British Fortifications

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THE UNCHANGING FEATURES OF FIXED DEFENCES

We are primarily interested in fixed coastal fortifications, although land forts and batteries are of interest as part of the landward defences of harbours and ports. With odd exceptions, the primary features of fixed defences changed little through history.

Offensive:

Weapons to engage enemy troops and vessels. This was primarily guns, smoothbore until about 1850. Thereafter rifled guns appeared in considerable numbers. Breach loading rifled weapons also appeared about 1885 and these guns had replaced all the other models by 1900.

Defensive:

Protection for these guns, including the use of bombproof or casemated positions, sometimes with armoured shields or turrets.
Prepared fields of fire and range finding equipment to ensure that the enemy could be hit.
Protection for the garrison, casemated and defensible barracks.
Obstacles to impede any enemy attack. In this case of naval vessels this including torpedoes (Brennan, Whitehead), mines and boom defences. To protect from infantry attack, ditches, caponiers and prepared firing positions.

Logistics:

This required within the fortification, secure storage for:

Ammunition, and if possible, a safe distribution method with underground corridors and lifts to the guns.
Water including reservoirs and water catchments.
Food supplies for any siege.
Medical facilities, including adequate hospital accommodation. These were particularly important in the unhealthier posts such as Sierra Leone.
Coal and later oil to run steam engines to power the large guns and general electrics.

Between 1840 and 1914 the development of British fortifications was profoundly influenced by development including the introduction of the following:

Rifled Artillery

Breach Loading Guns

Machine Guns (Gatling)

Standardisation

Steam Power

Electricity

New Propellants

Rang finding Instruments

Concrete for construction

Developments in Metallurgy

British Fortifications

The British saw the introduction of gunpowder artillery in about 1440 and this resulted in some five hundred years of development in fortifications and artillery pieces. This can be split into five basic historical periods as outlined below. Some of the most significant early European developments in artillery took place as a result of the wars with the Ottoman Turks.

Phase I – POST MEDIEVAL

1440 to 1550 when most guns were forged iron and generally of smaller calibre. At this time fortifications still had high walls and rounded towers. Changes were taking place, including specific loopholes so that handguns could be fired from inside the fortification.

Between 1539 and 1547, Henry VIII had a chain of artillery fortifications built along the south coast of England and Wales. This was the first organised artillery fortifications built for coastal defence built in Britain and included for example, Deal Castle and Calshot Castle.

However, by the 17th and 18th Centuries a more simple coastal defence battery had been developed. The most common type of coastal defence was a simple battery with six or less gun on a stone gun platform, often fan shaped. The guns were either behind a parapet, or firing through embrasures, with or without a moat and defensive wall. These simple batteries were replicated in many overseas locations, particularly the Caribbean.

Fort Albert on the Isle of Wight was built between 1852 and 1856 and was one of the last old style gun towers to be built. Similar towers were built in Milford Haven including Stack Rock. For photographs of some earlier artillery fortifications Click here.

Phase 2 – BASTION FORTIFICATIONS

1550 to 1850 with guns now largely of cast iron. Standardisation was starting to take place making guns more efficient. Effective ranges of engagement about 300 metres. Walls are now sunk into the ground with numerous outer works to protect them from artillery fire. Fortification building now a science with intricate outworks, counter mining, and concealed defensive features. For photographs of some bastion fortifications Click here.

Phase 3 – POLYGONAL FORTICATIONS

This period saw the introduction of polygonal shaped fortifications with caponiers and counter-scarp galleries used to provide flanking fire for local defence. This was sometimes called the Prussian system because it was based on a German design. However, the British had already been experimenting with polytonal fortifications and one theory is that they were encouraged by Fort Tigne in Malta.

Between 1850 to 1900 we see the replacement of the old muzzle loading smooth bore artillery with rifled artillery pieces. Initially the smoothbore guns were replaced with muzzle loading (Rifle Muzzle Loader) but by 1885 breech loading artillery was gaining popularity. The effective range of artillery increased initially to some 3,000 metres and by the end of this period to over 10,000 metres. Fortifications were now multi facing, and increasingly dispersed, with many features underground to make them ‘bombproof’. In 1885 the British adopted the Twydall Profile which heralded the arrive of the Dispersal Period. For some examples of Polygonal fortifications Click here

Phase 4 – DISPERSED FORTICATIONS

This period from 1900 to 1950 was dominated by high velocity breech loading guns that could engage targets effectively up to 30,000 metres. Aircraft become a significant factor in warfare. Fortifications are now dispersed and terrain is used to help concealment. Barbed wire, artillery and the machine guns dominate. for photographs of dispersed fortifications Click here.

