Duntocher gun site

[g forgeron]

According to the Secret Scotland web site there was a battery of four 3.7 guns, radar installation & accommodation located at the junction of Farm Road & Hillend. Does anyone have any photographs and or knowledge of this site ?

[ScouseBoy]

Which county or town please?

[IMBER]

There's a little more information here:

https://canmore.org.uk/search/site?SIMPLE_KEYWORD=119883

Imber

[g forgeron]

The village is Duntocher, the county then was Dunbartonshire, now West Dunbartonshire

[g forgeron]

OK Imber, visited the site, seems indeed to have existed, but no one locally seems to know about it.

[ScouseBoy]

They may have consisted of mobile artillery  and a mobile radar trailer.

[g forgeron]

The description has "gun emplacements & accommodation" so they would not have been mobile, not with accommodation. Also what would have been the point of a mobile battery when no one knew when the planes would appear ?. How could they get there in time to prevent the attack occuring?

[IMBER]

It depends on how mobile is mobile. The CANMORE records indicates the site used 3.7inch AA guns. These came basically in two forms, one on a wheeled trailer from which it could be fired and one that was less mobile. Seems likely that the latter were used at Duntocher. But they were secured to a permanent platform or similar from which they could be released and their bases quickly fitted with wheels, so allowing the guns to be redeployed as required. I have read that the guns defending Clydebank ran out of ammunition during the 1941 Clydebank blitz - that might have included Duntocher. You can see substantial AA site remains at Mugdock. Might be worth enquiring further here:

http://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/libraries/archives-family-history/clydebank-heritage-centre/

Imber

[ScouseBoy]

They  may have had searchlight units and Radar units in support of the guns.