My dad used to own these in the 70's. He donated them to the Fijian government. I have pictures straddling the guns when I was a little boy. Back then everything was overgrown and rusty. The guns look great now.
@@billy56081Sorry but I was just a little kid. So, nothing much to add. We didn't visit very often because the road into the site was pretty rough. It was kind of a mysterious place to me as a kid. It was abandoned concrete structures with big rusty gun barrels.
History, and also especially when it branches into other military stuff (aircraft, ships, tanks, emplacements, etc) and the not-small-arms firearms they use. Be it aircraft mounted MGs or larger-calibre tank/naval guns, they tend to be glossed over (deliberately or not) by "firearms people" due to a combination of legality/availability, but especially practicality/usability (have fun trying to take an M240C out shooting) or similarly glossed over by "vehicle people" who often know them by maybe calibre and name ("20mm Hispano") and that's about it. Mixing these things together _and_ having someone like Ian (or Jonathan at the Royal Armouries) who can actually get access to much of it, while _also_ being fantastic presenters is wonderful.
The fact that these guns were only fired once in response to an unidentified sonar contact in the Bay adds a touch of mystery to the historical narrative.
There's a lot of shit going on in the ocean. Doesn't even need to be biological - the crust of our Earth is much like listening to a room of old men getting out of chairs. Creaks, cracks, and groans everywhere.
I imagine the soliders manning this battery were rather bored with months on end of nothing actually happening. I bet they were even a little bit excited that the sonar found something, to give an excuse to shoot!
@@WafflePlaneRC In college I had a history professor who was in a National Guard artillery unit during WW2 and his unit was posted on the coast to shoot U-boats. The one time they thought they saw something that they actually got higher permission to fire on, they ran through most of the ammo they had on hand. They hit nothing. - Later, he applied for Army Air Corps and got to fly fighter planes, but he never told us if he was deployed as a pilot before the end of hostilities.
(Miserable cold day in December) Ian: “I wonder if there are any interesting forgotten weapons on a tropical island.” Interesting in a number of ways. The reuse of obsolete hardware in a new role. The necessity of protecting a logistics corridor. The unintended consequences of temporary military occupation.
These historical location videos have always been my favorites from forgotten weapons, I go back to watch the video on the 100 ton gun on Malta at least once a year!
My grandpa was stationed on New Caledonia. He was forbidden to reveal to anyone back home where he was stationed. Whenever he wrote a letter to my grandma, he'd change his middle initial on the return address, eventually spelling out "New Caledonia".
My fifth grade teacher said her dad would send letters to her mom, including her middle initial in the address. And the initial changed with every subsequent letter. It's surprising the censors didn't pick up on tricks like it. But he managed to spell out "Hawaii" to indicate his station at Pearl Harbor.
They did, but there was no practical way to stop it. Censors' main job was not editing out information anyway, but to track the state of morale and quality of life of people. Obvious breaches of security like a sailor outright writing he was in New Caledonia would be one thing, but it was less serious if the same sailor took a dozen letters over a period of several weeks to say so using the Initial Trick.
Back in the 80's our boy scout team hiked up to another gun fortress located between nadi and lautoka, it wasn't maintained back than so it was in bad condition, there's a hot spring a mile from there which was built by American soldiers building the gun fortress at the time, the hot spring is still used today as a tourist destination ✌️
Man, Ian has this gig figured out. He's been more cool places and met more cool people than 90% of others in this wing of the creator community. Keep up the good work.
My father was sent there in 1942 from Auckland, New Zealand and was given a rifle to defend the generator. The bullets did not fit the rifle. He said if invaded, he would throw the bullets, then the rifle and run into the bush. They were there long enough for their army clothing to rot off their backs, very poor quality. He was returned to NZ then to New Caledonia, then on to Italy. Thanks for the look around as it brings his stories alive.
