251
The Stanley Battery
The 9.2 inch three gun battery at Stanley Fort was probably one of the most modern of its kind in 1937 in spite of the fact that the guns were second-hand, having come from the batteries at Devil's Peak and Mount Davis. The Mark X 9.2 inch 28 ton Breech Loader was the premier coast defence gun at that time and was used extensively in all major defences. In the UK it was sometimes railway-mounted so that it could be moved about together with its ammunition wagon. Rail-mounted guns, before being fired, had to be secured with heavy iron guys known as chain pickets to stop them toppling over from the force of their recoil. In fixed guns like those at Stanley Fort, the recoil was absorbed by a spring accumulator mounted to the rear of the gun. The Mark X had been developed from the Mark IX in 1899. It had a single motion breech mechanism with an electrical or percussion firing mechanism. Its maximum range was 29,200 yards, which meant that the upper gun at Stanley, which was mounted on a traverser, could reach targets in Kowloon and also the Lema Islands to the south of Hong Kong.
The weight of the Mark X B.L. including breech assembly was 28 tons, and the weight of the cradle mounting nearly 130 tons. As previously explained, the guns were transported from their old batteries by sea, as the roads would not have supported such heavy axle loads. The transportation of the guns and the construction of their huge concrete bases would have been carried out by civilian contractors, but the actual installation of the guns would have been undertaken by the Royal Artillery using a special portal crane known as a gantry crane. The installed guns would have been disguised with huge camouflage nets draped over them, and protected from the weather when not in use by canvas tarpaulins. The concrete gunhouses built over the two lower guns by the Japanese were probably not bombproof casemates and would only have given the gunners protection from the weather and from strafing by enemy fighters. Judging by old photographs of the gunhouses, the arc of fire must have been severely restricted.
The Stanley Battery, situated at the south-east corner of the peninsula, was made up of three gun emplacements and a large number of magazines, bunkers, and other battery support buildings spread over a fairly wide area. Most of these structures are still in existence.
Page 285
Page 286