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Shoreham Fort |
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Littlehampton Fort
The
objective of the fort was to surprise and withstand attacks by ships and
any landing parties and to prevent the capture of the harbour by any enemy
force. It was thought by The War Office that if any enemy force captured
the harbour it would enable them to use the quays to supply and reinforce
troops before then going on to attack The
ramparts were built up high in order to command the shore and the
low-lying marshy ground at the rear and were surrounded by a ditch that
was 8 metres wide, in this ditch a novel feature was incorporated, this
was a Carnot wall. The
Carnot wall stood 12 ft high and was loop holed throughout, these
loopholes provided adequate defence for the troops, whilst enabling them
to volley fire there muskets towards the enemy trying to advance. At three
corners of the ditch, the Carnot wall then opened out into open bastions,
which enabled volley fire along the length of the wall. Later it was
decided the bastions were not practical as if enemy boats fired grape
shot, it would be able to it the soldiers from over head, so at the sister
fort, built later at Shoreham in 1857, they adapted the design to
incorporate closed top Caponiers instead of the bastions, giving overhead
defence as well. |
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