It was a chaotic time with NZ trying to build up an army, right hand not knowing what the left was doing, stores holding stock from the Boer War and WW1. A lot of material was requisitioned from rifles, binoculars, trucks, motorcycles, fishing boats, and cars from the general public. The country was involved with two fronts, Africa and the Pacific. Food production and raw materials were exported to England. Air crew were basically trained and sent to Canada before going to England. Troops for the NZ Div. were sent to North Africa and on to Italy. The Pacific commitment involved RNZAF supplied with Kitty Hawks (regarded at that time as obsolete by the Americans), Catalinas and later Corsairs and Hudson bombers. NZ was used as a store for material, repair bases, training and recreation. The past is not forgotten as there are war memorials in all towns and cities around the country, the memorial day is ANZAC Day, 25th April, a public holiday for over 100 years.
We have a similar battery here in Prince Rupert in northern British Colombia, with three gun positions that held Mk.7 guns, plus a Battery observation post, a plotting room and various stores buildings.
are they being preserved as a museum or are they just sitting there? Sounds pretty cool, considering there were a few small and scattered bombardments of the Canadian and American west coasts by Japanese submarines. Maybe a video can be made about these guns someday
Hope you have the chance to visit the remaining 15" coastal batteries in Spain. At least 11 guns in five batteries still exist and one of them (2 guns in Mount San Pedro in Corunna) is gorgeously preserved.
@@diegoferreiro9478In terms of caliber the 15 inch batteries are of smaller diameter than the 100 tone gun in Malta, that things 17 inch or so, but it is a late black powder design.
@@thomasbaker6563 I was referring rather to the general gun installation size: the gun itself with its mount, casemate and underground machinery, the whole package.
@@diegoferreiro9478 Yep the whole instillation of a ww1-2 era 15 inch is likely to be larger, there's also a much longer barrels on the cordite era weapons, but guns are normally given in calibre to which the 15" is the smaller of.
Gosh! This brings back memories. My uncle served with No. 5 Squadron at RNZAF Station Laucala Bay from 1941. When the war ended he decided to stay in Fiji and continued working for RNZAF until his retirement in June 1967.
The Brits just LOVED that 6 inch calibre for its ships. Mostly early light cruisers and older protected cruisers. They must have had hundreds available to them after all those old ships were decommissioned.
I believe Auckland harbor had a number of these installed in the 1890s a s they were initially worried about the Russian fleet at the end of the 19th Century. Almost none of the emplacements have guns in any more however I was always fascinated by the concrete casements above some of our beaches. There is an 8” disappearing gun in Devonport on the north shore which I believe is still there which may be of some interest to the channel if you are still down in the southern pacific
Dunedin's one still has a disappearing gun, it's at the albatross colony (and across the harbour mouth from Aramoana for uh... another kind of firearms history)
There are Two disappearing guns in Devonport. No.1 Mt Victoria = -36.82653994744675, 174.79882270022017 No.2 North Head = -36.82888783551035, 174.81219556800386
I think these coastal batteries are so cool and so overlooked. Most people, when discussing weapons of war, focus on tanks, planes, ships, and small arms, but you see very little talk of coastal defense.
Costal batteries are not as useful as they used to be. The big problem is improved information and things like improved accuracy guns, drones, missiles and bombs. Once the opponent knows where the guns are they are as good as gone. But during the two world wars they were a real force. A friend serviced costal artillery in the military. They had freaking huge guns installed deep into the mountains and could dominate beyond line of sight. I can't remember the distances but they were ridiculous and with modern aiming computers they were very accurate. Still these have been decommissioned as they were to well known. Anyone about to send troops in would have the hardware needed to destroy them before they had a chance fire even once. At the same time I know small artillery has been developed to protect some sites. I think it was in Norway that they developed a artillery unit that had a deep cylindrical bunker where the men lived and they kept ammunition. The gun was automated and all they usually did was set up loads in an elevator and feed the firing computer. Even a direct hit large enough to destroy the gun would not be enough to kill off the people. And as I understod it they were installed in mountains around the deep fjords lining the coast. I also think the artilleries was installed so they were not easy to hit from far off shore, which mean the boats would have to enter the fjords and come well within the firing distance of the costal artillery before they could attack them with guns or rockets. Missiles, drones and bombs are harder to guard against, but at least they would make it more expensive to attack these. Now I might be wrong about Norway installing any of these. I only remember reading about them something like 30 years ago. So I'm not sure if they were built or if they are still in use.
