PHOTOGRAPH: David Tacchi
This beautifully restored searchlight emplacement at Fort Nothe, Weymouth, Dorset, gives a pretty good impression of what the CASL emplacements were like at Workington and Whitehaven emergency coast batteries.
The concrete block-house is fitted with a converted 90cm AA (Anti-Aircraft) searchlight unit, which were in plentiful supply during WWII. Running at 90 Volts direct-current, and drawing around 120 Amperes from the Lister generators used to power them, these searchlights utilised this near-11 Kilowatt power-consumption to throw out a stabbing pencil-beam equating to just short of 2 Billion (!) Candle-Power.
Return to the Workington Coast-Battery page.
Return to the Whitehaven Coast-Battery page.