Culverley Searchlight Site

Author: R R

WWII searchlights formed part of a system of aircraft detection linking locator devices, searchlights, and antiaircraft (AA) guns. The locators sent electronic information to the lights and guns, which in turn tracked the target. Once a locator had "locked on" to an enemy aerial target, the concept was for both lights and guns to be trained on the target so it could be nearly simultaneously illuminated and then destroyed. For this to system to work successfully it required a whole network of searchlights and AA batteries across the country. The New Forest was well covered by searchlights and AA batteries, due to the open ground available and the proximity to large urban areas that were on the front line of the conflict for many years between the fall of France and the build-up to D-Day. Even after D-Day both played an important role in defending against V1 flying rockets.

Many of these sites can still be seen as echoes in the New Forest landscape, but just as many have been removed and leave no trace. Work in the war diaries has led us to be able to accurately map their locations and density across the New Forest.
War diaries will often record little more than codes, locations, daily activity, movements and interactions with other units whilst others can be much more descriptive, with daily reports on operations, intelligence summaries and other material. The diaries do not usually contain information about particular people: they are unit diaries, not personal diaries. Many maps and plans were included in the original diaries but some confidential material was removed before the files were made available. This accounts for the absence of some appendices referred to in many of the diaries. You can explore the war diaries through the National Archives.

The War Diary references for this site follow below:

Ref.: TNA:PRO WO 166/3066 – War Diary of 48 S/L Bn, R.E., 1939-41.
Date:28/4/1940
Site: 526/24
Military grid ref.: U799255
Generator: Thornycroft
Projector: Mk.I 120cm
Sound Locator: Mk.III
Unit: 455 Coy, 48 S/L Bn, R.E. (takes over from 394 Coy on this date)

Ref.: TNA:PRO WO 166/3066 – War Diary of 48 S/L Bn, R.E., 1939-41.
Date: 12/5/1940
Unit: 394 Coy, 48 S/L Bn, R.E., returns from practice camp and relieves 455 Coy.

Ref.: TNA:PRO WO 166/3066 – War Diary of 48 S/L Bn, R.E., 1939-41.
Date: 25/5/1940
Site: Culverley, 526 Area
Military grid ref.: U799255
Unit: 394 Coy, 48 S/L Bn, R.E.

Ref.: TNA:PRO WO 166/2267 – War Diary of 35 AA Bde, 1939-40.
Date: 31/5/1940
Site: Culverley, 526/14
Military grid ref.: U799255

Ref.: TNA:PRO WO 166/2267 – War Diary of 35 AA Bde, 1939-40.
Date: 25/6/1940
Site: Culverley, 526/14
Military grid ref.: U799255

Location estimated from military grid ref.  Some of the 'bomb craters' herabouts are probably Search Light & Lewis Gun emplacements.

Date: 1940
2 comments
  1. christopher witt

    My father was in the territorial army as a royal enginners(mechanical) based in the forest area with a search light unit. His name was len Witt and married my mum Mary Storms who was a fire lady at lyndhurst fire station in the middle of the village.. Dads unit I think 492 and the officer could be a Colonel North and i used to take dad to there reunion in the local area, is there more info on these search light units

    Chris Witt

  2. Gareth Owen

    Hi Chris
    Thanks for your comment. Sadly we were not able to fully research all the sites. However, 492nd Search Light Battery (S/L Bty) was part of the 76th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery which was one of the first Territorial Army (S/L) regiments to be formed following the outbreak of war. 492nd S/L Bty were formed in June/ July 1940 from 217th SLTR (Searchlight Training Regiment).

    There are War Diaries for the ‘492 SearchLight’ Battery at The National Records Office in Kew – http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk. A quick online search of their archive (the “WO” number is the archive item reference):- WO 166/3332 – 1940 Aug. – 1941 May, July – Sept, WO 166/11558 – 1943 Jan.-Nov, and WO 166/14910 – 1944 Jan.-Mar. There may be more…

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