Cpl. Joseph Russell R.A. served on the Coastal Guns, Mumbles, by his son Charles

The GUNS OF MUMBLES HEAD collection >

Anti-Aircraft battery, The ATS & WRNS Establishments

More: My Army Life > by Bill Morris
From Dunkirk to Caretaker

Contents - quick links

Corporal Joseph Russell, R.A.

Coast Artillery School, Llandudno

Coastal Guns of Mumbles Head >

The Defences and the Defenders

Firing the 6 inch Guns

Acknowledgements:

Ready For Action

A gunner view of Swansea Bay, with a typical 6 inch gun.

Corporal Joseph Russell, Royal Artillery, served on the 6 inch ex Naval Guns at the Coastal Battery on Mumbles Head. His son Charles, who was born in 1950, sent us some treasured photos, including a portrait of his father, as well as two photos taken while Joseph was Training at Llandudno.

Joseph Russell, Royal Artillery

Corporal Joseph Russell, R.A. is pictured third from the left middle row, while training at Llandudno.

Photo: Charles Russell

Corporal Joseph Russell, R.A.

Charles said: "My father, Joseph, often talked about his time at Mumbles, where he served in the Royal Artillery on Mumbles Head when he was around 29 years old and perhaps one of the oldest Bombardiers in his unit." and added: "My father suffered with Tinnitus for the rest of his life, as a result of the noise from the Guns."

Joseph talked to his son, about the problems soldiers had while using the causeway to Mumbles Lighthouse, as well as the florescent glow the seaweed used to make when it was more visible at night. He remembered that at least two soldiers, who served at the Lighthouse, had slipped off the causeway and drowned, when making their way off duty, as the tide was rising. Their dedicated off duty accommodation was in huts constructed on Bracelet Bay car park, but the men could have planned to spend their off duty time in places of leisure in Mumbles.

"Near the end of the war father was sent, with the other members of the unit, to Germany for 'mopping up.' My dad only ever mentioned the disaster of the Allied 'Operation Market Garden' at Arnhem, in September 1944, and that he had watched enemy soldiers trying to swim to safety across the River Elbe, in Germany, while under sniper fire from the Canadians, in April 1945."

The river Elbe crossing had all the elements of warfare parcelled into one short but dangerous episode. From arms fire to mortar attacks to shelling and eventually dive bombing. Nevertheless, the Allied armies pushed into German territory. I suppose it was the last desperate attempt by the Germans to avoid defeat.

An extract from the memories of Ronald John Truscott
Contributed by Jenni Waugh to BBC WW2 The Peoples War Article ID: A6202072

"After Joseph was demobbed, he was out of work for a while, until he he found employment first as a local window cleaner, then worked for David Thomas and Sons, a local land Lord who owned many mostly terraced rented houses. My father pushed a hand cart as a plasterer for this firm, to repair the war damaged houses, in some cases many miles, through Liverpool. There were no vans or wagons, as these were the austerity years, with rationing until 1954.
The only valuable thing he owned was a Rudge Whitworth bicycle. Sadly he sold it for £10 before I could grow up and inherit it."

The wedding of Joseph Russell to Caroline Grace, at Saint Saviour's Church, 11th April 1945.

On the occasion of the wedding of Joseph Russell to Caroline Grace, at Saint Saviour's Church, Everton, Liverpool, 11th April, 1945.

Caroline Russell, née Grace, 1945.

"My mother did war work from around 1940, when 26 years old, and had to sign the official secrets act. She worked for Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company, known as ATM, later taken over by Plessey." It was in Edge Lane, Huyton, Liverpool. She said, "they were specialist parts mostly gyroscopic compasses for Lancaster Bombers and Spitfires."

"She used to have to walk to work in this secret factory outside the city and when the trams stopped during air raids, I think she saw more action than my father. She lost her job after the war and suffered from long term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by her wartime experiences during the bombing."

One side of Joseph's Football Medal, 1924/5.

The reverse of Joseph's Football Medal, 1924/5.

"I still have the silver medal my father received in 1924-5, as runner up in the A, 2nd Division. The local council must have been better off in those days to issue silver medals to children."

School Good Conduct Medal

The reverse of the
School Good Conduct Medal

Charles adds, "I am pleased to be able to add Joseph's Good Conduct Medal as it of historic interest, now that his school no longer exists.
My farther would have been eleven then, just after the First World War.

"I asked my father about his War Service Medals and he said that he never received them. I sent for them and received back his two Service Medals, The War Medal, 1939 -!945 and The Defence Medal. I put them in a frame in 1980s with his cap badge."

RMS Empress of Britain (1955)

"In the late fifties early sixties, a time when my farther was only earring £5 a week, he would take me to Liverpool landing stage, on the Mersey.
There was lots of shipping there in those days, including ships like the ‘Empress of Britain’, shown here, as well as the 'Empress of France' and Empress of Canada'. Sometimes, there were three ships all together, leaving Britain for Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Passage all for £10 (which would have been worth nearly £500 today) when people were looking for a better life, away from austere Britain! We never went."

Coast Artillery School, Llandudno

Corporal Joseph Russell, R.A. is pictured third from the left back row, while training with the same men, at Llandudno.

