sussex, their journey took in the Thames Estuary, East Anglia and eventually the Yorkshire coast. Along with the RAF's fighter aircraft and the larger air defence system, their mission was to prevent a single flying bomb from reaching London, or any other British city. The battle was won; but not before many technical and human obstacles were overcome. Published to mark the 75th anniversary of the flying bomb campaign, Operation Diver is also an essay in landscape history, and shows for the first time in detail how hundreds of guns and thousands of gunners were deployed across the fields and farms of Britain, from the south-east to Flamborough Head. Published with a full gazetteer of gunsite positions, it also documents Historic England's work in assessing the survival of Operation Diver's fragmentary remains.
    From the Book Operation Diver
     
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  5. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Pottering down to St. Leonards looking for junk shops and a bell rang.
    Potato quality image, but I've shamefully lost the habit of carrying a real camera.

    Made me smile. The page that came up when I quickly googled 'AA guns Hastings' was this thread. (The Fishwife was sort of impressed too. Which was nice.)
    Pathe video in post #1 much appreciated. Slight hairs on the neck when you stand where it was shot.

    Again, some people wonder why we get obsessed with WW2... Dunno how you can't be when it's everywhere.
    This quiet little strip of coastline was London's shield, for years. V1 wreckage from fisherman's nets in the local museum. A strange 1961 brutalist/Italianate church nearby where the original was obliterated by a damaged V1 (presumably damaged by guns along the coast). Other gaps in the front where some Heinkel or other dropped its bombs or crashed.

    Everywhere. Unavoidable.

    IMG_20220728_115739381_HDR.jpg Battery of 3.7 Anti Aircraft Guns on the seafront at St Leonards on sea.jpg
     
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  6. Ewen Scott

    Ewen Scott Well-Known Member

  7. HAARA

    HAARA Well-Known Member

    It was much the same in Bristol, where only two enemy aircraft were shot down during the Blitz that were credited directly to HAA fire, the rest being by RAF. But HAA fire was responsible for discouraging raiders to attack their targets (principally the docks and aircraft factory), and also by putting up flak helping RAF fighters to quickly identify the location of bombers.
     

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