Coastal Guns of Mumbles Head

The geography of Mumbles Hill and its two islands proved an ideal location for siting defences for the town of Swansea five miles away. During the Second World War the Mumbles headland once more confirmed its natural strategic position when, as part of a nationwide system of coastal defences it was fortified with two batteries to protect the ports of Swansea, Briton Ferry and Port Talbot. The Coastal Defence Battery was on Mumbles Hill, the lighthouse island and at the coastguard station on Tutt Head.

Their primary task was to engage and destroy enemy vessels on the Bristol Channel and Swansea Bay. The guns were supported by searchlights situated in emplacements on Lighthouse Island & Tutt Head, which when required, were able to illuminate the sea at night.

Defence against attack from the air, was the task of the Anti-Aircraft Guns of Mumbles Head > Their Heavy Battery was situated at the Thistleboon end of Mumbles Hill.

Typical Coastal Defence 6 inch gun at Horsesands Sea Fort, Solent © IWM (H 4618)

Latest discovery posted by Stephen Evans, January 2023

Removing the scars of War from a South Wales Beauty Spot

Pneumatic drills are used to break up the concrete gun emplacements at Tutt Head, Mumbles, near Swansea. In the background is beautiful Limeslade Bay.

Photo: posted by Stephen Evans, January 2023,

Hand Drawn Wartime Plan
of Tutt Head

They are probably demolishing the items marked PB, on the map below

The map Includes- Personnel Bunkers (BP) , Accommodation for a dozen WRNS (Signals Wrens), War Accommodation for Royal Artillery personnel who also served on the Lighthouse Island, Port War Signal Station (Peacetime Coastguard Station).

Mumbles Local Nature Reserve a largely-deserted peaceful haven

Today, Mumbles Local Nature Reserve is a largely-deserted peaceful haven, overgrown in places, but beautiful nonetheless. This section of the reserve in the photo overlooks Tutt Head and the present Coastguard Station, which closed in the spring of 2015. The old Coastguard station on the same site played an important part in our story.

A great place for a Picnic

We shall explore the wartime gun positions, which had wonderful views over the Bristol Channel, as well as having a glimpse into the life and times of those who served there and on the Lighthouse Island.

Signposts and Interpretation boards have been installed on the site of one of the 6 inch coastal defence gun emplacements and magazines. Mumbles Hill Battery was decommissioned in 1957 and the bunkers and gun emplacements were either removed or covered over. There is now very little visual evidence of the Battery - all that remains is that which is left underground.

Swansea Ramblers Walk -
Mumbles Hill Nature Reserve -

Walk Description >

This trail includes many photos and maps
as well as other walks in the area

NB - Clicking the link takes you away from this website

Walks, Views & History

Map of Mumbles Hill >

A simple Google Map with access to photos

Second World War Remains,
parking, seating and footpaths

NB - Clicking the link takes you away from this website

The Defence sites shown on a Google map, 2016

The new Information Boards are on the site of Coastal Gun Battery (A)

The port of Swansea served the heavy industrial area of South Wales and was the nearest of the large Bristol Channel docks to the Atlantic. Because of its importance Swansea had been included in the pre-war list of ports where fixed defences would be essential in the event of war, although there were none in place when war did break out. By the summer of 1940 the need for defence against both sea and air attacks had become critical.

The defeat and occupation of France in June put Swansea in easy reach from air bases in Normandy and Brittany and there was also a very real fear of a German invasion during that summer or autumn. We now know that, around this time, high altitude reconnaissance photographs were taken by the Luftwaffe of Swansea and its surrounding area.

Mumbles Head Gun-sites and Port War Signal Station

THE DEFENCES AND THE DEFENDERS

Recently discovered Royal Artillery Records > reveal that the Battery was formed in Oct 40, under the command of 21 Coast Artillery Group and in June 41, part of 559 Coast Regiment RA, known after Dec 42 as Mumbles Fire Command. The unit was to be 'Disbanded' in Apr 44 and Decommissioning is shown here later.

During the second world war the fixed artillery defence of the port of Swansea included (after Dec 42) the Coastal Battery of two six-inch guns installed at the eastern end of Mumbles Hill (Battery A) and two 4.7-inch guns on Mumbles lighthouse island (Battery B). The island and the coastguard station on Tutt Head on the opposite side of Bracelet Bay from the lighthouse also had a pair of searchlights each. The battery was in place by November 1940.

Some seven hundred personnel were eventually assigned to make the two batteries operational. These included members of the Royal Artillery, Home Guard, the Women's Royal Naval Service, known to us as the WRENS, as well as several specialist support units. In addition, women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) served in the 623rd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns > which were situated at the Thistleboon end of Mumbles Hill.

