Gavin Grimmer
You’ll note in the next two photographs the very obvious differences in the walls on either side of this ventilation corridor.
Martin confirmed by measurement that the position of the GPR shaft was just outside of this obvious sealed up wall on the RH wall, and the sealed section on the LH wall is directly opposite.
I initially thought the walls had been sealed up using the large blocks that were very commonly used during the 60’s/70’s and are most commonly used today in motels as the connecting walls between units due to their sound absorbing benefits. But on closer examination the lines shown are not from mortar joints but are simply the impression of the joints between the boxing boards used to line the tunnel to allow concrete to be poured in behind. If you look closely at the RH wall, you can see the boxing boards were used all the wall to the top which indicates that this concrete wall was poured from the other side of this wall!
In comparison, the LH wall shows that the boxing did not go all the way to the top and hence it is obvious the top section has been plastered from within the corridor and you can observe the plastering trowel marks. There was at least one eyewitness report that you could walk from the top of the hill down to the old search light tunnel and then down to Torpedo Bay - all inside the tunnel network! Of note is this magazine is in tunnels used primarily for search lights. What is the purpose of a magazine when there was only search lights? The answer is very simple in that there was a gun emplacement above these tunnels in front of the shaft that still exists today at the southern end of the S/L connecting tunnel.
It is worthy of note that the ammunition for this gun was stored underground below the gun emplacement. Apart from the Mk VII gun emplacement on the northern hill side and the lower 12 Pounder southern battery (which have underground magazines accessible today) all the other gun’s underground magazines have disappeared despite the claims of eyewitnesses remembering being in them!
The main southern disappearing gun emplacement has limited magazine storage capacity still in the rooms behind it and despite there being what is now claimed as the main storage ammunition magazine out the back of this emplacement, there is no connecting tunnel. Are we to believe that whilst being under fire, a person is supposed to cart live ammunition into the gun emplacement with no means of protection?
The designers considered it important enough to link this emplacement to the engine room, yet not important enough to connect it to the main magazine?
There is evidence to suggest that there were lower levels on both the Emplacement and the Magazine and if this is correct, it makes sense that this is where it would be connected. Normal procedure was to have the ammunition stored below the gun and chain hoists used to bring it up to ground level as needed.
NH Page 23