Blyth Battery - Port of Blyth , submarine base



Against aerial attack: commemorating Home Defences in WW1.

I grew up, post-war, in ‘Hellfire Corner’, where it is hard not to be aware of and impressed by the diverse, extant defences on our coast. The idea for ‘flying the WW1 defences’ started simply enough, but I soon found the number of interesting sites seemed limitless. As the project grew I decided I would concentrate only on aviation related defences and wireless detection, with one or two exceptions that were en route to a fuel stop. ‘Coast’ I’ve defined as ‘within approximately one mile of the coastline’. Much detail of aircraft and squadrons has been summarily reduced, simply for reasons of space. Some sites developed from Napoleonic defences, many sites were used again in WW11 and a few have had more recent importance, being redeveloped for Cold War operations. Much has gone, but amongst the neglected remains, preserved monuments and yes, the Tesco car park, there’s fascinating history.

What impressed me above all was the progress made in just four years, in a country still getting used to motor transport. By the time of the Armistice and despite inter-service rivalries, political strategy and limited successes, the organisation and technological developments had progressed greatly.

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Gothas of Gahoul 3

The arrival of Gothas over England on 25th May, 1917, marked the start of the first Battle of Britain. One hundred years on, I decided to link my challenge to some fund-raising for the Royal British Legion. This entry covers the east coast of England, from Lydd in the south-east to the north of Holy Island, along the coastline that met the attacks from 1914 onward.

I owe much to the investigations and detailed research of others, whom I have acknowledged at the end. Errors are mine.

Intelligence and signals.

Port War Signal Stations were a development of specialist Coastguard establishments, initially used for shipping detecction. In 1902 six stations were given wireless telegraphs (Dover, Kent; Culver Cliff, Isle of Wight, Hants; Portland, Dorset; Rame Head, Cornwall; Isles of Scilly, Cornwall; and Roche’s Point, Ireland). From this modest start, technology and techniques grew from the very basic in 1914 through to a formidable counter-battery organisation, including aerial photography, wireless intelligence & sound ranging to a complex, scientific level by the end of the war. Home defences reflected this progression too. Cryptography & ‘Room 40’, with Captain Round’s direction-finding equipment carried over to the formation, in 1919, of GC&CS, Bletchley Park, later to be renamed GCHQ.

WW1 signal stations were attached to batteries, garrisons and RNAS stations, but some stood alone with a small crew.

The ROC grew from the disorganised information being relayed by the army, police, gun positions and railways stations, often via cycling to a telephone (or even by post!). Improvements gradually led to far more sophisticated communications and the first Operations Rooms, later to be vital in WW11.

Prior to any useful wireless communication, visual ground signalling systems were vital. Lieut H Ingram, operating at RANAS Westgate in January 1915, devised a system using cloth strips, but the Admiralty had other ideas. By the summer, a better system than any yet came again from Ingrams. A 20’ x 40’ ‘T’, in conjuction with up to three variously placed 8’ diameter discs, coveyed up to 40 specific messages. These were visible at up to 17,000’ in the best weather conditions.

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Wireless communictions were dominated by The Marconi Company, that produced a chain of stations along the east coast. By 1916, crystals were replaced by valves, with a form of variometer giving directional information.

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Direction Finder, 1916

Much is owed to Capt H Round, working for Marconi, whose work on direction-finding proved invaluable. By 1919, there were 19 high-masted ‘directional’ aerials and direction-finding stations from the Shetlands to the North Kent coast at Birchington. A total of 87 coastal and/or W/T and intercept stations was identified as being in use during the First World War, the majority on the east coast. These strategically important stations intercepted messages and transmissions from Zeppelins, U boats and surface vessels.

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|Marconi WT Wireless Set No 4 – the Sterling Spark Set Transmitter, used in the air to guide artillery. |

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The siting of wireless stations was far from exclusively coastal and inland sites on higher ground were scattered around London. Coastal sites were preferred, particularly sandy conditions which gave better earthings. Proximity to a telegraph line, habitations for lodgings and existing structures, such as the North Foreland and Flamborough Head lighthouses, were favoured. Stations that were not part of a military base were fenced and guarded, not visible from the sea.

Roles of the Stations:

Intersect stations were ‘Y’, direction finding ‘B’, which were often more mobile and temporary.

Ship to shore stations operated two-way communications

Experimental/Development stations

Wireless Training Schools

IWC – international wireless telegraphy linking countries of the Empire

Post Office inland wireless stations – the P.O. took over inland stations in 1911.