Somewhere out there on the inter webs is a picture of one of the 9.2 inch gun emplacements guarding Gibraltar and you can see how much bigger the 9.2 inch gun is compared to the 6 inchers Ian’s showing us
I am german. Years ago i did a hiking tour arround small town Sachsenheim. Relicts of a small Machinegun Bunker of 1920s/ 1930s Neckar - Enz line, a medieval Castle ruin, an outpost of the Castle, later used as a Kind of small Police Station, a wineyard Guards hut, a fieldguards Hut ( perhaps 50cm thick concrete Walls and roof- Military building of Neckar - Enz line. In my Homeregion you can find fortifications from Bronce age to wwll.
This is a fascinating video. Very well done. All the details, plus tying them to the broader history of the Island, the surrounding area, and its role in WWII... just outstanding work.
The first time I ever heard of Fiji it was in an AT&T commercial where a guy was trying to call phoenix and connected to Fiji instead. The "joke" was that, at the time, Fiji was the most expensive place to make a long distance call to from the US.
Fascinating stuff! I used to live on Ascension Island, another British colony (still is) though in the centre of the Atlantic. There is a similar coastal battery overlooking Georgetown using guns taken from HMS Hood though I a bit smaller than these and not in a bunker. Used to love playing around on them as a kid. There were also some older batteries dating from the napoleonic wars.
thanks Ian for some really cool history...!...& i always wanted to see how far Tavarua island was from Fiji...that is the closet i will ever get in my life time..also never knew how close Fiji was to Australia...(loved the map secquence)..Fiji looks beutiful...what a great location to shoot a forgotten wepons...!...
Keep it up Ian! There's a pretty impressive installation in Devonport, Auckland, with a large tunnel system and a disappearing gun installation. Would be great to see an episode on that 😉👌
Fascinating piece of history. The Pacific war theater was just so vast, boggles the mind. And imagine the concussion in that block house when that baby fired - yikes!
Given that the gun didn't have a muzzle brake the concussion was probably not too bad in the block-house. The sound and the shock wave is mostly directed away from the gun.
Come down to Fort DeSoto, at the mouth of Tampa Bay FL sometime. The big mortars there are fascinating in part due to the technical and institutional incompetence. They were hopelessly obsolete when laid out; *mortars* supposedly for anti-ship roles (high trajectory indirect fire like that is more or less useless on moving targets . . before modern guidance); etc etc. Also, it's by far the best beaches in the Tampa area - no high rises!
My Kiwi great grandfather was a civil engineer in the RNZAF, built the Nadi Airfield. I don't know if he had any involvement with Momi Bay. Thank you for sharing this part of history.
Thank you for the tour and the history lesson! Much better than the captioned photos I've heretofore seen. I've visited the battery complex on the Marin Headlands north of San Francisco many times. No weapons anymore, unfortunately, but the emplacements, bunkers, and observations are still there. Fascinating stuff, especially because they were used for hidden "pop up" artillery. There's also a Nike missile museum, complete and working except for warheads and propellant (and guards and attack dogs). The tour is well-worth the effort, they crank a missile from underground into firing configuration.
Yes. They have 6” diameter bottles that they load and then fire at other countries at maximum elevation to utilize existing infrastructure and streamline export logistics
I live on an island and there are several old gun batteries at many of the local parks. But unfortunately they removed all the actual guns and they're left with just the concrete bunkers. It's still interesting to walk through them, but I wish they'd have examples like this available for the public to see. I like seeing pieces of history like this.
Reminds me ovva battery overlooking the approaches to English Bay, Vancouver. The search-light towers are down at the water-line. The gun casements are up a very steep escarpment. Come seeit, sometime !
This will go down as one of my favorites, because I was so not expecting it and because as always, the historical detail was fascinating even if these weren’t some bad boys who laid waste to Japanese vessels. Thanks for this one, Ian 👍
I love coastal defense guns- I grew up visiting fort miles in Delaware Almost every year when I grew up- they used to have all of their large guns sitting in a field but have since placed them in a more museum like areangement
Bula Ian... thank you for the great video of this heritage site. Just so you know, the Queen's gun was manufactured during the reign of Queen Victoria and the King's a year or two later when King Edward VII succeeded her.
