In the latest of his “Shoreham Unlisted” series, Richard Bingham stumbles across an important surviving relic of World War Two.
It looks like the business end of a sink plunger.
Or the green dome of an alien spaceship, crash landed between the car park at Monks Farm country park and the busy A27.
In fact, it’s neither of these things.
Built in 1943, the dome was originally used to train ground gunners how to target enemy aircraft during World War Two. A film of marauding German aeroplanes would have been projected onto the interior of the dome – a bit like a martial Planetarium – and the trainee gunners would have practiced shooting them down.
There is some wonderful footage of how it all worked here.
According to the wonderful local history website shorehambysea.com, 43 such gunnery training domes were in action during the worst air raids on England during the war. Only six survive today, one of which is at Shoreham.
At the time of construction, Shoreham Airfield was the home of RAF 7 Practice Camp. Trainee gunners from 277 Squadron of the RAF Regiment would have learned their art inside the dome, using 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns loaded with blanks.
The hemispherical building is 12m in circumference and was built of concrete and metal mesh, covered with gritted tar. In patches, the exterior has weathered to resemble Verdigris, that distinctive greenish tint metals develop in response to the elements. The metal door to the north side and the bolted hatches are quietly rusting away. Graffiti has spouted next to them.
From May 1943 until October 1944, when the dome was decommissioned, the films projected onto the ceiling would have shown aircraft flying towards or past the gunner. To compensate for the speed of the incoming enemy, trainees would aim a little ahead of the nose of the enemy ‘plane.
The film marked the sweet spot with a yellow dot. Yet the gunner would have viewed the film through a yellow filter on his gun emplacement, so they could not see the tell- tale yellow spot.
Their instructor could, however. They could see, too, the white spot that marked where the trainee’s dummy shell had “hit” the dome. Thus, feedback could be given to the trainee: too low, too high, too far in advance, too far behind….
The enigmatic dome is an extraordinary thing to stumble upon. In a way, I’m rather sad that I found what it was for.
On the other hand, like the nearby pill-boxes, it is also an example of wartime ingenuity, and a vivid reminder of Shoreham’s involvement in the Battle of Britain.
