The Maunsell Forts are towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom. They were operated as army and navy forts, and named after their designer, Guy Maunsell. A total of four navy forts were built, off the east coast of England, and six army forts were built - three in the Thames estuary, and three in the Mersey estuary. The forts were decommissioned during the late 1950s and later used for other activities including pirate radio broadcasting. One of the forts is managed by the unrecognised Principality of Sealand; boats visit the remaining forts occasionally, and a consortium named Project Redsands is planning to conserve the fort situated at Red Sands. The aesthetic attraction of the Maunsell forts has been considered to be associated with the aesthetics of decay, transience and nostalgia. During the summers of 2007 and 2008, Red Sands Radio, a station commemorating the pirate radio stations of the 1960s, operated from the Red Sands fort on 28-day restricted service licences. The fort was subsequently declared unsafe, and Red Sands Radio has moved its operations ashore to Whitstable. Forts had been built in river mouths and similar locations to defend against ships, such as the Grain Tower Battery at the mouth of the Medway dating from 1855, Plymouth Breakwater Fort, completed 1865, the four Spithead Forts: Horse Sand Fort, No Mans Land and St Helens Forts which were built 1865–1880 and Spitbank Fort, built during the 1880s, the Humber Forts on Bull & Haile Sands, completed in late 1919, and the Nab Tower, intended as part of a World War I anti-submarine defence but only set in place in 1920.
Maunsell naval forts
The Maunsell naval forts were built in the Thames estuary and operated by the Royal Navy, to deter and report German air raids following the Thames as a landmark, and prevent attempts to lay mines by aircraft in this important shipping channel. There were four naval forts:
Rough Sands (HM Fort Roughs) (U1) 51.895194°N 1.480569°E / 51.895194; 1.480569 Sunk Head (U2) 51.7773°N 1.50841°E / 51.7773; 1.50841 Tongue Sands (U3) 51.492915°N 1.36662°E / 51.492915; 1.36662 Knock John (U4) 51.562277°N 1.162059°E / 51.562277; 1.162059 This artificial naval installation is similar in some respects to early "fixed" offshore oil platforms. It consisted of a rectangular 51.2 metres (168 ft) by 21.2 metres (70 ft) reinforced concrete pontoon base with a support superstructure of two 60-foot (18 m) tall, 24-foot (7.3 m) diameter hollow reinforced concrete towers, walls roughly 3.5 inches (9 cm) thick; overall weight is estimated to have been approximately 4,500 tons. The twin concrete supporting towers were divided into seven floors, four for crew quarters; the remainder provided dining, operational, and storage areas for several generators, and for fresh water tanks and antiaircraft munitions. There was a steel framework at one end supporting a landing jetty and a crane, which was used to hoist supplies aboard; the wooden landing stage itself became known as a "dolphin".
The towers were joined above the eventual waterline by a steel platform deck upon which other structures could be added; this became a gun deck, on which an upper deck and a central tower unit were constructed. QF 3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns were positioned at each end of this main deck, with a further two Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and the central tower radar installations atop a central living area that contained a galley, medical, and officers quarters. The design of these concrete structures is equal to a military grade bunker, due to the ends of the stilts (under water), that are locked into the ground. Many species of fish live near the forts because the forts create cover. They have provided landmark references for shipping. They were laid down in dry dock and assembled as complete units. They were then fitted out—the crews going aboard at the same time for familiarization—before being towed out and sunk onto their sand bank positions in 1942. The naval fort design was the latest of several that Maunsell had devised in response to Admiralty inquiries. Early ideas had considered forts in the English Channel able to combat enemy vessels. During World War II, the Thames estuary Navy forts destroyed one German E-Boat.
Rough Sands Fort (U1)
Rough Sands fort was built to protect the ports of Felixstowe, Harwich and the town of Ipswich from aerial and sea attack. It is situated on Rough Sands, a sandbar located approximately 11 kilometres (6 nmi) from the coast of Suffolk and 13 kilometres (7 nmi) from the coast of Essex. Fort Roughs or the "Rough Towers" was the first of the four naval Maunsell Forts to be deployed. It was constructed in dry dock at Red Lion Wharf, Gravesend, and was commissioned "H.M. Fort Roughs" on 8 February 1942. After an eventful journey, its grounding was supervised by Maunsell at 16:45 on 11 February 1942. With "almost 100 men" having earlier embarked at Tilbury docks, the fort began service immediately. In 1966, Paddy Roy Bates, who operated Radio Essex, and Ronan O'Rahilly, who operated Radio Caroline, landed on Fort Roughs and occupied it. However, after disagreements, Bates seized the tower as his own. O'Rahilly attempted to storm the fort in 1967, but Bates defended the fort with guns and petrol bombs and continued to occupy it. The British Royal Marines were alerted and the British authorities ordered Bates to surrender. He and his son were arrested and charged, but the court dismissed the case as it did not have jurisdiction over international affairs: Roughs Tower lay beyond the territorial waters of Britain. Bates took this as de facto recognition of his country and seven years later issued a constitution, flag, and national anthem, among other things, for the Principality of Sealand (founded on 2 September 1967).
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