WHANGAPARAOA

COASTAL DEFENCE BATTERY

NEW ZEALAND

by

JONATHAN CARPENTER
Archaeologist

Hello to everyone in the Pillbox Study Group

I am an archaeologist working for the Auckland Regional Council in New Zealand and recently undertook a survey a coastal defense battery (2x6 and 2x9.2 inch guns) in the Whangaparaoa Defense Area, north of Auckland.

The approaches to the battery are defended by 11 pillboxes which generally conform to a standard design for the NZ Northern Defense Region C/-1942.

These are reinforced concrete emplacements (concrete is 12" thick) for LMG's, 13'6" x 11'6" x 9', rear 2/3rds being rectangular and the front third being hexagonal with 3-5 embrasures (5 being uncommon).

The embrasures are 12" x 24" x 12", widening to 30" in the front from the 8" mark.

The roofs were reinforced by an extra six-inches of concrete sitting atop iron supports.

Entry was by a door in right-hand wall, rear third.

The guns themselves sat on wooden tables and wooden bunks covered the rear wall (the interior walls were covered in "pinex" chipboard) - two of the pillboxes ("kilo" and "lupo") are atypical in having separate bunkroom in the rear, and Lupo is the only one with 5 embrasures.

The pillboxes were built on/into slopes (probably by cut-and-fill).

PILLBOX `KILO`

THREE EMBRASURES WITH REAR BUNKROOM

PILLBOX `LUPO`

FIVE EMBRASURES WITH REAR BUNKROOM

 

 

PILLBOX `SALO`

THREE EMBRASURE

 

6.2 INCH COASTAL BATTERY EMPLACEMENT

WITH `FRYING PAN` LID

40MM BOFORS AA EMPLACEMENT

I was wondering whether someone might be able to tell me how these relate to British designs, since most of the shore defenses in NZ were based on/adapted from British plans and their construction generally overseen by British experts (excluding underground works whose size and shape were based on standard NZ railway tunnel workings).

A gentleman by the name of Peter Cooke has just written the definitive account of NZ coastal defences: "Defending New Zealand - Ramparts on the Sea 1940-1950s" - Its enormous, a large format 900 pages with copious maps, figures and images. If you have access to a decent library interloan service it might well be worth having a look at as it covers everything from AA installations to pillboxes, coastal batteries and anti-sub indicator loop facilties.

Thanks for your time

Jonathan Carpenter
Archaeologist

 

E-MAIL: JONATHAN CARPENTER

 

Copywrite all photographs on this page:

Auckland Regional Council/Jonathan Carpenter 2002.

Copyright Graham G Matthews@PSG2003