New Zealand Coastal Gun Defences

[Nick]

While reading this https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/freedoms-rampart-the-russian-invasion-of-new-zealand.433792/  I looked up Taiaroa Lighthouse. The gun battery museum there has the worlds only working Armstrong Disappearing Gun which was made to be set up and aimed while lowered inside the defences and then raised for firing, it would then disappear back in the ground.

http://www.albatross.org.nz/fort-taiaroa/

It turns out that New Zealand has almost as many gun defences as the UK - https://sites.google.com/site/nzcoastaldefences/secondary-ports/wanganui-battery

[NARSES2]

Disappearing guns, or is it more accurately disappearing carriages ?, have always fascinated me. I've seen some great footage at museums and in documentaries over the years.

[jcf]

Interesting. I wonder if they ever cycle it.

Ft. Casey, on Whidbey Island here in Washington State, has two 10"
rifles on dissapearing carriages, one down in loading position, the
other in battery (raised into firing position).

[Captain Canada]

Cool stuff. There's a big one in Cape Spear, NL. Just the barrel and a bunch of the old fortifications now. I believe it's 14 or 15 inch.

[zenrat]

There were at least three at Fort Nepean on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula.
Two 5 inch guns and one 9.2 inch.
At least one mount is still there.  Not sure for which gun.

Fort Nepean fired the first Allied shots in both WW1 and WW2.

[PR19_Kit]

Fort Nepean fired the first Allied shots in both WW1 and WW2.

Why? 

Did the Wehrmacht Blitzkrieg reach THAT far that quickly?

[Weaver]

Funnily enough, having just read this thread, I then saw what looked awfully like a die-cast model of a 6" disappearing mount on a stall at the Nantwich Show. Didn't get much chance to talk to the stall holder, unfortunately.

[rickshaw]

Fort Nepean fired the first Allied shots in both WW1 and WW2.

Why? 

Did the Wehrmacht Blitzkrieg reach THAT far that quickly?

Against ships attempting to leave harbour before the war broke out, Kit...   

[PR19_Kit]

Fort Nepean fired the first Allied shots in both WW1 and WW2.

Why? 

Did the Wehrmacht Blitzkrieg reach THAT far that quickly?

Against ships attempting to leave harbour before the war broke out, Kit...   

Ahah, German ships no doubt?

[rickshaw]

Fort Nepean fired the first Allied shots in both WW1 and WW2.

Why? 

Did the Wehrmacht Blitzkrieg reach THAT far that quickly?

Against ships attempting to leave harbour before the war broke out, Kit...   

Ahah, German ships no doubt?

Yes.  Funny that, hey?   They were going to be the enemy, afterall.   They just got the orders to sail a little late.  The gun batteries fired a few warning shots and the RAN boarded them...   

[zenrat]

Wikipedia
The first Australian shots (many sources report the first Allied shots) of both World War I and World War II were fired from Fort Nepean.

On 5 August 1914, the German ship SS Pfalz attempted to escape from Port Phillip. Within minutes of being notified that war had been declared, Lieutenant-Colonel Sandford at Fort Queenscliff gave an order to Lieutenant C Morris, the Fire Commander at Fort Nepean, to "stop her or sink her". After the Pfalz ignored signals to halt, the B1 gun fired across her bow. The Pfalz then turned around and the crew was arrested at Portsea.

At 1.30am on 4 September 1939, within hours of war being declared, the A1 gun fired across the bow of a ship which failed to identify itself. The ship then identified as the Australian freighter SS Woniora.

These were the only occasions any of the Port Phillip batteries fired in anger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Nepean#World_Wars

[PR19_Kit]

So they fired the first shots of WWI and WWII, and then never fired any more! 

[zenrat]

Not in anger, no.

[jcf]

Ft. Casey guns.

[PR19_Kit]

Wow, LOTS of hydraulics there!