559 Coast Regiment RA Mumbles Fire Command

The various units under its command are shown -

From Apr 41 - 298th Battery

From May 42 - 299th Battery

The two 6 inch guns were transported to Mumbles Railway, Pier Station

In June 1940 Newton air raid warden Laurie Latchford (above right) noted in his diary: ‘Two six-inch guns carried on special railway trucks have appeared, and were run to their unloading point at Mumbles Fort, but had to be taken away until special tackle arrived.’

The railway trucks shown in the collage above, owned by the War Department, would have been used to carry the dismantled guns and drawn by a steam locomotive, to the Pier Station on Mumbles Railway, which was connected to Swansea Docks and the National Railway system.

Special equipment did arrive and getting the guns up the hill to the Fort, from the station at the pier cannot have been easy.

Moving the very heavy pedestal into position.

During that hot summer the two breech-loading, ex-naval guns were installed by August 1940 and mounted in their separate concrete emplacements on steel pedestals on Mumbles Hill above Bracelet Bay overlooking the entrance to Swansea Bay.

The 'pedestal' of an assembled 6 inch Gun

When the pedestal is lowered to the floor and bolted into place, the breech assembly, gun shield and barrel can then be fitted.

The team during installation of the barrel

Battery construction projects were often undertaken by a group consisting of a gun-mounting party, experts (wearing boiler suits, on the right) and Royal Artillery gunners (on the left) who would man the guns.

On a closer examination of the working party on gun number Two, the original photo reveals that the expert Sergeant, with a cap, is wearing a jacket and his First World War Medal ribbons.

Sappers from The Royal Engineers led in the construction of the bunkers, underground magazines for the shells and other battery installations, assisted by blasting experts from Norton Quarry who aided with the excavations and other Contract Labour.

Sergeant is wearing his WW1 medal ribbons

They do seem pleased to have installed gun number 2

Pictured in the background overlooking the Bristol Channel are Limeslade Bay, along with Somerset House (now Mumbles Hill House and on private land) is on the right of the panorama, It was reported by local residents that Two Decoy ‘guns’ made from telegraph poles, painted to look like big guns were in position on the headland in the centre of the photo.

An overall view of the gunsite now

GUNSITE PLAN

Coastal Defence Battery, Mumbles Hill, plan

The Key to the above plan

It is evident that there are several differences between the 'official' plans (above) and the wartime 'sketch' plan below, drawn after the battery was completed, one being the design of the surrounding fence. The cost of the installation was recorded as £42,879 plus works costing £19,307.

Coastal Gun Battery 'A', Mumbles Hill, from wartime 'sketch' plan

Editors notes are marked in red. - The Guns of Mumbles Head

The detail concerning the surrounding defensive fence is confirmed on the postwar aerial photo below.

Defence Sites shown on an Aerial Photo, 7 July 1946

More & larger: Aerial Photos of Mumbles Head, Swansea >

The above photo includes:-

Coastal Defence Battery 'A', Lighthouse Island, Battery 'B', Tutt Head, Coastguard Station (from 1942 to 45, Port War Signal Station) Coastal Gun Searchlight Posts [seaward facing], War Accommodation Sites and Anti-Aircraft Guns of Mumbles Head >

Battery ‘A’ on Mumbles Hill and Battery ‘B’ on the lighthouse island were both controlled from the headquarters on Mumbles Hill by twenty five officers and men of 599th Regiment. Battery 'A' had one hundred and nine soldiers from the Royal Artillery, assisted by forty-nine Home Guard men from ‘C’ Company, 12th Glamorgan (Swansea) Battalion (Mumbles Detachment), some of whom had operated similar weapons twenty years before.

262 Maintanance Battery, Royal Artillery, Mumbles unit road sign

From 1940s Swansea Bay Museum collection

FIRING AND CONTROLLING THE 6 INCH GUNS

The 6 inch guns’ primary task was to engage and destroy enemy vessels; their secondary role was to support the examination battery on the lighthouse island. The ex naval guns were capable of firing eight 100-pound shells a minute up to a distance of 12 miles (19 km). But 6 miles (9.6 km) was considered to be the limit of their effective range. Firing further than this distance would have been at the discretion of the Battery Commander. They protected the sea from Swansea Docks to Bracelet Bay and the Bristol Channel, a vital shipping route. Contemporary records reveal that a target for one of the guns was near Swansea Guildhall along with a warning that the second gun could not fire at this target without damaging the first gun.

