Capel Battery was constructed in 1941 on former Admiralty land on the cliff top alongside The Valiant Sailor public house, designated by the War Department as "W-Works". (The original "W-Works" was at Abbots Cliff, a gun battery that would have been known as Abbots Battery, but work was abandoned there and Capel-le-Fern was chosen as the replacement site).

Of similar design to Hougham Battery, and mounting the same class of guns (three x 8" Mark VIII naval guns on high angle mountings), this battery operated initially in an anti shipping role and was manned by 424 Coast Battery R.A., part of 520th Coast Regiment. The advance party of 424 Coast Battery arrived in East Kent on 17th November 1941, and were billeted at Garlinge School, near Margate, where they undertook their training throughout the winter.

One of the units employed on construction duties here was 681 General Construction Company R.E., and on 15th December 1941 a German shell hit their billet with unfortunate results for two of the men. One, Sapper Thomas Morgan 3774410, was killed on the spot while his comrade suffered extremely severe injuries that later led to him having his left leg amputated above the knee joint.  

The first two guns were sited by 12th April 1942, with the third following by the 15th May. Proof firing was carried out on June 17th. Each gun position was supplied from huge magazines at the rear and other infrastructure included an underground Battery Plotting Room, OP, two generator blocks (engine rooms, each one providing power to compressor houses alongside all three gun positions in the event of one generator being put out of action) and an underground shelter / medical dressing station. Anti aircraft defence was initially provided by two 40mm Bofors guns. Between June 1942 and November 1944, Capel Battery engaged enemy shipping on four separate occasions and also took part in fifteen practice shoots. 

The tunnelled part of this battery site was always going to prove to be a headache for 171 and 172 Tunnelling Companies R.E., due to the nature of the ground - the chalk was interspersed with fissures and 'pipes' of clay and sand, and many collapses occurred and the layout had to be changed occasionally. On 4th April 1941 there was a serious underground collapse which buried three men from 172 Tunnelling Coy. One man, Sergeant J. Riley, was dead by the time he was extricated - another, Sapper G. Harrod, died five days later in the military hospital at Shornecliffe. For examples of the problems encountered by their comrades in No 4 Section, 171 Tunnelling Coy as they attempted to complete the excavations, a few extracts from the War Diary of the unit...  

"A fall of running sand occurred in the adit. This delayed progress and necessitated the use of close timber sets over approximately 20'..  a further fall of running sand occurred on the north side of the hanging."  W/E 31/5/41 "Work here was temporarily stopped at 02.00 on the 28.5.41 owing to a pipe of clay and sand caving above the working face. It is now decided to drive a pilot gallery from the present drift at a suitable point, to endeavour to locate an area of ground free from clay pipes and fissures. The area on the surface where subsidence may occur has been fenced and marked DANGER."

Three of the eight-inch Mk8 guns (serial numbers 152, 154 and 156) were destined for Capel Battery and three for Hougham just over a mile away.

The first gun S/N 152 was fitted mounting No1 in emplacement No 2 on 12th April 1942, second gun S/N 156 was fitted to mounting No 2 in emplacement No 1 on 28th April, with the third gun S/N 154 fitted to mounting No 3 in emplacement No3 on the 15th May. Proof firing was carried out on 19th May for guns 1&2 and gun 3 on 17th.
All 3 guns were declared ready for action at 01:30 hours 26th June 1942.

Each gun position was supplied from huge magazines at the rear and other infrastructure included an underground Battery Plotting Room, OP, two generator blocks (engine rooms, each one providing power to compressor houses alongside all three gun positions in the event of one generator being put out of action) and an underground shelter / medical dressing station. Anti aircraft defence was initially provided by two 40mm Bofors guns. Between June 1942 and November 1944, Capel Battery engaged enemy shipping on four separate occasions and also took part in fifteen practice shoots. 

Major C.S. Woodford, R.A. of the Royal Artillery Armament Unit was made responsible for mounting the guns. This was no easy task as the mountings were fully automated traverse and elevation with powered breech opening and ramming. In addition these guns taken from the cruisers Norfolk,Dorsetshire and York, were on Mark TT barbette mountings which gave a maximum elevation of seventy degrees.

Design and mounting began in October 1940 and the work was to be done by Vickers Armstrong at the Elswick works in Newcastle. Because of the problems matching the mountings to concrete pits building work did not begin until May 1941 and the guns were not ready for action until June 1942.

Number one gun at Capel 5th May 1942

The final design of the gun pits was for a magazine to be placed below and behind the guns. Seventy shells could be stored in ready racks around the pit of each gun and the charge bags and replenishment ammunition brought from the magazine and shell store by lift. A special platform enabled five shells to be lifted in a vertical position. These were then moved to the gun by trolley.
The eight inch Mk VIII gun was fifty calibres long and fired a 256lb projectile at a muzzle velocity of 2725 feet per second using a single bagged charge of 671bs of cordite. This gave the gun a range of 29,000 yards (16.5 miles)

The guns were supplied by road and were manned by 424 battery of 520 Coast Regiment Royal Artillery who arrived on 24 Feb 1942, with Captain R.G. Raymond (57884) assuming command of the battery.

The guns were put on care and maintenance in 1944 having seen very little action, although they had been used firing a fixed barrage against aircraft, and a category II claim granted after the battery fired one round against hostile aircraft on the 22nd October 1943
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The guns were finally removed in 1952 and the above ground structures bulldozed in April 1980.

Capel Battery became non-operational on 12th December 1943, and was placed into 'Care and Maintenance' in early 1944 due to the reduction in threat and the fact that the Royal Navy, alongside its Allies, now enjoyed complete superiority in the Channel. However, this was reversed in April 1944 and both this site, and Hougham Battery which had also been placed onto Care and Maintenance, were reinstated as active members of the Counter Bombardment Fire Command. By the early 1950's, after the closure of the post-war Coast Artillery Battle School, the army had pulled out completely and the site was left to fall into decay. Over the following years the area was looked upon as some vast playground by local children - but in the 1980's there was a tragedy when a young girl died after falling, possibly into the Plotting Room, while playing on the derelict site. The local council was then forced to take action to try to prevent further incidents like this happening and much of the site was 'made safe' by demolition, burying underground structures and covering over the gun sites and magazines with soil. In 1988 the then landowner, Joseph Copeland (who had bought this section of the site from Shepway District Council for a staggering £50,000), tried to uncover the underground Dressing Station with the intention of reinstating it as some sort of museum / local tourist attraction - this far fetched dream came to an end after he had descended only 80' or so and discovered the true extent of the collapses that had continued to take place underground. 

Some of the Battery site today is home to the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, the brainchild of Wing Commander Geoffrey Page, who fought in the skies as a young fighter pilot over this part of the country. The memorial was officially opened by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, on 9th July 1993. The main Memorial site sits to the rear of Gun Positions 2 and 3 (with the magazines heavily landscaped and providing the seawards side of an 'arena') and consists of a huge propeller laid out in stone, in the centre of which sits the statue of a Royal Air Force pilot gazing out to sea. Many people thought that this was an inappropriate site for a memorial to the Battle of Britain, and instead it should have been restored and used to commemorate the men of Coast Artillery - rightly or wrongly there was no way that this was ever going to happen. A curved memorial wall made up of fifteen slabs of two metre high black marble lists the names of the aircrew who took part in the Battle of Britain as well as the aircraft types that were used. Nearby are two full scale replicas of a Spitfire and a Hurricane. Details of the Memorial Trust can be found on their official website.