Thursday 27 February 2020

Godley Head GUNS .. 'JOKE' Spelt with a G Continues:

"First chance to see restored guns at defence battery"    - Jess Gibson      26 February 2020

 What Guns ? - Is this 21st Century  STAR*NEWS    FAKE NEWS Reporting? 

 .. The guns are said to have continued in use for training right up until the late '50s when they were finally reduced to scrap metal and exported to Japan - but IMAGES of these BL Mk. XXIV guns are not to be found .

NO GUNS .. But replacement Graffiti - After Spending $140,000 - to Have Graffiti Removed:

- When in 1878 New Zealand became paranoid about the RUSSIANS - Governor Jervois, a military engineer in a previous career, bought 22 x Rifled Muzzle Loading guns for installation around the coastline. 
NONE of these was installed at Godley Head .. the idea was mooted - but it wasn’t until 1937 after Hitler re-armed Germany in 1933 .. approval was finally given for the construction of gun emplacements there.
- Although 2,000  -  3,000 military personnel are claimed as being posted on windswept Godley Head .. plus Home Guard units - No use of these last three Mk. XXIV guns is ever reported.

In 1938 a Major Edmey, of the British Army carried out a survey of the defences of the major ports. In consequence of this visit it was decided to position a coastal defence battery on Godley Head - that had been reserved for military purposes since 1851. Later that year work began on improving road access to the head.
The battery was to be at the tip of the headland where it commanded the best view of the approaches to the harbour. In July of 1939 Cabinet voted finance for the construction of fortifications and work began immediately. - While the construction work was in progress, a temporary battery known as Taylor Battery was sited on the small promontory on the Northern side of the headland.
 In September 1939, some 60 pound field guns of 1818 vintage were resurrected from Burnham Camp and positioned at Taylor Battery.
121 Year OLD & Obsolete 60 Pounders Dumped 
Re-Located From Burnham Camp In 1939.

The two gun emplacements at Godley Battery, - the search light emplacements, observation posts, engine rooms, plotting and buildings necessary for the operation of a coastal defence battery were largely completed by early 1940.
 - However, difficulty in obtaining the new weapons necessitated the continued placement of the obsolete 60 pounder field pieces.
In July 1941 the British Admiralty lent New Zealand several ex-naval 6" Mk VII guns, two of which are said to have been mounted on emplacements at Taylors Battery, as replacements for the ancient 60 pounder artillery pieces.

6 Inch Taylor Battery Mk VII.
 Later in December of that same year 1941 - two 6" Mk XXIV guns were supposedly mounted at Godley Battery - the Mk VIIs being moved to Queen Charlotte Sound. - A third Mk XXIV was said to have been added in 1946. (Japan had surrendered earlier on August 14, 1945 ).

In addition to the artillery pieces. Godley Head was equipped with radar, a radio transmitter and a signal station - for identifying and "controlling" the passage of ships .. and later in the war as an aid to gun laying. Much of this equipment was operated by WAACs who arrived at Godley Head in August 1942 and who lived in huts to the north of the parade ground.

In order to defend the battery against a sea borne invasion, the land east of Mt Pleasant was declared a fortress area. - Despite the very steep nature of the Godley Head bluffs and cliffs - the Home Guard set up tank traps - and entanglements along the beaches beneath the cliffs.

 - and on Godley Head itself several anti-aircraft Bofors and machine gun nests were positioned with associated slit trenches. The remains of this activity are still visible today, especially around the hill behind the camp.
A Bofors AA Gun:
None of the guns that are said to have been installed saw enemy action. - in June 1941 a German mine-layer, " Adjutant", laid a pattern of 10 mines at the mouth of Lyttelton Harbour, under cover of night before being scuttled only days later on 1 July 1941 off the Chatham Islands.

  - Nothing was known of this until four years later when it was revealed in captured German documents. None of the mines has ever been found.
GODLEY HEAD FORTRESS:

At the end of the war the camp closed but it opened again in 1949 for compulsory military training and for territorials. The end of compulsory military training and abandonment of coastal defences in 1958 made Godley Head obsolete .. closing in 1963 and since then it has only been used for occasional exercises.

I had visited the area prior to the two Christchurch earthquakes and there were no guns to be seen anywhere.
No Coastal Guns In Sight - But Four NZ Womens Army Auxilaries 
Sun Bathing At Godley Head  January 1943

Photo by:John Dobree Pascoe

Marty K.

2 comments:

  1. no mention of the unfortunate James Brassell of the fishing boat "Dolphin"?

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