Photo: Charles Russell

Great Orme, Llandudno, 6 inch Gun Battery. Photo: Nat Archives

After the Royal Artillery’s Coastal Gunnery School was relocated from Shoeburyness in September in late 1940, training at the school reached a peak in 1942 when 150 officers, 115 Cadets, and 445 other ranks could be accommodated and up to 14 courses could be run at any one time.

The Great Orme was chosen for the site of the School, as it overlooked a wide estuary mouth, which gave space for target vessels, as well as having local Llandudno hotels and boarding houses where personnel were able to be accommodated. The camp on the Orme was constructed in record time by local builders and the buildings were disguised as a normal village, leading to the Control Tower being built as if it was the village church.

This aerial photo shows the site of the former Coast Artillery School on The Great Orme, in 1947. Photo: Welsh Government.

Around 20,000 military personnel were trained at the site and in addition to training Gunnery crews, the School had separate departments, which gave instruction for Searchlight and Wireless operation. By April 1941, a Top Secret Radar Testing Station, which trained personnel in radio location and radar as well as testing new radar equipment, was added.
There are still some Bunkers, Coastal Artillery Search Light battery (access is difficult) as well as casemate bases around the headland, but most were demolished.

Practice firing a Six inch Gun.

It is thought that that among the guns were five 6" guns, a 4" battery, 6" naval guns, a 4.5" anti-aircraft gun, one twin 6 pounder, a six pounder Director and three 12 pounder quick fire guns.

In 1942 the Llandudno Home Guard were trained on six-inch and 12-pounder guns, and on the searchlights (This mirrors the training given to Swansea, Mumbles and Gower Home Guard units). In 1943 they were officially named as the Coast Artillery Battery, Home Guard.
A photo of Mumbles Home Guard Sgt. Peter Smith, at this School, the main Coastal Guns article.

John Lawson-Reay of Llandudno recalls:
“My father, a Llandudno GP, had a cabin cruiser named Jancis. It was registered as a Conwy fishing boat. One day he was trawling in Conwy Bay, nearer to Puffin Island, when a salvo of shells dropped around him. He quickly hauled up his fishing nets and beat a hasty exit from the area. Apparently the gunnery school had mistaken his boat for the target vessel which should have been in that area.”

WW2 MILITARY HERITAGE with more information > by Keith Morris

More: An excellent brochure is also available from the Llandudno town council.

Mumbles Hill Coastal Gun

One of the two camouflaged 6 inch gun emplacements. Both overlooked Mumbles Lighthouse and were suitably camouflaged.

photo: Ronald Studden

Extracts from

Coastal Guns of Mumbles Head >

by John Powell and Kate Elliott Jones

The task of this battery was to defend against seaborne attacks and to engage and destroy enemy vessels on the Bristol Channel

During the Second World War the Mumbles headland 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.

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.

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.

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

War Establishment totals for all units

Not including local supply and repair units

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.

Others who served 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

The wartime 'sketch' plan below, was drawn after the battery was completed,

Coastal Gun Battery 'A', Mumbles Hill, from wartime 'sketch' plan.
Plans and sections of the Battery Observation Post (BOP), Magazines, Wash House, store and Kitchen & War Accommodation can be found further below.

Editors notes are marked in red

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

The typical 6 inch gun was sited at Berthlwydd near Penclawdd

Firing 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.

From a County Borough of Swansea plan of the 6 inch Battery, drawn around 1960, prior to the demolition and burial of the sight after the Second World War.

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

A Coastal Battery in action

Loading the shell into a 6 inch gun

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.

A view from the gunsite now
The top of the magazine can be seen above the centre boards.

The Information Boards were renewed in June 2017 in October 2022 and in 2025.

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).

Wash House, Store, Cook House and nearby War Accommodation, also noted on 'sketch' plan shown earlier.

Somerset House

(later renamed Mumbles Hill House >) used as the Officers Mess and by the two caretakers postwar, was also decommissioned and sold. One of the caretakers, Mr Bill Morris, has written on this website about his time in the Army and his service in the Mumbles Head Battery at Mumbles Lighthouse, entitled - My Army Life >

Mumbles Hill House. Photo: G. McKechnie, 2015.

Acknowledgements:

Charles and Eileen Russell, City and County of Swansea; The National Archives; West Glamorgan Archives; Mumbles Development Trust; Oystermouth Historical Association; John & Carol Powell; Gareth Ellis; Kate Elliott- Jones.

Contact the Website Editor Part of this article was published in The Swansea History Journal

Guided walks onto the hill have been held held as a part of the- The Gower Walking Festival >

Mumbles Hill Local Nature Reserve,

Contact: Sean Hathaway 01792 635749.

Nature Conservation Team, Environment Department, City and County of Swansea, The Guildhall, Swansea SA1 4PH

This City & County of Swansea project is under the supervision of Glamorgan Gwent Archaeology Trust Ltd., with assistance from Mumbles Development Trust and Oystermouth Historical Association.

Oystermouth Historical Association (OHA)

and

The Royal Artillery 1939 -1945 - Home page

https://ra39-45.co.uk/

Various sections include the units & information concerning their organisation

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