These installations, as with many in Britain and elsewhere were known to the axis forces. Thus they served to provide detterent greater than the cost of provision..
There is a AA and coastal battery at Lomolomo 5mins away and an USN flying boat/seaplane base thats under water at Saweni 15mins away from Nadi airport.
I've always wanted to go to Fiji, there was this girl I met in my junior year of college that I fell madly in love for. Even though we didnt have much time together, Ill always remember her face. I didnt get a picture of her but I can still see her face in my mind, and sometimes I recognize parts of her face in various magazines I see and read. Her and her family suddenly had to move to Fiji and Ive always wanted to visit to see if I could find her some day, but every time I tried to go it seemed like there was something stopping me from going, my fear of water, flying, huge sudden traffic jams, or even one time a nuclear disaster! Anyways thanks for reading this, in case I don't see you... good afternoon, good evening, and good night!
You should swing up to the Marin Headlands north of San Francisco sometime to check out the Nike missile and naval gun batteries scattered along those hills and beaches. Super cool.
Another great place to visit to see very well preserved Coastal and anti aircraft emplacements, radar instillation and light Japanese tanks is Pohnpei FSM.
There were pretty extensive coastal defense sites along the US west coast, especially in Puget Sound in Washington state. Most of those are now Washington State Parks, and are open to tour. A few still have the guns in place.
I could kick myself! In '88 I traveled the south of Viti Levu from Nadi to Suva and back. I hung out with a couple of Fijian soldiers, and we talked about their experiences as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon - but none of them said anything about the Involvement of Fiji in WWII, let alone that there were museums about it 😞What a missed opportunity 😞
There are indeed many of these sort of gun emplacements still standing around the U.K. . It’s interesting to see one with a gun still in place, albeit disabled. Most of the gun emplacements I’ve seen are fully stripped of any guns and in many cases uncared for and left to the elements. Many are now looked after by small local charities such as the Blyth Batteries from the First and Second World Wars on the North East Coast of England (North of Newcastle upon Tyne). Well worth a visit during the summer months when some of the support buildings are open to the public.
A similar, 3 gun battery was placed on Point Grey (Vancouver, BC) controlling the entrance to the harbour during WW II. I don't know the current state, but ~20 years ago one of the battery emplacments (minus the gun) was still in very recognizable shape albeit partly overgrown with blackberry brambles, right behind the Museum of Anthropology. Not surprisingly, the layout of the gun platform and local storage for shells and cordite looks very much like this. There were (likely still are?) also two, remotely controled two story concrete searchlight towers on the beach below (now better known as clothes optional Rec Beach). I used to go sit at the battery site sometimes and try to picture what it looked like fully installed - really neat to see this video and get that filled in a bit more.
We have a trio of forts in Wa state that covered a triangle from port townsend to whidbey Island and I don't recall the 3rd forts location but on completion they fired all of Fort Casey's guns simultaneously during the commissioning ceremony and blew out every window in the area.. and it was a big area
It's not in the sound, but there is Fort Columbia at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Washington side. It still has two 6" guns but they are not original. It was transferred there in 1994 when Fort McAndrew (Newfoundland) was decommissioned.
There is at least one fortification in Wellington New Zealand which is almost identical in design to this one! This makes a lot of sense but it is so interesting and satisfying to see. I've always wanted to know what the old fortifications would look like with guns installed and because this is almost exactly the same, now I know!
I like how with the wind and that bird or whatever it almost sounds like there's some ominous electronic music playing in the background while he talks about the tourist economy in his hawaiian shirt next to the old cannon.
In Fiji King and Queen can often mean north and south. The kings road goes north from Suva all the way around to Lautoka, and the Queens road goes west out of Suva around the south part of the island to Lautoka. Lautoka and Suva being Fiji’s only two cities. Everything else is a town or village.
If any of them are still there, I would really be interested in seeing a video on the coastal guns in the Dalmatian Channels off of southern Croatia. There was a battle which took place there in 1991 and the Croatians had multiple calibers of guns being used as coastal defenses. Everything from 76mm ZiS-3 divisional guns to 90mm cannons (I assume they were American AA guns).