After the raid of 2-3rd September 1916, when fourteen airships were not easily identifiable by their official numbers, it was decided to label raiders with girls’ names for naval airships and boys’ for army. On the next raid, Mary, Rose, Kate, Lily Jane, Sally, Hilda and Nora were heard. Later, they were named alphabetically as they coasted in. The boys names weren’t used as no more army airships made raids over Britain.

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Flash spotting & sound ranging – from 1916

In 1917 the War Office reviewed the communications between ground and air, discussing a prototype receiver, which was simple to use, with a half-kilowatt transmitter. Ground transmitters of 30 mile range could be sited at strategic aerodromes. Politics between Navy and Army obscure the details of the history, but Admiralty objections killed off further trials based on the ‘Ashington’ trials, although trials on longer wave transmitters were approved.

Prior to the development of radar, considerable resources were devoted to the feasibility of sound mirrors. Experiments starting in WW1 took place with four types of sound detectors. They were listening wells, discs, mirrors and trumpets.

Acoustic early warning systems began in 1914 when attempts were made to detect the position of the enemy's artillery guns, barrages from which often preceded attacks on the trenches. The use of microphones was a significant step forward in 1916 and when placed first in holes and then deep shafts in the ground, picked up sounds hitherto unheard. These ‘listening wells’ were somewhat primitive, with men confined to the bottom of deep shafts and were replaced by horizontal discs and microphones at ground level . The key point about the change to discs was that the disc replaced the well and the microphone, placed at the centre of the disc, replaced the observer.

Sound detectors shaped liked trumpets were also trialled and used during WW1. Following trials of various types of sound locator, a simple locator with four trumpets became universally used by the army, but research was also taking place about the use of larger, concrete mirrors.

1915 – An early War Office reference to the subject of listening devices for aeroplanes by means of acoustic arrangements. Trials of a 16ft Sound Mirror dug into the chalk near Maidstone in Kent.

1917 - Larger mirror 3 metres in diameter tested with an aircraft.

Sound mirrors were constructed along the NE and SE coast & these saw operational use against enemy aircraft.

The mirrors worked and could be used effectively to detect slow moving enemy aircraft before they came into sight, at least until aircraft became faster.  Operators also found it difficult to distinguish between aircraft and seagoing vessels.

By 1918 the Admiralty signals intelligence (or ‘SIGINT’) guaranteed complete control of the airwaves and during the first four months of the year four Zeppelins were shot down over England and twenty-four U-boats sunk. Wireless communications were hugely advanced by the War; sound broadcasting was a natural progression after.

Anti-aircraft guns

The first anti-aircraft guns were at Hoo, defending Chatham. Anti-aircraft operations improved, but cuts in manning in 1917, to release more men into service in France were accompanied by an order prohibiting their use – day or night - except for those at specific coastal defence sites. Thus the ‘generals’ presumed that the Zeppelin attacks were finished, at least until the German navy produced the ‘height climber’ which could reach 16-17,000’ (and even more). The dubious worth of this strategy was shown by the menace of Gothas in the south of England.

The batteries, like the airborne defences, limited by the technology of the time and the speed and accuracy of the information available, were ever improving and by 1917, aim was much better. Colonel Thompson, an AA commander, devised a new system of height observation and control that was used with success against two Gothas in August. At around this time, AA operations rooms added a new flower code, the key to which has been lost, but we know Carnation meant ‘aircraft heard’, Dahlia ‘aircraft seen’ and Dandelion ‘hostile’.

The QF 3 inch 20cwt anti-aircraft gun was widely used against Zeppelins, as its 16lb shell could reach 5,000’ in 9.2 seconds, 15.000’ in 18.8 and had a maximum height of 22,000’. An optical height and rangefinder enabled deflection to be calculated mechanically and graphically. By the end of the war, the Wilson-Dalby tracker added more sophistication, with a rudimentary electronic computer.

[pic] QF 3 inch 20 cwt AA gun on HMS Royal Oak

By the end of the war, the sheer number of guns (variously reported between 286 and 402 AA guns, plus 387 searchlights) was sufficient to break up the daytime attacks and German raids had to be made at night to get past. The AA sites in my report are not comprehensive; accounts of raids often mention AA fire, perhaps from lorry-mounted guns, that does not match the sites of the main batteries.

In 1919, only 8 guns & lights remained; in 1920 all the AA defences were disbanded. It had been, after all, the war to end all wars…

Ballons & Airships

Although by 1915 the RFC had largely taken over command of the RNAS balloon units, airships were regarded as the responsibility of the RNAS.

