​​Sinah Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery​

​​The battery contained four 4.5 inch naval guns which were manned by the 219th Battery, 57th Anti-Aircraft Regiment. The guns had a velocity of over 2,500 feet per second and a range of over 30,000 feet.

​The battery was connected to a ‘Q’ decoy site, where structures were set alight to encourage the Luftwaffe crews to bomb what they believed was Portsmouth, but in fact was an open area. This would reduce the impact on military infrastructure and reduce the number of civilian casualties.

​On the night of 17 to 18 April 1941, a German air raid was carried out on Hayling Island and Portsmouth. The battery was hit and Gunners James Bardoe, James Collingborne, Arthur Farmer, Reginald Knight, James Powell and Leonard Ward were killed in action. A small plaque in one of the remaining gun platforms commemorates these men.

​Two gun platforms are accessible to the public, another is visible over the fence in the private fishing area. Several ammunition rooms can still be seen, as well as the air raid shelter at the eastern end of the battery. The generator building for the battery is close to the road and was possibly modified after the war. The existing concrete pathways are all that is left of the site, where once a sergeants’ mess, a NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes), a dining hall and two section huts were situated.