My dad used to own these in the 70's. He donated them to the Fijian government. I have pictures straddling the guns when I was a little boy. Back then everything was overgrown and rusty. The guns look great now.
They must have been fantastic for home defence.
Get Off My Grass!!!!!
do you have any history about these guns you could add?
@@AshleyPomeroyI own a coastal battery for home defence, because that’s what the founding fathers intended
@@billy56081Sorry but I was just a little kid. So, nothing much to add. We didn't visit very often because the road into the site was pretty rough. It was kind of a mysterious place to me as a kid. It was abandoned concrete structures with big rusty gun barrels.
As a Fijian, I'm glad you managed to include a part of our small history in the war! I hope you enjoy your stay!
Well, as an American, thanks for being an ally 🇫🇯🇺🇸
bula vinaka from England. loved my year in Fiji best of my life stayed in Namatakula for some time, Yasawas ,mamanuca etc lived the dream !
No job in war is small, everyones job is important 😊
may seem small to large places, but to Fiji, it is a lot. That is what matters, doing what you can
I really love when Ian covers history
He’s an outstanding communicator, with a quick wit, and an eye for intrigue. Never knowingly uninteresting!
@@brabhamfreaman166he can't even get the dates right🤦🤦🤦
The US didn't join the war in before "may 1941"
History, and also especially when it branches into other military stuff (aircraft, ships, tanks, emplacements, etc) and the not-small-arms firearms they use. Be it aircraft mounted MGs or larger-calibre tank/naval guns, they tend to be glossed over (deliberately or not) by "firearms people" due to a combination of legality/availability, but especially practicality/usability (have fun trying to take an M240C out shooting) or similarly glossed over by "vehicle people" who often know them by maybe calibre and name ("20mm Hispano") and that's about it.
Mixing these things together _and_ having someone like Ian (or Jonathan at the Royal Armouries) who can actually get access to much of it, while _also_ being fantastic presenters is wonderful.
The fact that these guns were only fired once in response to an unidentified sonar contact in the Bay adds a touch of mystery to the historical narrative.
I am sure that Whale didn’t enjoy being shot at but it is interesting history.
There's a lot of shit going on in the ocean. Doesn't even need to be biological - the crust of our Earth is much like listening to a room of old men getting out of chairs. Creaks, cracks, and groans everywhere.
Definitely a case of "Better to have it and not need it than..."
I imagine the soliders manning this battery were rather bored with months on end of nothing actually happening. I bet they were even a little bit excited that the sonar found something, to give an excuse to shoot!
@@WafflePlaneRC In college I had a history professor who was in a National Guard artillery unit during WW2 and his unit was posted on the coast to shoot U-boats.
The one time they thought they saw something that they actually got higher permission to fire on, they ran through most of the ammo they had on hand.
They hit nothing.
-
Later, he applied for Army Air Corps and got to fly fighter planes, but he never told us if he was deployed as a pilot before the end of hostilities.
(Miserable cold day in December)
Ian: “I wonder if there are any interesting forgotten weapons on a tropical island.”
Interesting in a number of ways. The reuse of obsolete hardware in a new role. The necessity of protecting a logistics corridor. The unintended consequences of temporary military occupation.
Ian lives in Arizona, there is no winter.
“We will show you our guns… but first, let me walk you past our table.” Every Fiji tour guide
That's a really big forgotten weapon
I really enjoy these little historical travel videos.
These historical location videos have always been my favorites from forgotten weapons, I go back to watch the video on the 100 ton gun on Malta at least once a year!
My grandpa was stationed on New Caledonia. He was forbidden to reveal to anyone back home where he was stationed. Whenever he wrote a letter to my grandma, he'd change his middle initial on the return address, eventually spelling out "New Caledonia".
Grandma must have spent a few weeks wondering why he was in Newcastle....
My fifth grade teacher said her dad would send letters to her mom, including her middle initial in the address. And the initial changed with every subsequent letter. It's surprising the censors didn't pick up on tricks like it. But he managed to spell out "Hawaii" to indicate his station at Pearl Harbor.
They did, but there was no practical way to stop it. Censors' main job was not editing out information anyway, but to track the state of morale and quality of life of people. Obvious breaches of security like a sailor outright writing he was in New Caledonia would be one thing, but it was less serious if the same sailor took a dozen letters over a period of several weeks to say so using the Initial Trick.