Kite balloon baskets typically had a floor area of 20 square feet, lined with canvas. The equipment list for deployment on the front was extensive:

Stratoscope to determine true altitude

Hand anemometer

Thermometer

Map board

Telephone and batteries

Parachutes

Six different maps in varying scale and detail

Scale ruler

Three pairs of binoculars, of various powers, one with marked artillery scale, plus cleaning chamois

Hard pencils, notepads, erasers, & for emergency use:

Spare telephone capsules

1,500ft telephone wire

Signals table (in event of telephone failure)

Weighted message bags with streamers

1/2000,000 map for navigation if the balloon broke away.

The ill-effects of swift descents from high altitude, plus the temporary deafness that all experienced when forgetting to keep their mouths open during descent, could be alarming for a new crews. Training began in a captive balloon, sent to 500’ to ‘look for Zeppelins’. Later, the Probationary Flying Officers had to make six cross-country flights in the 8’ basket of a spherical balloon filled with coal-gas.

The Royal Navy had eleven balloon stations to provide convoy protection & U-boat spotting. A vaariety of vessels was equipped with winches.

The first airships were all non-rigids and formed a significant part of the strength of the RNAS. Within four years there were twenty-seven British bases. The early Parsevals provided top cover for troopships from Dover but carried no armaments. The SS (‘Sea Scout’ or ‘Submarine Scout’) types all carried a Lewis gun and a bomb load. Much later in the war, tests were made to reintroduce rigid airships. One was the R.23, a very different machine from the norm: 535’ long with a gas capacity of 942,000 cu.ft, top speed of 52 mph and ceiling of 3,000’. Successful trials in 1918 air-launched a pair of Sopwith Camels. The crew numbered 17 & had four 100lb bombs. The Vickers employee in charge of the tests was Neville Barnes Wallis.

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Kite balloon rising from The City of Oxford

Aeroplanes

In 1912, the first Air Committee Meeting made detailed proposals for aviation strategy; much of this became reality.

“In some cases it may be advantageous to join with the War Office, for instance in procuring land at a place where the Navy and Army both require an Aircraft Station, or in asking the War Office to lend fliers to the Naval Wing; but in general it is considered that Naval Aircraft duties should be undertaken by the Naval Wing of the R.F.C. and be entrusted to no one else.

The purely naval duties of air craft are principally:-

1.   Distant reconnaissance work with the fleet at sea.

2.   Reconnaissance work off the enemy’s coast, working from detached cruisers or special aeroplane ships.

3.   Assisting destroyers to detect and destroy submarines.

4.   Detecting mine layers at work of mines already laid.

5.   Locating hostile craft in waters which have to be kept clear for our war and merchant vessels.

6.   Assisting submarines in their look out for vessels to attack.

7.   Screening our fleets and harbours from observation by hostile aircraft by attacking the latter.

8.   Preventing attacks on Dockyards, Magazines, Oil Storage Tanks, etc. by hostile aircraft.

It is evident that a large amount of this work will be carried out over waters within 100 miles from our coasts, and it will be necessary to establish a regular chain of stations for naval aircraft along our coasts, within a few hours flight of each other.

These stations will be of assistance to aircraft working with the fleet at sea, as they may at any time be forced to return to shore, or for aircraft to depart from when proceeding to join up with the fleet, also if large Hydro-aeroplanes develop these machines will work solely from coast stations as their bases.

In addition, for the more distant work, aeroplanes will have to work from Battleships, Cruisers or from special aeroplane ships.  These latter craft will also transport aeroplanes to the seagoing squadrons and to the aeroplane stations along the coast.”

As the RFC deployed with the BEF, the only home defence was the RNAS. The RFC boasted all of 63 aircraft, compared with the 260 of Germany. At start of war, the RNAS mustered 39 aeroplanes, 52 seaplanes and 7 airships, although statistics vary between sources. In 1913, there were bases at Calshot, the Isle of Grain, Harwich & Yarmouth.

Patrol aircraft were vulnerable to attack by enemy fighters and as the Zeppelin raids increased, aircraft were developed also as fighters, both at sea and defending London. Both the RFC and RNAS undertook significant reorganisation to adapt to the changes in warfare, so Depot Squadrons became Night Training Squadrons and Home Defence squadrons termed ‘service squadrons’ in most of the southern wings. The role of airships were to search for enemy submarines.

Early in 1914, RNAS principal naval air stations were at Eastchurch, Isle of Grain, Felixstowe, Calshot, Yarmouth, Kingsnorth, Farnborough & Fort Laing.

The first bomb to be dropped on the UK fell on Taswell St, Dover on Christmas Eve, 1914, following a harmless, similar visit on 21st, both by floatplanes. Concerted raids on the UK by Zeppelins were authorised by the Kaiser on 9th January 1915 - but not on Central London. By 1918, some 9000 bombs had been dropped, from 51 airships and 52 aeroplanes.

