NZFF

I spent some time with Family this morning, would you believe it two of us have birthdays on Anzac day. Anyway, we went to the Wright Hill gun emplacement, this is similar to the arrangement our Auckland friends have on the North Shore.

3 guns were installed a few years before the end of the war due to concerns the Japanese might make it to our shores. History tells the rest of the story. To link the guns tunnels were dug under the hill and lined with concrete, and all manner of contraptions were installed to make it all work. Quite an engineering feat really. You can find out more HERE at the official website.

The major irony is that when the place was dismantled, they sold the metal to the Japanese, the very 'enemy' they were built to defend us against.

So anyway, 4 days a year they open the place up for us to tramp through and have a gander, here are some photos..



The place is a real labyrinth of tunnels and stairways...



The deeper you go the colder you get, condensation was forming with each breath through some of these tunnels. One goes for about 500 meters with little rooms and things running off either side...



Replica of one of the main gun barrells..



This place is so dark when lights arent on, your eyes would never adjust to it. This staircase climbed up to who knows where.



Looking into Gun Emplacement Number 1. This was actually full with earth, so theve done a great job excavating it.



From outside near gun number 3, this is part of the original perimietr fence, you can see a portion of the entrance behind..



And this is why they built it here, strategically they could cover Wgtn, the cook strait and the top of the Marlborough sounds. The gun was big enough to lob a shell into the sounds. The only time it was ever fired, most of the windows within a few km's were broken, they never fired it again.

I been in some of those tunnesl they are very interesting.

Never figured out, with these gun emplacements dug into the hill, can they be aimed more than a few degrees either side of Straight Out?
Strikes me as real Maginot Line thinking, and we all know what good that did the French...
(No? The Blitzkrieg unchivalrously did not charge straight into the face of the guns, but went round the back through the low countries, and kicked their collective butt from behind)

Thats very similar to the Batter (?) Hill gun emplacements on Waiheke Island we visited a couple of years ago on holiday.

Alex

Charl wrote: Never figured out, with these gun emplacements dug into the hill, can they be aimed more than a few degrees either side of Straight Out?
Strikes me as real Maginot Line thinking, and we all know what good that did the French...
(No? The Blitzkrieg unchivalrously did not charge straight into the face of the guns, but went round the back through the low countries, and kicked their collective butt from behind)

The guns themselves sat in huge turrents above gound, so they had full 360 field of fire Charl.

Thats real intriguing, thanks Jon.

Makes me think about the 'unknown' network of tunnels around the Auckland area. Apparently there are hundreds of tunnels linking numerous gun placements and other important places that were built for the war. I know last year they were looking at opening up one of them for an underground transport network....if only

~ZK-KAG~

There is a rumour that the very first two Boeing aircraft ever produced, the B&W seaplanes, were stored in those tunnels, deep underground.

The two B & Ws were offered to the U.S. Navy. When the Navy did not buy them, they were sold to the New Zealand Flying School and became the company's first international sale. The B & Ws later were used for New Zealand express and airmail deliveries, set a New Zealand altitude record of 6,500 feet on June 25, 1919, and made that country's first official airmail flight on Dec. 16, 1919.

It said that the aircraft were dismantled and stored for safe keeping in the tunnels. They also say the tunnels have been searched, but its known that many passageways were concreted over, so who knows.....

Oooo sounds like a treasure hunt to me... Wouldnt mind one day (when Ive got lots of $$ ) getting hold of some plans and going and having a look around...That would be wicked fun!!

Yea, we should put together (and finance ) a salvage team to go and have a look, would be awesome.

Alex

Yea, we should put together (and finance) a salvage team to go and have a look, would be awesome.

And then sell whatever we find to buy that NZFF coperate jet we have always wanted?

Nice pics Jon, and interesting story too. I love a good mystery.

I have been to a simular gun-emplacement on the south English coast at a place called Newhaven. They had underground tunnels there too.

Trolly wrote: And then sell whatever we find to buy that NZFF coperate jet we have always wanted?

oooo don't get me started....

I thought we were buying the Corsair?

I thought we were buying the Corsair?

Might aswell get a whole fleet. I think we have also started saving to purchase Origins old jetstream fleet too