Norman's Bay Emergency Battery, Pevensey

[John]

Norman's Bay Battery was an Emergency Battery constructed in the area formerly known as Pevensey Sluice, and was manned in 1940 by 375 Coast Battery R.A. It comprised of 2 x 4.7" QF MkV ex-naval guns in brick gunhouses, and these two weapons had a rather exotic history. Serialled 1526 and 1527, both had been built and proofed at the Kure Naval Yard in Japan for use on Japanese destroyers in the period 1914-1918, and the mounts still bore a brass plate with the name "Maizura" engraved on them. However, they appear never to have been actually used by the Japanese for the history sheets that accompanied them showed that No.1 Gun had only been fired from HMS Canopic, while No.2 had never been fired apart from proofing. Both guns had been held in storage at Gibraltar between 1919 and 1940 before being shipped to Sussex.

The guns were sited 80' apart, with the B.O.P. situated on their west flank, and the West and East sluices formed a barrier protecting against attack from the rear by tanks and the like. The rangefinder was a 2 metre Barr & Stroud Mk IV, and two 90cm fighting lights (Coast Artillery Search Lights) were also sited - No.1, on the right flank, was connected to the BOP by remote control, while No.2 was hand controlled. The gunhouses themselves were extensively and cleverly camouflaged as domestic type properties - these were constructed by a civilian contractor (R.A.Larkin of Bexhill) whose company also worked on the BOP, Engine Room and other structures on the site. Additional weaponry on site consisted of a 2" UP (Unrotated Projectile) rocket battery as well as 4 x Spigot Mortars, 3 x Vickers MG's, 2 x Brens.

[Knouterer]

One might wonder what Japanese naval guns were doing in storage in Gibraltar in 1919, but I surmise they were spares for the 14 Japanese destroyers that operated in the Mediterranean from 1917 (in return for secret Allied pledges to support Tokyo's claims to Germany's island colonies in the North Pacific).