PORT OF LONDON

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23013, 3 October 1944, Page 5

PORT OF LONDON

How Channels Were Kept Open (9.5 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 2. Secrets of the strongest fortresses of the war, grotesque concrete and steel towers raised on stilts 80 feet above sea level at keypoints guarding the Thames Estuary, w’ere revealed ' v a Press visit. | Visitors to nearby resorts were puzzled for two years to know the real purpose of the towers which were ,-een from miles away. The fortresses were built to keep the Port of London open for shipping. Their primary task was to shoot down or beat off enemy planes laying mines in the narrow, navigable Thames waters. It was essential that channels should be kept clear, for blockage by wrecks could have sealed the port and paralysed a great pars of the war effort of the nation. The fortresses were designed by a civil engineer. London never once was closed as a port. The Germans did not even attempt any serious mining of vital channels. The engineer designed a huge, flat-bottomed concrete boat, in which he built tw-j hollow concrete towers. The whole structure was towed out to a site where a plug was knocked out of the bottom of each boat, which was flooded. It made it sink solidly on a sandy bed. Large steel platforms were built on the towers, on which were mounted heavy and light anti-aircraft guns and other armament.