Qualla: Brixham Battery

Brixham Battery: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David James, CC BY-SA 3.0. In the summer of 1940, with the British Expeditionary Force just evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk and the southern English coast newly classified as the front line, the Royal Artillery threw up 116 emergency batteries in a frantic chain from John O'Groats to Land's End and around to South Wales. Workmen poured concrete and rolled out cable on cliff edges. The aim was to be able to shoot at a German landing craft before it reached the sand. Most of those batteries were swept away once the danger receded. Of the 116, only seven survive. Brixham Battery is the most complete of those seven, and the Devon site has the strange distinction of having been used as a defensive gun position five times across four centuries, first against Spain in 1586, last in 1945.

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Image: David James | CC BY-SA 3.0

Brixham Battery: Spain, France, America

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. The fourteen-acre site of Battery Gardens, on the seashore at Brixham, was first armed in 1586, during the war between Elizabethan England and Spain. A gun platform was raised on the grounds against the threat of attack, and it was kept up until 1664. After that, the guns came an...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

Brixham Battery: Four Months in 1940

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LJBrzozka, CC BY-SA 4.0. Almost everything you see at Battery Gardens today was built in four months. Between June and September 1940, immediately after Dunkirk, Brixham went up alongside its sister battery at Corbyn Head, Torquay, as part of the chain meant to engage German landing craft before they cou...

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Image: LJBrzozka | CC BY-SA 4.0

Brixham Battery: The Crews

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 2.0. About a hundred officers and soldiers manned the battery at its peak. The initial crew came from the Royal Artillery, 362 Battery 18 CA GP Regiment in 1940, becoming 362 Battery 556 Regiment in 1941 and 378 Battery 556 Regiment in 1942. As the threat of invasion receded, the regu...

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Image: Paul Hutchinson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Brixham Battery: Anti-Aircraft Action

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Talbot, CC BY-SA 2.0. The anti-aircraft side was a different story. Brixham harbour and shipping in the bay were attacked repeatedly by what the British called "hit and run" raiders, low-level Luftwaffe sorties run for harassment and to keep the coast on edge. The early raiders were Messerschmitt Bf 1...

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Image: Chris Talbot | CC BY-SA 2.0

Brixham Battery: The Most Complete Survivor

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LJBrzozka, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the war ended, the great chain of 1940 batteries was scrapped, demolished, or returned to civilian land. Most disappeared inside a decade. Brixham survived almost by accident, the 14-acre site kept as Battery Gardens, an open space on the sea front and a traditional viewpoin...

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Image: LJBrzozka | CC BY-SA 4.0