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2025 WMDC
HAA Aircraft Battery Bristol B7
During WWII, hundreds AA Batteries, or anti-aircraft batteries, were built to protect cities and critical infrastructure around the country against aerial attacks. Utilising different types of guns and in conjunction with radar, they played a critical role in the defence of the country. Here we focus on Bristol B7.
Aerial view of Battery B7 (Top left, corner of Ridgeway Lane/Whitchurch Lane) - 26th April 1947
B7 was established in 1941, taking up a strategic position covering the South of Bristol and Whitchurch Airport. It originally mounted four 3.7-inch mobile guns with GL (Gun Laying) Radar, which were converted to static guns with GL Mark II Radar in 1942. An additional mobile gun was added in 1943. It was manned by 349th Battery of the 76th Royal Artillery Regiment in 1941 and by the 265th Battery of the 59th Royal Artillery Regiment after June 1942. By October 1942, it was manned by the Home Guard.
Layout
Most HAA gun positions followed a similar layout with four gun pits centred around the Command Bunker. The guns were linked to the magazines by a concrete track and there would have been a reinforced concrete/brick wall around the pit to protect the guns and gunners with a blast mound around the outside. Around each octagonal pit were ammunition magazines with doors, each containing rounds that had already been fused at different altitudes, in order to save time. The site Magazines, Operations room and Command Bunker were built half underground with the excavated material used to make the blast mound. There were also shelters around the perimeter to house the gun crews. At the entrance to the gun pits were a pair of armour-plated doors.
BRISTOL B6 Anti-aircraft battery, purdown bristol
This more recent aerial photograph shows the remains of the battery at Purdown, Bristol which gives a good example of the layout used.
The Crew
The crew of an anti-aircraft battery consists of 10 men with the following roles:
No.1 Gun Commander
No.2 Layer for Line
No.3 Layer for Elevation
No.4 Fuze Dial Number
No.5 Breech Operator
No.6 Rammer
No.7 Loader
No.8 Loader
No.9 Fuze Setter Operator
No. 10 Ammunition Supplier
The number was reduced to 7 after the introduction of the automatic fuse.
3.7-inch gun with travelling carriage - HYDE PARK, london 19
The Gun
There were two versions of the gun produced, one with a wheeled carriage for use in batteries or in the field (MK I or MK III) with the wheels being lifted for firing (above). The other was transported on a platform with detachable wheels for the guns to be used in static positions (MK II), but which still made it possible to move them (title picture). In both cases, the guns could rotate 360 degrees and provided elevation up to 80 degrees.
The guns fired HE (high explosive) Shells or the Shrapnel Shells for use against low flying aircraft which were both fitted with a timed fuze of either 30 seconds or 43 seconds depending on the shell used.
The effective ceiling for the gun (optimal firing distance) depended on the fuse length however it started at 23,500 feet and rose to 43000 feet (MK VI) with advances in technology. They could fire between 8 - 10 rounds per minute if being loaded by hand and between 19 - 25 rounds per minute with the later development of automatic fuses.
Ammunition
This diagram shows the composition of a HE Shell, including the fuze at the cone. The shells were designed to produce fragments (shrapnel) to maximise damage to enemy aircraft. Each projectile weighing around 28lb.
The Fuze
This is an example of the fuze of the shell where you can clearer see the timer mechanism.
bristol evenening post - 15th May 1985
Do we know who was stationed at the B7 HAA Battery?
The only evidence we can currently find of the names and/or photographs of who was stationed at Whitchurch comes thanks to this newspaper article and a letter by Major JEB Rippingale who served there during the war with his comrades Ted Tarrant and Sid Phipps who is pictured, extreme left. They were stationed at the gun site during some of the hardest bombing raids on Bristol.
What evidence exists today?
The site of B7 Anti-aircraft battery is no longer visible due to housing development in the 1950s. It would have been in the area of what is now Allerton Crescent.
Fun on the Old Gun Site
This article from the Bristol Evening Post, dated 24th August 1991 describes children playing on the site in the years directly after the war.
shrapnel & parts of the fuze
Detecting around Whitchurch
Due to the proximity of B7 to Whitchurch, it is very common for us to find pieces of shrapnel and even parts of the fuze from the shells fired by the AA guns. There has not been a location we have detected where we haven't found any. This is a small selection of the pieces we have found, many still razor sharp. It is a stark reminder of the war and we can only imagine how terrifying it must have been for residents hearing the sound of the air-raid sirens, the blackout, the hum of the aircraft approaching and then the deafening boom of the guns firing, explosions and sound of metal "rain" as the shrapnel and pieces of airplane fall to the ground. Speaking to some residents who were children during the war, they can remember picking up pieces of shrapnel from the streets after each raid.