One of the two camouflaged 6 inch guns emplacements on the Hill and overlooking Mumbles Lighthouse,

photo: Ronald Studden

The view overlooking Swansea Bay today and a typical 6 inch Gun, 1940

The typical 6 inch gun was sited at Berthlwydd near Penclawdd

den

Each watch contained enough officers and men to fire both guns for two minutes. The duty gun crew were to be at readiness, fully equipped and at their respective posts within moments of an alarm. One guard was stationed by the guns during the day, with two at night. The off duty crew, or Reserve Watch, would be kept at a state of readiness at the War Accommodation. When the alarm was sounded, they would man the magazine and keep the gun crew supplied with ammunition. The third crew could be off duty

Royal Artillery gunners manning a 6 inch gun, 1939

A typical coastal Defence gun at Sheerness, November 1939. © IWM (H 121)

The photo above shows two gunners on the lower left, who are ready to pass cordite cartridges [in flash-proof leather carry cases] up to the gun crew as required. Eight gunners were needed to fire each six-inch gun and usually two (mentioned) to supply ammunition for sustained firing.

Peter Smith of the Home Guard was trained to fire the six-inch guns and he described how the gun team worked. He was an auto set layer (traversed sideways); another man was a rocking bar layer (for elevation, up and down); two loaded the gun with shells and cordite; and another was on the breech inserting the cartridge to fire the gun. One man was a setter for the range and another was on the telephone, taking orders from the battery observational post.

Others who served on one of the 6 inch Coastal Guns, as well as Peter Smith Home Guard; who said, 'I also fired the 4.7inch guns on the Lighthouse Island in 1943 where my brother in law, Jack Jackson, served in the Royal Artillery.'

Ernest Macey: 20, Oak Drive, served as a Lanc. Bombardier, Royal Artillery. In 1941, he came down from Barrow in Furness. The name of the Battery, ‘Fort Mumbles.’

Bill Morris: Royal Artillery, I was stationed on the Lighthouse Island, where we formed the ‘Examination Battery’, which had for that duty two 4.7 inch guns, situated on the fort ramparts. He lived in Somerset House post-war as a caretaker. More: My Army Life by Bill Morris

Loading the shell into a 6 inch gun

Typical Coastal Defence Battery at Felixstowe © IWM (H 3293)

BATTERY OBSERVATION POST

The battery observation post (B.O.P.) was in an elevated position behind the guns and housed the depression rangefinder, used to calculate the range and bearing of a target. The information was then passed on to the gun emplacements. From the Post, Alarm gongs could be sounded at the war accommodation, the searchlights, and the engine room. The battery observation post was aided by a spotter’s post nearby. The Battery Commander had a private direct-line line telephone link to headquarters and with all parts his command, with Battery (B) on Mumbles Island and with the Navy at the Port War Signal Station, who would identify all vessels steaming into Swansea Bay and signal to them with any orders.

Post-war investigations of the disused observation post revealed a panorama of the whole bay painted on the wall and, nearby, two machine-gun pillboxes.

A COASTAL BATTERY IN ACTION

The B.O.P.: The rangefinder and chartman at their post

Typical B.O.P. at the Needles on the Isle of Wight. © IWM (H 12517)

Adjacent to each of the guns was an underground ammunition store and repair workshop. Protected by a thick concrete roof were stores of shells (explosive and shrapnel), cordite charges (in silk bags) and cartridges (for firing). An engine house generator provided power for lighting, radios and other equipment. Somerset House (now Mumbles Hill House) on Mumbles Hill was requisitioned by the army as the officers’ mess. ‘War accommodation’ consisting of barracks, kitchen and washhouse was provided on both gun sites for those on duty. Off-duty men from the lighthouse island returned to Nissen huts at Bracelet Bay (where the car park is now) and on Mumbles Hill (now Thistleboon Drive). At both of these sites there was separate accommodation for women serving in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (W.R.N.S) and the Auxiliary Territorial Service (A.T.S).

LOCAL DEFENCES AND HOME GUARD WEAPONS

To protect against any invading enemy force the 299th Battery was defended by a double line of barbed-wire with trenches and pillboxes to provide cover for a platoon of thirty Home Guard troops armed with Lee Enfield rifles, grenades, Sten guns and mortars.

A Vickers machine gun defended the track up to the battery and the open ground around (near the present-day coastguard aerial). To protect against attack from the west there was a minefield and a 75 mm mobile field gun capable of firing fifteen aimed shells per minute. These mutually supporting defences ensured that in the event of any attack several gun positions could cover all the land between the sea and the top of Mumbles Hill. In addition, decoy ‘guns’ were added to the defences. Local residents remember seeing on the cliffs west of Limeslade Bay two dummy guns made from telegraph poles painted to look like big guns when viewed from a distance.

