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Stannington / Loxley Anti Aircraft Defences.


hilldweller

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I've always understood that the AA site was located just off Wood Lane in fields now covered by the Marchwood estate.

The 1950's map on this forum shows where it was located.

However someone on the 28dayslater forum has posted photos showing extensive ruined buildings, shelters etc still standing in woodland, and described as being located in Loxley.

In the post there is a reference to the Wood Lane site.

What I do know is that earlier in the war there were 4.5 inch AA guns located there and later on a Z battery rocket site.

Perhaps the guns were located further into the valley and the later rockets were sited by Wood Lane ?

I can just remember the wooden huts by the other side of the road just up from where I used to live in the prefabs on Stanwood Road.

I thought I knew most places around Little Matlock/Loxley, but I can't place the buildings in the photos.

Can anybody help ?

Incidently my wife's old uncle, only recently deceased, served in Z rocket batteries during the early part of the war, first in central London and then on the outskirts of Portsmouth.

He said the spectacle of 128 rockets all exploding almost at once was very impressive but he couldn't remember ever hitting anything enemy related.

He did say that the inevitable dud fuses did cause carnage when they returned to earth.

He was only about twenty at the time and was picked due to his good eyesight which was necessary to adjust the rocket fuses, in the dark, to go off at the right height.

It was ironic that in the last fifteen. years of his life he was completely blind.

HD

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