Capel Battery was built in 1941 on the cliff tops of Capel-Le-Ferne between Dover and Folkestone.  From this vantage point, the three 8” guns that formed the battery were able to provide anti-shipping defensive fire into the English Channel from 1942 onwards.

The plotting room, shelter and dressing station for the battery were all kept underground.  On the surface were an observation post (OP) and two engine blocks – one to take over if the other was rendered useless. Capel’s anti-aircraft defence was provided by two 40mm Bofors guns, the AA gun of choice for most batteries of this type and age.

As with all excavations into chalk, there were several collapses during the construction of the underground features of the battery, at the cost of the lives of some of the men tunnelling.  Capel Battery was abandoned in the early 1950s and today the site is occupied by the Battle of Britain Memorial Museum.

The use of Capel Battery was still remembered 70 years later by an elderly gentleman who, as a local boy saw the huge guns firing during the War and, with his friends plugged his ears to the incredible noise as a shell was fired!