Rev. George Wilkinson, Vicar of All Saints' Church

CHURCH PARADE

The late Mrs Anne Ardouin recalled that, during the war, every Sunday morning, between church services, her father, the Rev. George Wilkinson, Vicar of All Saints' Church, visited the Army camp on Mumbles Hill, where he would lead a service. On these occasions, he would wear a purple armband on top of his clerical robes, emblazoned with O.C.F. (Officiating Chaplain to the Forces) and would gain ready admittance as the Padre to the guarded camp. Afterwards he would enjoy a breakfast of bacon and eggs at the Officers mess. If Anne was especially lucky and time permitted, he would let us accompany him, as bacon and eggs were heavily rationed at home. She particularly remembered a comment by one of the other ranks that, THEY only ever had bread and jam for breakfast.

OFF DUTY AND N.A.A.F.I.

The men were able to spend some of their off duty time and buy essential items at the NAAFI, and maybe watch film shows and other entertainment there. The village, with two cinemas, numerous pubs and several dance halls was nearby, for those with permission to be off camp.

Kay Sandalls remembered that her mother Gwyneth Jepson, from Cleveland Avenue, Limeslade, ran the NAAFI on the hill and remembered that ‘she used to bake things at home for the men, because the food was not very good’. One day, she had to sack the cook for not wearing any knickers!’ How this was discovered we shall never know.

Miss Margaret Eileen Stevens, served at this NAAFI. Photo: John Williams.

The steps leading to Mumbles Hill, from The George Hotel

Miss Margaret Eileen Stevens, served at this NAAFI, (also at the NAAFI at Margam Park). Her son, John Williams, recalled that 'whenever we walked along the front close to the The George, she remembered that the steps alongside the right of the George were the steps she used to climb up to the NAAFI'. Indeed, this was confirmed, when John Powell, the editor of this website, took me to the site of the NAAFI and showed me a map which recorded the only footpath she could have used, as alternative ways onto the hill, which we use today were then out of bounds.
Her son also recalled, 'My Mother did talk of the Americans at Margam Park, but also mentioned a small group of Norwegian Troop and was not sure if these were on special missions etc.'

DECOMMISSIONING :

Used by homeless families

Royal Artillery Records > reveal that the Battery, a part of 559 Coast Regiment RA - Mumbles Fire Command was 'Disbanded' in April 1944.
Some time later, guns and other equipment were removed from both the Coastal and Anti-Aircraft Batteries. (The examination battery on the lighthouse island had already been disbanded.) Mumbles Head was finally decommissioned in 1957 and the six-inch gun battery bunkers and gun emplacements were either removed or covered over.

Somerset House, later renamed Mumbles Hill House, used as the Officers Mess and by the two carecaters, was also decommitioned and sold. One of whom, Mr Bill Morris has written on this website about his time in the Army and on the Hill, entitled - My Army Life >

Today, only markers and information boards indicate what was once there. The searchlight emplacements and the engine house on the lighthouse island still exist and remains of the concrete causeway going out to the island can b e seen at low tide. Nissen huts at both Bracelet Bay and Mumbles Hill were used for a while as temporary accommodation for homeless families, (those at Thistleboon are shown below).

Postwar, a friend of Ronald Studden named Christtancock lived in one of the Nissan huts at Bracelet Bay and noted that in the early 1950s they had prior warnings, which arrived in the post twice a year, 'we were warned that the guns on the hill would fire twice a year for testing, usually January and July and as a security measure we should tape up our windows.'

Another young resident of Mumbles Hill was Mike Hurst, who is pictured outside one of the army huts which, after the war. was home to some of thosewho had been bombed-out during the Swansea blitz

David Passmore with a cat, outside his hut at Mumbles Hill Camp postwar, with his cousins Dave and Alan Brewer.

Continued:

The Guns of Mumbles Lighthouse Island >

Back to- The GUNS OF MUMBLES HEAD > Collection

Including The Anti-Aircraft battery, The ATS & WRNS Establishments

Mumbles Pier, from the Lighthouse Island

Postwar remains at Swansea

Taken in 1964, this photo shows a WW2 gunsite, at what was known as 'Boys End' on Swansea beach. This area today is roughly where the Marriet Hotel and seafront flats are today and part of the old sea wall still exists.

The black shed featured is where the local shunting tractor which was used around this area was garaged and repaired along with other mechanical equipment, Photo: Carton Smith, Swansea History Society, Facebook page

Swansea Ramblers Walk -
Mumbles Hill Nature Reserve -