Winnie & Pooh.

This is coolbert:

Interesting program on Public Broadcast Television the other day.

Part of the continuing series from England called, "In the Trenches".

Young, in their twenties British archaeologists tour England and visits sites and locations of military action, historical and recent, throughout the centuries. Attempt to unearth relics and evidence of military action.

This most recent episode of the continuing series dealt with an anachronism of modern warfare, coastal artillery. It used to be that every self respecting nation had batteries of large artillery protecting vulnerable sea ports and stretches of coastline considered to be vital.

The large firing pieces employed in coastal artillery batteries were indeed of immense size. The type as only normally found on battleships of the largest size. Big bore artillery. 14", 15", and 16" guns being common. As was noted earlier, coast artillery has been made an anachronism, supplanted by missiles and combat aircraft.

[it may very well be that these big bore coastal artillery pieces are identical to the guns used on battleships. Made by the same folks but NOT in these cases mounted on ships. This was the case in World War Two [WW2] for the United States too. There are several islands in Boston harbor that mounted 16" coastal artillery pieces during WW2. And the guns on the sunken battleship Arizona were raised and mounted in turrets on one of the Hawaiian islands, perhaps Oahu, to serve as coastal artillery. Quite an ado was made at the time that these guns had been salvaged and had actually fired test rounds. Were never actually used in combat however.]

This particular PBS episode of the "In the Trenches" was entitled "The Battle of the Big Guns". The battery/counter-battery big gun coastal artillery duel that went on for four years between German and British firing positions opposite on another and the narrowest point of the English channel. From the white cliffs of Dover to the French side of the channel, at the Pas de Calais.

Immediately after the end of the Battle of France in 1940, one of the first things the Germans did was to install four large coastal artillery pieces aimed in the direction of Dover. Guns that would be able to impede and sink and make it prohibitive for British shipping to transit the channel at that point. A passage way for British shipping that still was of importance.

To answer this German threat, the British constructed the "Winnie" firing position.

A 14" naval gun to be used as coastal artillery. This gun, later joined by a second gun called "Pooh", would respond to the fire of the four German guns directed at British ships in the channel. Attempt what is called counter-battery fire to knock out the German guns.

To service this original "Winnie" gun required two sets of railroad tracks to be laid, along with an entire panoply of supporting combat arms for protection. Anti-aircraft-artillery [AAA], minefields, machinegun nests, barbed wire emplacements all were needed to protect this one "Winnie" gun. Along with the crew actually involved in the firing of the gun itself, there was a large manpower force required just to support the gun, not counting service support as represented by the railroad lines, bringing supplies, munitions, etc.

Just to keep this one gun in service and firing counter-battery fire was a major undertaking in itself.

The original "Winnie" and "Pooh" were later joined by two larger, more robust coastal artillery pieces of the British. These were 15" guns with 180 degree traverse, more versatile and longer-ranging that "Winnie" and "Pooh". Called "Jane" and "Clem". "Jane" was named after a risque adult comic book character of the era, and "Clem" was undoubtedly named after the daughter of Churchill, Clementine.

"Jane" and "Clem" had the mission of firing at GERMAN shipping trying to transit the channel. These two guns were NOT used in counter-battery fire.

Just to build "Jane" from scratch took nine months alone! And this in a time of war too, when things were normally rushed at high speed toward completion. Again, just getting these coastal artillery guns up and firing and maintaining them in operational status was a major undertaking!

As for the archaeologists attempting to uncover evidence of these large guns?

It was surprising that so little is left of what was not so long ago, sixty years now, a major undertaking.

Unless you knew exactly where to look, and these young archaeologists did know where to look, you would be hard pressed to EVEN KNOW that these gun firing positions had even existed.

 In the years since the battery of "Winnie" and "Pooh" has been dismantled, it seems that almost nothing remains.

The land has returned to nature or farmland.

Digging with a backhoe IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO DIG will uncover say a AAA emplacement or a protective trench line. But that is about it.

With "Jane" and "Clem", all that remains is a pile of cracking and broken apart concrete overgrown with grass and weeds. YOU KNOW something was there, but again, if you did not know exactly what it was, you probably would not even have a clue as to WHAT it was.

And as to the effectiveness of such guns, both English AND German, I have my doubts. I would have to see some statistics:

As to the number of ships transiting the channel that were sunk or damaged.

And.

The degree as to the effectiveness of "Winnie" and "Pooh" in counter-battery fire, etc.

I have an intuitive feeling that much of that anti-ship artillery fire and counter-battery was for naught. Just was not effective. MORE for a show than anything else. I am just not sure, but that is my intuition.

This would seem to be the case when one realizes that it was not until the summer of 1944 that those four German coastal artillery pieces were put out of action. And that by a ground assault from Canadian troops that had landed several months earlier at Normandy. It would seem that the counter-battery fire of "Winnie"and "Pooh" DID NOT stop the German guns AT ALL during a four year period!!

This seems to be a case similar to that of the German WW2 big gun "DORA". The biggest artillery piece ever made. Required a four thousand [4000] man troop just to service the gun. DID see limited action on the eastern front with very good results. But if you were to take those 4000 troops and form them into conventional artillery batteries [companies], you would have about twenty [20] batteries of six guns each. That is one hundred twenty [120] guns that could be employed in a more effective manner.

"Winnie" and "Pooh" seem to be a case of, "the enemy has them, so we must have them too", regardless of whether they are effective or not!!

coolbert.