NHER 42483 (Monument record) - World War Two Diver Strip Anti-Aircraft Battery, Warren Farm, Gorleston Golf Links

February 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The World War Two Diver Strip Anti-Aircraft Battery is visible on aerial photographs from 1945 near Warren Farm, Gorleston Golf Links (S1-S2). The site is centred on TG 5315 0078. The site consists of a row of four Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) gun emplacements and associated military structures and huts. This HAA battery forms part of the Diver Strip deployment of guns, which was planned as part Operation Diver. This operation and was set up in mid 1944 to counteract the V1 flying-bomb attacks and ceased to run on the 29th March 1945, when bombing stopped.

Operation Diver commenced mid June 1944 when the first flying bomb attacks on London occurred, this resulted in a strip of temporary Anti-Aircraft batteries being erected in Kent and Sussex; the Kentish Gun Belt (S4: p6). In July these guns were moved to the South Coast forming a Coastal Gun Belt. On September 22nd 1944 orders were issued to re-deploy these guns and to extent this gun deployment to the East Coast, forming the Diver Strip. This ran from the Gun Defended Area (GDA) at Great Yarmouth in the north and Clacton in the south (S4: p8). A total of 85 HAA sites were erected along the Diver Strip, some of which were adaptations of existing HAA sites along the coast, such as at West Caister to the north (NHER 27272) and others, such as this one, which were completely new batteries (S4: p87). Only 85 sites were built out of the 163 planned and many of these were extremely temporary in nature. A further 39 sites were erected as part of the Diver Fringe, which ran along the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Coast. These were all constructed between September 1944 and February 1945 and the programme closed down on 29th March 1945, when bombing ceased (S4: p10).

The first aerial photographs that show the Diver HAA battery on Gorleston Golf Links are dated 26th August 1945 (S1). The battery relates to orders dated 18th-21st September 1944, when three batteries were ordered for the Yarmouth and Lowestoft area (S4: p87). The arrangement of the row of gun emplacements and the associated magazines and huts indicates that the battery was conceived as being for 6 guns, but only four were ever installed. The two end emplacements do not show signs of ever having had a gun mounted in the centre. The emplacements are all placed in a straight line and this could indicate a very early deployment of the site, as from 23rd September is was ordered that the two flank guns should be proud of the central guns to allow low angles of engagement (S4): pp91-3). So it is possible that the Warren Farm Anti-Aircraft battery had already been constructed in-between 18th and 23rd September or alternatively that the new design order was ignored.

This Diver site is referred to in military records as ‘YH2’ ((S4) p245) and the grid reference given corresponds with the conventional Heavy Anti Aircraft known by this name 1.8km to the north (NHER 32668). This was presumably a 'parent' site, or at least had some kind of relationship with the Diver site.

The battery was operated by the 484th battery of the 139th Regiment within the 63rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade and was equipped with four to six static 3.7-inch HAA guns on Mk IIc mountings (S4: p245). These mountings were possibly placed upon pile platforms, a lattice arrangement of rails or sleepers, then filled with ballast to create a new ground surface, onto which the gun was anchored (S4: figure 10). Although in August 1945, a possible stepped ground surface may be visible to either side of the gun, it does not give the impression of being a static mounting (S1). Also each gun appears to be located to the immediate east of a regular and square surface of either cleared or freshly placed material, probably hardcore, surrounded by an arrangement of short curved-profile huts, which are assumed to be magazines and ammunition stores for the guns. Although no holdfast is visible within the centre of these square surfaces, it seems most likely that theses represent the static gun positions. It is possible that the guns visible in August 1945 are on mobile mountings or above ground pile platforms (S1). Behind each of the six gun emplacements and ammunition stores is a curved-profile hut, 5m by 2.5m, it is possible that this is a ‘relaxed duty crew shelter’.

The large curved-profile hut or nissen hut, 11m by 5m, located at TG 5314 0079, probably acted as the command post for the guns, as this is central to the gun strip and on the main surfaced track leading to the guns. Also on this main track is the ‘tracker tower’ at TG 5314 0079. This is a concrete construction, measuring 7.5m by 3m, with an external stairway leading to the top of the tower (S1). Between August and September 1945 an additional rectangular structure was constructed or placed against the front of the tracker tower (S2). Next to this tracker tower at TG 5316 0074 is a rectangular structure, 7m by 2.5m with a central aerial or mast projecting out of the roof of the building. An identical structure is located 105m to the north at TG 5313 0084. Both are angled inwards towards the primary bearing of the centre of the gun strip. This site is known to have utilised ‘AA No 3 Mk V’, the American SCR 584 radar equipment and a BTL 1+ predictor (S4: p245). In front of the southern radar is a curvilinear mark, 100m long, in the ground surface, defining a semi-circle approximately 40m in radius. A smaller arc of similar positioning is visible in front of the northern radar. This is likely to be the remaining traces of a radar or ‘clutter’ screen made from wire mesh netting. Either side of both radar structures is a further pole or mast, standing on a tripod or similar support.

A variety of other huts, both pitched-roofed and curved-profile, are visible to the rear of the site. Many of the curved-profile huts appear to be small asbestos huts. One, possibly two, of these huts would have housed generators. The elongated narrow curved-profile hut, 17.5m by 3m, at the south end of the site at TG 5316 0066, may have been an on-site magazine. The other huts would probably have been used for a variety of purposes, such as accommodation, dining hut, latrines and equipment stores. A group of circular tents are also visible at TG 5310 0084.
S. Massey (NMP), 08 February 2006.