Back in the 80's our boy scout team hiked up to another gun fortress located between nadi and lautoka, it wasn't maintained back than so it was in bad condition, there's a hot spring a mile from there which was built by American soldiers building the gun fortress at the time, the hot spring is still used today as a tourist destination ✌️
what is the hot spring called?
If you want to check out an intact 9.2” gun, there’s two of them still in place on Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth, Western Australia
Man, Ian has this gig figured out. He's been more cool places and met more cool people than 90% of others in this wing of the creator community. Keep up the good work.
My father was sent there in 1942 from Auckland, New Zealand and was given a rifle to defend the generator. The bullets did not fit the rifle. He said if invaded, he would throw the bullets, then the rifle and run into the bush. They were there long enough for their army clothing to rot off their backs, very poor quality. He was returned to NZ then to New Caledonia, then on to Italy. Thanks for the look around as it brings his stories alive.
How did that happen? Was he issued Martini-Henry rounds or something?
It was a chaotic time with NZ trying to build up an army, right hand not knowing what the left was doing, stores holding stock from the Boer War and WW1. A lot of material was requisitioned from rifles, binoculars, trucks, motorcycles, fishing boats, and cars from the general public. The country was involved with two fronts, Africa and the Pacific. Food production and raw materials were exported to England. Air crew were basically trained and sent to Canada before going to England. Troops for the NZ Div. were sent to North Africa and on to Italy. The Pacific commitment involved RNZAF supplied with Kitty Hawks (regarded at that time as obsolete by the Americans), Catalinas and later Corsairs and Hudson bombers. NZ was used as a store for material, repair bases, training and recreation. The past is not forgotten as there are war memorials in all towns and cities around the country, the memorial day is ANZAC Day, 25th April, a public holiday for over 100 years.
We have a similar battery here in Prince Rupert in northern British Colombia, with three gun positions that held Mk.7 guns, plus a Battery observation post, a plotting room and various stores buildings.
are they being preserved as a museum or are they just sitting there?
Sounds pretty cool, considering there were a few small and scattered bombardments of the Canadian and American west coasts by Japanese submarines. Maybe a video can be made about these guns someday
Hope you have the chance to visit the remaining 15" coastal batteries in Spain. At least 11 guns in five batteries still exist and one of them (2 guns in Mount San Pedro in Corunna) is gorgeously preserved.
I think he has visited them. There’s a video on some giant gun battery overlooking the straight.
@@sleepingbee8997 you probably refer to the British 100 ton muzzle loader at Malta. The ones that I am talking about are larger and more modern.
@@diegoferreiro9478In terms of caliber the 15 inch batteries are of smaller diameter than the 100 tone gun in Malta, that things 17 inch or so, but it is a late black powder design.
@@thomasbaker6563 I was referring rather to the general gun installation size: the gun itself with its mount, casemate and underground machinery, the whole package.
@@diegoferreiro9478 Yep the whole instillation of a ww1-2 era 15 inch is likely to be larger, there's also a much longer barrels on the cordite era weapons, but guns are normally given in calibre to which the 15" is the smaller of.
Gosh! This brings back memories. My uncle served with No. 5 Squadron at RNZAF Station Laucala Bay from 1941.
When the war ended he decided to stay in Fiji and continued working for RNZAF until his retirement in June 1967.
Very cool.
Interesting use for old naval guns.
The 5 inch guns that were on Wake Island had previously been mounted on the USS Texas.
The Brits just LOVED that 6 inch calibre for its ships. Mostly early light cruisers and older protected cruisers. They must have had hundreds available to them after all those old ships were decommissioned.
900-odd, + 350 built for the Army, of the Mk VII alone.
I believe Auckland harbor had a number of these installed in the 1890s a s they were initially worried about the Russian fleet at the end of the 19th Century. Almost none of the emplacements have guns in any more however I was always fascinated by the concrete casements above some of our beaches.
There is an 8” disappearing gun in Devonport on the north shore which I believe is still there which may be of some interest to the channel if you are still down in the southern pacific
As a kid, my brothers & I used to play at the emplacements at Devonport (I'm not going to say how many decades ago😅).
