Digital Images Archive
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No.30 Hants 83.16.1
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This is a WD-only version of Hants 83.16.1, showing the southern shore of Southsea Common, and the West Auxiliary Battery.
One must be careful with this name: it is now used for the earth-faced battery thrown up in 1850, and which was replaced by the battery we see here in 1863-69, the replacement now being termed the West Battery. Thus what we see here is the very latest in modern fortification design, flanking the 16th c. Southsea Castle, which had a corresponding East Battery on the other side. 'The very latest' ought to be qualified by 'almost', because gun technology had moved on in the fifteen years since this battery was started.
The idea that one needed flanking fire along the rear wall to prevent it being stormed by men carrying ladders in the manner of the great assaults of the Peninsular War was now thought absurd. Hence we see that trees have been planted in the ditch; they would provide cover for troops storming the wall, but current thinking said that such troops could easily be destroyed before they got near it. The West Battery might be less important than ten years before but it was still treated as sensitive information that ought not to appear on the sales edition, which consequently has a great deal of white space - https://maps.nls.uk/view/231279531