Phase 5 – NUCLEAR

The introduction of the guided missile and nuclear weapons sees the demise of fixed place artillery. Artillery is now mobile and air delivered ordinance becomes paramount. Fortifications are further dispersed and buried underground for protection. All command and control is now buried deep underground and mobility is regarded as a key to survival for surface units on a nuclear battlefield. For photographs of typical nuclear defences Click here.

The Period 1840 to 1914

For this period of evolution we are primarily interested in 1840 to 1914. This is all the polygonal period and the start of the period of dispersal of fortifications. The British National Archives reference holds a report entitled ‘A summary of the Policy and Work of Coat Fortification in Great Britain during the past 60 years’. This is under reference WO 32/5528.

Coastal fortifications have four basic requirements to be effective and they are that it should be well sited, constructed to high standards. well-armed with guns and have sufficient troops to operate the guns and defend the fortification. The fixed nature of coastal defences means they are cheaper to build and maintain than large warships. Their static nature of coastal fortifications means that full advantage can be taken of modern ranging methods and concentrating fire on known access points. Thus as rifled and breech loading guns were developed, fewer of them would be required to defend a location than had been the case in the days of smoothbore weapons.

Within the United Kingdom we see four distinct phases of development in respect of coastal fortifications.

Royal Commission Forts built primarily in the South and South East of England between 1860 and 1880.

The period 1860 to 1880 neatly coincides with the period when the Rifled Muzzle Loading guns were prominent both on British Warships and in coastal defences. By 1880 the old muscle loading smooth bore guns had largely been replaced.

With the ascendancy of Queen Victoria to the throne in 1837 some improvements were made to coastal defence in the United Kingdom, for example the building of a redoubt or fort at Littlehampton and another at Shoreham. As well as a battery at Rye. These new fortifications would have been recognisable to military engineers from the Napoleonic Wars, a horseshoe shaped battery with buildings to the rear and a defensible wall. Caponiers were also sometime used. Overseas, the British had built Fort Abraham in Crete and had studied the Knights fortifications in Malta which was now under British control. Fort Tigne, one of the later forts built by the Knights appears to have had some influence on the development of the polygonal fortification that was to follow.

In 1859 a Royal Commission was set up with six military and one civilian to examine the defence of specific area on the South Coast of the United Kingdom, the Medway, and Pembroke. They report on the 7^th February 1860 with the recommended new buildings costing six and a half million Pounds at that time. (About £15.5 Million in 2025). Not all the recommendations were accepted but much of the work proceeded and finally cost over eight million Pounds Sterling. The primary sites were Portsmouth, Plymouth, Portland, Thames including the Medway, Dover, Pembroke and Cork. Sir William Drumond Jervois, a Royal Engineer, did much of the design work assisted by Sir F.W. Grey. These fortifications became known collectively as Palmerston Follies after the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. In Portsmouth and Plymouth considerable resources were dedicated to land defences in order to keep enemy guns out of range from the dockyard area. These land front defences were also later replicated in other naval bases such as Malta. Of particular note is the cost of the three sea forts built in Portsmouth and single one in Plymouth. Building the foundations was particularly difficult and costly cost £170 to £460 each.

Defence of Commercial Ports on the East Coast and Coaling Stations abroad between 1880 and 1900.

The period 1880 to 1900 also neatly coincides with the switch from Rifle Muzzle Loading gun to Breech Loading guns. These new guns had a far greater range and higher rate of fire.

The Firth of Forth was identified as possibly being vulnerable to an enemy landing and in 1881 two 10-inch RML Batteries were built to cover the sea approaches. In 1890 the Forth Bridge was completed leading to additional defences on Inchgarvie below the bridge. In 1894 it was recognised that there was a need to provide at least rudimentary coastal defences at the Tees, Hartlepool, Sunderland, the Tay, and Aberdeen. Long Hope Sound in the Orkneys was also identified as a strategic harbour.

On the West Coast of Scotland some proposals were made for the defence of Clyde but this would come about after 1900.

Further expansion between 1900 and 1910 on the East Coast fortifications with the Forth defended. Also anchorages at Berehaven and Lough Swilly in Ireland.

In 1901 the Firth of Forth was acknowledged to be a suitable location for a naval base and in 1903 (the Owen Committee) it was classified as a Class Bas Dockyard Port and Naval Base for the Royal Navy. This required an expansion in the coastal defences on both sides of the Firth of Forth. In Ireland Loch Swilly and Bearehaven were developed as naval anchorages.

East Coast expansion 1910 to 1914 to include Harwich, Humber, Cromarty and Scarpa Flow.

This period saw the further expansion of the Forth defences, two new batteries on the Humber and the development of anchorages at Cromarty and Scapa Flow.