NHER 42484 (Monument record) - Possible World War Two decoy coastal battery

March 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The site of a possible World War Two decoy coastal battery is visible on aerial photographs as two large, but unused, gun houses located along the cliffs at Hopton-on-Sea (S1-S2). These guns are unusual in the lack of proper camouflage, accompanying structures or signs of recent activity around them and were therefore interpreted as being possible decoys. A pair of dummy guns has been recorded as having stood on the Gorleston cliffs (S3: p 44) and although these guns are in Hopton-on-Sea parish, they are to the immediate south of Gorleston golf course, which could have caused some confusion in the recorded parish name. This possible bombing decoy is located within the perimeter defences of the actual Hopton-on-Sea Coastal Battery (NHER 42486). More signs of recent use would be expected in such close proximity to a training area and battery. However it would be highly unusual to locate a bombing decoy in such close proximity to the real target. Therefore it must be assumed that if the site is a decoy then it must pre-date the construction of the real battery in 1941. This decoy may have been for the earlier Gorleston Coastal Battery, 1.9m km to the north (NHER 42473). However this is much closer than the recommended 10.97km spacing (S4: p102). Although this was a national guideline, which may not take into account the closer spacing of the real Coastal Battery sites on the Eastern Command. These are frequently closer than 10.97km and therefore the decoy sites would also have needed to be closer. A similar pair of ‘unaccompanied’ guns has been recorded as a possible decoy coastal battery site at Winterton (NHER 42499) and these are approximately 1km from the real Winterton Battery (NHER 35863).

The two large gun houses are centred on TG 5346 0015 and are 165m apart, one at TG 5349 0007 and another at TG 5344 0023. These are both shaped like a half-decahedrons and are 10-12m wide at the front face. These have the appearance of being concrete or masonry. These gun houses appear to no associated structures, magazines or shelters. There are structures nearby on the cliffs, recorded under NHER 42486, although nothing that appears to be clearly associated. In July 1944 the northern emplacement has a slight trackway leading to it (S1), although there are no signs of levels of activity and movement that is usually characteristic of guns of this size. In October 1945 (S2) the casemate has no roof and appears to be an empty shell, with no sign of any internal fixtures or holdfasts. The southern emplacement shows no signs of active use on any of the aerial photographs, although it does look slightly more camouflaged than the northern emplacement. The gun houses are comparable in size with those constructed for the coastal 6-inch guns to the north. It would be unusual to have two pairs of guns of this size at one site. It is possible that the position of the battery was altered slightly to the north, although given the usual lack of materials it seems unlikely that the old casemates would have been left in place and not dismantled. All surface trace of these gun houses has gone by 1952 (S6).

The main coastal battery was constructed during 1941, although there is no sign of this on only available aerial photographs, dating to February 1941 (S5). The possible decoy guns and the actual battery site are both only visible in aerial photographs from 1944, so it is hard to decipher the chronological relationship between the two sets of guns. A decoy would not have been built so close to a real battery, so if these isolated gun houses are dummies then they must date to 1941, but before the actual battery was completed. Military guidance also suggested that the decoy batteries were placed within the vicinity of troops on defence duties and to combine the real living accommodation with the fake battery to make it look used (S4: p 103). It is possible that these decoy guns were placed next to the military camp at the holiday village to achieve this aim. The holiday camp may have ceased to be a military training camp by the time the guns, real or fake, were constructed as the chalets are removed in-between August 1940 and February 1941, see NHER 42486 for details.
S. Massey (NMP), 06 March 2006.