It was always an adventure.
On Waiheke island there is an impressive gun installation
Dunedin's one still has a disappearing gun, it's at the albatross colony (and across the harbour mouth from Aramoana for uh... another kind of firearms history)
There are Two disappearing guns in Devonport. No.1 Mt Victoria = -36.82653994744675, 174.79882270022017 No.2 North Head = -36.82888783551035, 174.81219556800386
The British Army recruits heavily from Fiji and they are great bloke. Complete super soldiers! 🇫🇯
I think these coastal batteries are so cool and so overlooked. Most people, when discussing weapons of war, focus on tanks, planes, ships, and small arms, but you see very little talk of coastal defense.
Costal batteries are not as useful as they used to be. The big problem is improved information and things like improved accuracy guns, drones, missiles and bombs. Once the opponent knows where the guns are they are as good as gone. But during the two world wars they were a real force. A friend serviced costal artillery in the military. They had freaking huge guns installed deep into the mountains and could dominate beyond line of sight. I can't remember the distances but they were ridiculous and with modern aiming computers they were very accurate. Still these have been decommissioned as they were to well known. Anyone about to send troops in would have the hardware needed to destroy them before they had a chance fire even once. At the same time I know small artillery has been developed to protect some sites. I think it was in Norway that they developed a artillery unit that had a deep cylindrical bunker where the men lived and they kept ammunition. The gun was automated and all they usually did was set up loads in an elevator and feed the firing computer. Even a direct hit large enough to destroy the gun would not be enough to kill off the people. And as I understod it they were installed in mountains around the deep fjords lining the coast. I also think the artilleries was installed so they were not easy to hit from far off shore, which mean the boats would have to enter the fjords and come well within the firing distance of the costal artillery before they could attack them with guns or rockets. Missiles, drones and bombs are harder to guard against, but at least they would make it more expensive to attack these.
Now I might be wrong about Norway installing any of these. I only remember reading about them something like 30 years ago. So I'm not sure if they were built or if they are still in use.
Somewhere out there on the inter webs is a picture of one of the 9.2 inch gun emplacements guarding Gibraltar and you can see how much bigger the 9.2 inch gun is compared to the 6 inchers Ian’s showing us
I am german. Years ago i did a hiking tour arround small town Sachsenheim. Relicts of a small Machinegun Bunker of 1920s/ 1930s Neckar - Enz line, a medieval Castle ruin, an outpost of the Castle, later used as a Kind of small Police Station, a wineyard Guards hut, a fieldguards Hut ( perhaps 50cm thick concrete Walls and roof- Military building of Neckar - Enz line. In my Homeregion you can find fortifications from Bronce age to wwll.
In Britain we respect the fine Fijian soldiers who have served the Crown as some continue to do as individuals in the British Army.
This is a fascinating video. Very well done. All the details, plus tying them to the broader history of the Island, the surrounding area, and its role in WWII... just outstanding work.
Fijians are a bunch of guys you really want on your side in a fight. Look up their service in the SAS for example.
Labalaba for instance at the battle of Mirbat.
So true and also close by (relatively) Samoan's in the SAS too.
I really enjoy these gun emplacement videos along with other historical location talks. Please do more of this!
The first time I ever heard of Fiji it was in an AT&T commercial where a guy was trying to call phoenix and connected to Fiji instead.
The "joke" was that, at the time, Fiji was the most expensive place to make a long distance call to from the US.
I looked up WW2 rangefinders, and the naval ones could be massive. A lot wider than I thought. They'd really take up the whole width of that building.
Fascinating stuff! I used to live on Ascension Island, another British colony (still is) though in the centre of the Atlantic. There is a similar coastal battery overlooking Georgetown using guns taken from HMS Hood though I a bit smaller than these and not in a bunker. Used to love playing around on them as a kid. There were also some older batteries dating from the napoleonic wars.
thanks Ian for some really cool history...!...& i always wanted to see how far Tavarua island was from Fiji...that is the closet i will ever get in my life time..also never knew how close Fiji was to Australia...(loved the map secquence)..Fiji looks beutiful...what a great location to shoot a forgotten wepons...!...
