Photo Gallery British Sea Forts
British soldiers marching on a sea fort deck several miles off the British coast in the North Sea on Feb. 28, 1942.
Three of the seven forts linked together in the Thames Estuary photographed on Sept. 29, 1945. The towers were originally designed as first line invasion defenses and each was armed with a 3.5 artillery gun. The constructed forts were towed out to sea, sunk on sandbanks and then linked together by cat walks.
An interior shot of the Redsand Towers in Whitstable from June 2006 shows the structures in bad disrepair. The Redsand Towers were designed to protect supply ships from German magnetic influence mines, which were wired to detonate if a ship came into their range.
The interior of the now abandoned Redsand Towers. The War Office discontinued all maintenance work on the forts in 1956 following a series of accidents.
A bathroom in the Redsand Towers. The Redsand forts were responsible for shooting down 22 planes and 30 flying bombs during the war.
A broken radiator photographed in Redsand Towers in 2006. In the 1960s, the forts became the base for several UK pirate radio stations.
Each of the seven-tower fortresses housed up to 256 men at a time. Cramped and cold conditions made the off-shore stints hard to bear for the British crews.
Many men required psychiatric treatment following time on the platforms, earning them the nickname "Fort Madness."
The towers provided cover for British shipping lanes against German mines and mine-laying planes. German destroyers relentlessly laid mines off the British coast and managed to sink more than 100 ships in the first few months of the war.
An undated photo showing the seven towers of the fort in the Thames Estuary. The forts are 36 feet square, 20 feet deep and supported by concrete stilts. They rise 50 feet out of the water. On three of the towers in this photo, the equipment has been whited out by a censor.
An external view of the Whitstable Redsand Towers in June 2006.
The forts were designed by civil engineer Guy Maunsell.
A Redsands Tower in October 1944. The forts were named after the sands on which they stood.
Off-duty gunners prepare to sleep in bunks or hammocks on a sea fort, February 1942. Crews were encouraged to take up hobbies such as painting and model making to distract themselves during the long and boring stints offshore.
