We went to visit the relatives today in Cawsand, opposite the breakwater in Plymouth Sound, where they are staying for the half term holidays. I have been there many times before but had not walked along the nearby stretch of the coastal path for years. As the weather was really nice we all set out along the walk, which takes you past Pier Cellars
This site looked interesting so I did a bit of a Google and discovered that it was one of the first harbour defence installations to use the wire guided Brennan Torpedo. I had heard about the launch rails for this land based torpedo system on the Isle of Wight, where I lived for a short while, but didn't know that Plymouth also had a similar defensive arrangement in place.
The site is still MOD land so you can't actually visit or get close to the fortifications but it's still really interesting from a pre-dreadnought wargaming perspective. This webpage has a really good overview of both the Brennan Torpedo system and of Pier Cellars as well, so you can read more about both in greater depth and detail:
https://www.submerged.co.uk/brennan.php
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ReplyDeleteFascinating stuff. I believe there was a similar system defending the Norwegian port of Oslo, which managed to sink a German ship during the invasion.
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