Princess Anne's Battery frame

<body text="white" link="yellow" vlink="yellow"> <font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">This is the only intact battery of 5.25 inch AA guns anywhere in the world.</font> <p><font face="Geneva,Arial" size="2" color="white">Originally known as 3rd Willis's Battery, Princess Anne's Battery is located on the north side of the rock below the Great Siege Tunnels. It was named after the eldest daughter of George II and was first armed in 1732 and during the Spanish War of 1762 it mounted five 12-pdrs. In the Great Siege of 1789-1793 it formed one of the group of batteries on Willis's that saw action and received punishment from the Spanish Lines. In 1782 its magazine was blown up. It then had eight embrasures for cannon. In 1859 it mounted four 24-pdrs. and three 13-inch mortars.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">In 1942, during WW2 there was a proposal to install seven new 5.25" anti-aircraft guns on the rock, three of these went to West Battery on the south of the rock between Windmill Hill and Europa Point. The other four guns were mounted in a rebuilt Princess Anne's Battery with work being completed in 1956.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">The new guns were Ordnance QF 5.25" MKII on a 1B mounting and performed a dual anti-aircraft and coast defence role. When 5.25" guns were deployed solely in an Anti Aircraft role they tended to have open backs (on a 1A mounting) but those at Princess Anne's Battery were totally enclosed. They were able to fire an 80lb shell up to 55,000 feet with a maximum horizontal range of 27,000 yards (13.5 nautical miles).</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">This type of antiaircraft gun was by far the most expensive and most complex of the antiaircraft weapons of the war. They were intended for the static defence of the key locations like London or the naval bases. Originally, they were naval 5.25" QF Mark I, developed by the Royal Navy as a double purpose weapon.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">In 1942, the Royal Navy gave some of them to the British Army, they modified the type with a reinforced breech to work under higher pressures and a simplified breech mechanism, the mounts by contrast were heavily modified. They were single (shown below at Princess Anne's Battery) whereas the naval mounts were twin.</font> </body>