The Godley Head Heritage Trust

Early WW2 Guns

Preperation

In July 1939 the New Zealand Government approved provisional cost estimates for the Godley Battery. When war was declared against Germany in September of that year, little work had been done except for the Ministry of Works upgrading the road to the Head in late 1938. This was to enable heavy vehicles to use it.

The onset of war found the Lyttelton Harbour with one obsolete disappearing gun to defend its interior, none for the outer coast. A bogus Battery consisting of two telegraph poles and tarpaulins were mounted above Boulder Bay but the wind soon dispensed with the tarpaulins and the deception was abandoned

The 60 Pounders

Six days after the outbreak of war (9th of September 1939), thirty gunners with two carriage mounted Mk.III 60 pndr (pounder) World War One field guns arrived at Godley Head from Trentham Camp, near Wellington. They immediately set up the guns several hundred metres north of the intended main Battery position. The gunners initially cooked in trenches and ate in the open. At times the wind was so strong it literally blew the food from their plates. At first they had to erect tents to live in as the area was devoid of buildings except for the lighthouse and keepers cottage. By mid 1940 proper barracks were being built at GH. The gunners moved in to them as they were completed.

The 60 pndr Battery was provided with a Barr and Stroud range finder mounted immediately behind the gun positions. Although designated “to prevent hostile vessels bombarding from anchor in the vicinity of the harbour entrance and generally to act as far as possible in the counter bombardment role” they were only a stopgap provision.

The concrete pads from which the guns were fired are still visible and were recently restored by the Godley Trust.

The Taylor Battery

When the RNZN (Royal New Zealand Navy) decided not to equip a second armed merchant cruiser it made two of its intended weapons available to the Army for Godley Head; provided they were mounted in areas the Navy considered appropriate for defence.

Work soon begun on these more effective installations, behind and to the sides of the existing 60 pndr sites. This Battery was to be armed with BL (breach loading) 6 inch Mk VII guns on PIII pivot mountings in reinforced concrete barbette positions. The guns and mountings registrations were 1951 on P1108 and 1525 on P805. These two weapons, collectively known as the Taylor Battery, were intended to tide the port defences over till the main Battery was completed on the lighthouse site. Moving the two six inch guns from the Port of Lyttelton to the Battery site was beyond the vehicular capacity of local Army resources. The RNZAF (Royal New Zealand Air Force) Station Wigram was called on for a loan of their specialised aircraft-moving vehicle, to transport the gun barrels.

The Taylor Battery was operational by July of 1941. Being only a temporary Battery, Taylor had neither engine room or magazine. Ready use lockers were embedded in the rear of each gun platform, reserve ammunition and cartridges were stored under canvas nearby. A basic BOP (Battery Observation Post) was set up between and to the rear of the two 6 inch guns.

The initial firing of the Taylor Battery had an unexpected reaction from the PWSS (Port War Signal Station). The concussion from the gun’s muzzle blast shattered the station’s fibro-cement sheaving, forcing the Navy to move the station further up the hill towards the Godley Head Battery site and out of harms way.

The Battery remained operational for a little over six months before the first of the Godley guns came into service. The Taylor guns were then dismountedand and were reported to have gone to the Bay of Islands. Some time after the site was abandoned the Army made an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the northern most gun platform. The last of the sites buildings were removed in 1984.

The Taylor Battery emplacements were recently cleaned up by the Godley Head Heritage Trust. A considerable amount of repair and preservation work is still to be done there.