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Original Text (Annotation: EAW007290 / 1458327)
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Cliffe Fort was in service from 1870 to 1927. It was built following the ‘Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom’ report of 1860, to protect the lower Thames from naval attack together with Coalhouse Fort in Essex and Shornmead Fort, upstream in Kent (see image EAW045337) . The planned armament was for 38 guns of which 2 would be to protect against a land attack. Subsidence problems encountered during the build lead to a revision giving, by 1887, two 12.5 inch plus nine 11 inch rifled muzzle loading (RML) in casemates within the fort and two 9 inch RMLs in an open battery upstream of the fort. Optical range finders were mounted on the fort’s roof.
At some time after 1887, two slipways were built for launching Brennan torpedos, described elsewhere as the World’s first guided missile.
After 1895, emplacements were added to the roof to accommodate three 3 pdr quick-firing guns (QF). Four 11 inch guns had been removed and one of the 9 inch guns (possibly as part of the alterations required to install the Brennan torpedos, as one magazine had been converted to an engine room for these?). The three 3pdr QF guns were later replaced by four 12 pdr QF guns.
In World War 1, the four 12 pdr QF guns were replaced by two 6 inch breech loading Mark VII guns on the roof, which in turn were replaced by four QF guns towards the War’s end.
While the fort was disarmed in 1927, during WW2, two 4 inch anti-aircraft guns were stationed on the fort’s roof in adapted positions.
Source: Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffe_Fort
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