Monument record FEX 088 - WW2 Brackenbury Battery (Mod)

December 1994: Remains of late C19 & early C20 features and of former (1st WW) military coastal defences known as the Brackenbury Batttery identified during assessment. For earlier record of Rom finds discovered by digging trenches at Brackenbury Battery site in August 1939 see FEX 053. The fort included underground bunkers & other buildings. The concrete superstructure of the fort was capped with a great depth of material in 1969. Details in (S2).
Photographs from 1940 onwards show the site as it existed during World War II. Numerous buildings and observation posts are visible as well as the two large central gun emplacments. Stretches of barbed wire obstruction related to the site can also be seen. A complex of military buildings (FEX 017) which were probably directly related to the battery are visible to the north of the battery. (S3) (S4) (S5)
Brackenbury Battery was one of six coastal batteries built to defend the port at Harwich. The battery was opened in October 1915 after the removal of 10-inch guns from Harwich had left the port without long-range protection. An armoured enemy stationed to the north-east of Felixstowe could only be engaged by a single 10-inch gun from Landguard Fort. The new battery mounted two 9.2-inch guns with a range of 17,000 yards (15.54km). These were the most powerful guns to be mounted on the east coast thus far. The guns and their complex carriages were set in concrete pits with magazines and shelters beneath, and protected by an earth rampart surrounded by a ditch. The battery unwittingly contributed to the development of coastal artillery radar when a shoot in 1939 coincided with radar trials being conducted at nearby Bawdsey Manor. The shell splashes appeared on the radar screens and lasted long enough to obtain range and bearing. Further co-ordinated trials led to the birth of coastal artillery radar. Trenches and strongpoints were added around the battery on the outbreak of war and in 1941 two searchlights were sited on the beach to give the battery night fighting capability. The battery was reduced to care and maintenance in 1944 and decommissioned in 1952. Brackenbury Battery has been removed and aerial photography from 1996 shows that the site had been landscaped and housing built. No features of the battery remain (S7).
Also see BA, IA, Preh, Rom, Sax and Un.