WW2 anti-aircraft gun sites in locality

[jim_the_chin]

Can?t seem to find an online resource for locations in London. Anyone know of one or have local knowledge?

Prompted by seeing the name ?gun site allotments? on a map near the scout camp.

[alex_b]

Most obvious one is at the top of One Tree Hill. There is a plaque there next to the concrete base.

[RichH]

The One Tree Hill emplacement dates to WW1. I'm not sure if it was used for that purpose during WW2.

There's a map of heavy anti-aircraft gun emplacements here:

http://www.anti-aircraft.co.uk/HAA_gun_sites_map.html

Not the best map in the world perhaps but a useful resource nonetheless. They also have similar maps of airfields, radar stations and Bloodhound missile sites.

[exdulwicher]

There's a good site in Isle of Dogs (Mudchute Farm) which has several surviving concrete emplacements and a restored battery there as a memorial to the area.

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2013/03/05/a-restored-ww2-anti-aircraft-gun-by-canary-wharf/

There's a huge site at Crayford Marshes in Bexley as well, just the remains of the concrete emplacements, shelters etc.

[Penguin68]

The One Tree Hill emplacement is too small for the WWII 3.7 inch gun, a fairly standard 'small' AA gun. There is an interesting quote I have found on AA use:-

""It isn't easy to shoot down a plane with an anti-aircraft gun...In stead of sitting still, the target is moving at anything up to 300 m.p.h. with the ability to alter course left or right, up or down. If the target is flying high it may take 20 or 30 seconds for the shell to reach it, and the gun must be laid a corresponding distance ahead. Moreover the range must be determined so that the fuse can be set, and above all, this must be done continuously so that the gun is always laid in the right direction. When you are ready to fire, the plane, though its engines sound immediately overhead, is actually two miles away. And to hit it with a shell at that great height the gunners may have to aim at a point two miles farther still. Then, if the raider does not alter course or height, as it naturally does when under fire, the climbing shell and the bomber will meet. In other words the raider, which is heard overhead at the Crystal Palace, is in fact at that moment over Dulwich; and the shell which is fired at the Crystal Palace must go to Parliament Square to hit it."

Which may be locally relevant and suggest Crystal Palace as an AA site.

[Lynne]

There was a battery, I believe, somewhere on Peckham Rye and a gun site at the top of Grange Lane which, I imagine is now the Gunsite allotments

[creditwheredue]

I?ve often wondered if those concrete rafts by the lake in Belair are also emplacements.

[Rockets]

Wasn't there one on Dawson's Hill too?

[mac4]

Whilst not containing a list of all AA sites I recommend the book Ack-Ack by General Sir Frederick Pile who was General Officer commanding our Anti-aircraft defences in WWII. He was unusual in that he remained doing the same job for the whole of the war (ie never got sacked or moved on) so his book is an authoritative and interesting read.

[Townleygreen]

There was one at the junction of Townley and Calton, on what is now Alleyn's Memorial Garden.

[Ruskin]

I've read of one near us - where the Dulwich Art Club now has its hut, at the rear of the Fox on Champion Hill. Would have made sense because of its height and seclusion.