Early trials were made at Eastchurch in 1914 to fit aircraft with wireless transmitters, although it wasn’t until 1917 that these became operational & not fully exploited even then. As the war became more intense, the RNAS became busier with U-boats and in January 1916, the RFC took over responsibility for Home Defence. Additonal landing grounds were proposed and categorised:

1st Class: Landings possible in most directions, on a good surface free of obstacles.

2nd Class: Landings possible in most directions, but surafces might be irregular in places and obstacles on some approaches. This could prevent flares being laid in certain positions.

3rd Class: Landings usually only possible in two directions but were kept on as they might be the only site in a region. As these were marked by a different number of flares, pilots usually chose them only in an emergency.

An early graduate of the RFC flight school, Louis Strange, began flying combat missions having completed only three and a half hours of actual flying time. Strange had the idea of attaching the bombs to racks on the wings, and dropping them by pulling a release wire. He successfully tried this out on his BE2c in March of 1915.

The Ranken dart was used from 1916 against airships, but discontinued when aircraft were armed with Lewis and Vickers guns.

Temporary Captain William Leefe Robinson was the first pilot to shoot down an airship, SL11, on 2nd September 1916. His BE2c had a service ceiling of 10,000’, but he coaxed it to nearly 13,000’ to do so. His very modest account, omitting the flames licking his leather jacket, did nothing to prevent his instant status of hero – and recipient of the VC.

In 1917, Gotha bombers, operating from Belgium, gave increased threat and great loss of life in the south of England. The Zeppelins still threatened the north. Defence meant ‘standing patrols’, expensive on crew and resources. Throughout though, HD was subject to large and small reorganisation, plus rivalries between the RFC and RNAS and then in the formation of the RAF. Nevertheless, by the time of the Armistice, the organisation, particularly of training, was comprehensively addressed. Meanwhile, the toll on the ground, though numerically small in the whole war, had been largely civilian. For the UK population, the 159 attacks from the air had killed 1,412 people and wounded 3,408; one might add the deaths in training & from such events as explosions in munitions factories. It was a bloody defence.

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The Aeroplane

G-TECC is a 1946 Aeronca Champ, mine since 2003. Despite needing much TLC, she kept on going until it was obvious an engine overhaul was required. A gradual programme of other renovation was also underway, but in 2008, an engine failure (100 hrs post overhaul) meant a field landing, when a pre-existing crack in the starboard gear spoiled an otherwise textbook arrival. The engine failure was traced to a loosening clamp on the spider that had allowed a lean cut. There was no question of giving her up, so I bought back the economic write-off from the insurance company when the local wood & fabric guru agreed to rebuild her. The interim was spent in a Jodel, which was renamed Temporary Champ.

Since her triumphant return in 2011, better than factory new, we have flown the best part of another thousand hours together.

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The Crew

Captain F H Farnham represents the RFC’s finest. Tacitly agreeing to step down to Observer for this mission, he has seen more of the country than he ever would have in service. Not having to lift and operate heavy cameras and plates was welcomed, although he was in constant demand to lend moral fibre to the rest of the crew.

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I (Nic) started flying in 1985, in gliders. I wasn’t the kid with the nose against the fence, I didn’t make Airfix models, I didn’t look skyward when aircraft flew overhead and I didn’t even start gliding with any great enthusiasm, let alone experience the ‘wow factor’. It was a diversion that occurred somewhat accidentally when my frustrated wannabe flyer father joined the gliding club. Most people had a progress sheet. I had a regress sheet. It was a long and slow slog that eventually led to solo and, equally slowly, to part ownership of a Slingsby Swallow (the flying tea chest, so we became the Earl Grey Syndicate). A lovely Polish Mucha followed, as the slow burn of obsession started. I learned that a winch launch was a huge wow for many, when, as an AEI, I got to introduce people to flying. I have also spent many hours in America where a good friend and mentor encouraged me to become a FAA certified gliding instructor and she was responsible for my first powered flight, which led to motor gliding and sole ownerwhip of a Scheibe Falke T61A, which led to the Tiger Club and flying the Cub and that led to meeting my partner, Richard.

Buying the Champ changed everything. Together, in loose formation, Richard & I went to fly-ins, toured France, reached Denmark for the KZ Rally and Tannheim for Tannkosh. We fly a great deal together and with neither of us working now we can try to support more of the flying causes close to our hearts. The Champ is neither fast nor fancy. I’m no ace of the base, preferring to enjoy the view at a speed still faster than my brain. I am fortunate to have found the aeroplane I love. ‘CC and I are married now. She gave me an O ring and I give her all my money.

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