West Head Fort Revealed

4.7 inch gun West Head 1942

A new website has been established to document the wartime history of the Central Coast region , the site has interesting information and photo's of West Head Fort and Juno Point gun battery as well as a look at the seaplane base at Rathmines in WW2 - well worth a look at if you are interested in local history.

History and Heritage - Hawkesbury to Hunter  http://4hresearch.weebly.com/

Old Bob shared this wartime memory with the Elvina group just recently

There used to be an aircraft spotting group at the school during wartime and some time each week they would get together to compare what aircraft they had seen. One kid was the butt of many jokes when he reported that he had seen a Japanese float plane flying up the coast. It came out a few days later that the Navy had flown a captured Japanese float plane up the coast from Nowra to Port Stephens and return to test the observers for aircraft recognition purposes. Of all the hundreds of trained observers and stations along the coast only one person had recognised the aircraft as enemy; a boy from Gosford High School. 

Bob

This well produced video has been made about the history and construction of the West Head battery and includes interviews with ex personnel , the whole History of Pittwater series is worth a look at as well