More Abandon Places
We left Sydney in the morning with the plan to be in Baddeck that evening.
That gave us lots of time and were looking for some places to stop.
I found a little park on google maps, the Chapel Point Battery in Sydney mines.
This was a short range battery for the defense of Sydney harbor in WW2.
Quick history lesson
In WW2 Britain needed tons of supplies shipped to it every day. Alot of these came from Halifax, but what if something happened in Halifax (see Halifax Explosion)? The Allies needed a back up port, Sydney was chosen.
Also what if a U boat or small German cruiser was able to cross the Atlantic and leave the main combat area and get into these harbors? That could change the course of the war.
The Allies started fortifying the harbors, but they weren't the highest priorities.
So Sydney harbor had a few different batteries with different ranges and engagement profiles.
This battery was right on the shore of the harbor. (http://www.fortwiki.com/Chapel_Point_Battery)
There were a few spot light emplacements along the shore, 2 guns a few seconds back, and a spotting tower a little ways back.
Fire controle tower
Spot light implacement
Gun platform.
Underneath the gun were some small tunnles
Each gun had its own small magazine, with some cool grafftie.
The coolest thing here
Between the guns was a large slab and some staris down.
Stairs from either.
At any point lower then this there wasn't much natural light.
My on board flash saved my bacon, but cast a shadow from my ultra wide lens.
One of the rooms
Down to the second floor.
Hallway that reportadly goes down to the shore
It was unfortuantly too flooded to keep going
Fort Oxford Battery
Another part of defense of Sydney was a longer range battery further back and up the coast.
This fort was armed with three 9.2 inch guns, that could fire up to 26 km.
The 3 guns were placed a distance apart and each had there own magazine and extensive underground areas. The gun placements were connected by many trenches.
There is also a larger fire control tower located a short distance away.
Source: http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Oxford
Gun placement (with bonous car)
There were atleast 40 2+ inch bolts in the floor.
These guns were bbiiiiiiigggg.
Some of the buildings next to the guns.
There were a number of large rooms under with some vents up to the surface (potentials for lifting ammo). See some pictures below.
All of the trenches we saw had one side collapse on the other. It might be possible to crawl down them, but saw no reason to.
The fire control tower was small drive away.
The stairs up from the second floor were patch and I would not be able to climb the, but emily was. She took some photos up there. They can be found in the next gallery.
I will leave you with some of the graffiti around.