Love the first person walking segments with the camera. Super immersive!
Keep it up Ian! There's a pretty impressive installation in Devonport, Auckland, with a large tunnel system and a disappearing gun installation. Would be great to see an episode on that 😉👌
Fascinating piece of history. The Pacific war theater was just so vast, boggles the mind. And imagine the concussion in that block house when that baby fired - yikes!
Given that the gun didn't have a muzzle brake the concussion was probably not too bad in the block-house. The sound and the shock wave is mostly directed away from the gun.
Come down to Fort DeSoto, at the mouth of Tampa Bay FL sometime. The big mortars there are fascinating in part due to the technical and institutional incompetence. They were hopelessly obsolete when laid out; *mortars* supposedly for anti-ship roles (high trajectory indirect fire like that is more or less useless on moving targets . . before modern guidance); etc etc. Also, it's by far the best beaches in the Tampa area - no high rises!
My Kiwi great grandfather was a civil engineer in the RNZAF, built the Nadi Airfield. I don't know if he had any involvement with Momi Bay. Thank you for sharing this part of history.
If you ever should be in Lisbon, you could visit a WW2 site in Parede. There are 3 canons and bunker tunnels for delivering the ammunition.
Bula Vinaka!
Went to Fiji way back in 91 and love the country. I'll get back one day!
Nice to see you getting back to the roots of Forgotten Weapons Ian.
Nice job.
We had one of the carriage mounted versions at the GWE museum i used to work at. Presume it's back in PJ's collection now.
Let's go, the legend covering some of my country's military history 🔥🦅
Whenever I hear the word “Fiji,” all I can think about is that show “Red Dwarf” 😂
Yeah, Fushal and the hot dog stand😂
"With a sheep and a cow and breed horses."😁
" they'd have to be really tall "
I can only think how it's a magical place.
bottled water
Thank you for your work
Amazing video, nice installation, the landscape is spectacular!
Try to get yourself out to Gibraltar, Ian. There’s so much interesting history there to view.
Interesting bit of WW2 history, thanks
When the war is over would love to see Ian cover Maxim Gorky Fortresses, the cannons there are incredible.
I explored around the fortifications in suva when i lived there
God knows how many times I've driven past the bay on the Friday arvo dash from Suva to Nadi and didnt even know that was there.
Thank you for the tour and the history lesson! Much better than the captioned photos I've heretofore seen.
I've visited the battery complex on the Marin Headlands north of San Francisco many times. No weapons anymore, unfortunately, but the emplacements, bunkers, and observations are still there. Fascinating stuff, especially because they were used for hidden "pop up" artillery.
There's also a Nike missile museum, complete and working except for warheads and propellant (and guards and attack dogs). The tour is well-worth the effort, they crank a missile from underground into firing configuration.
Yeah, I went to see those two years ago when I went. There's still one 6" gun in position at Battery Chamberlain
@@MandolinMagi Over seven years I never had the correct weekend off to tour the south side of the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. 😢
When Ian covers large guns it feels like the history teacher is having the class outside.
I really enjoy these more location and history focused videos
We all know this is just an excuse to write off Ian's Fiji trip as a business expense
A good excuse! 🏝
Do they really bottle Fiji spring water there? Noone talks about Fiji in WWII this is interesting
Yeah they drain the water out of the barrel.
Yes. They have 6” diameter bottles that they load and then fire at other countries at maximum elevation to utilize existing infrastructure and streamline export logistics
@@johnmurcott1273oof
The water comes from there. I don't know if they bottle it on the island though. I think they might ship it to California to be bottled in large tanks
@@nomoneyglobalGoogle says the water is bottled in Viti Levu
I live on an island and there are several old gun batteries at many of the local parks. But unfortunately they removed all the actual guns and they're left with just the concrete bunkers. It's still interesting to walk through them, but I wish they'd have examples like this available for the public to see. I like seeing pieces of history like this.
In Torremolinos near Malaga there are guns in place at Parque de la Bateria.
Come visit Corregidor Island in the Philippines. Im sure you will love it.
perfect piece for my edc
I appreciate that you now get to write off this trip as a business expense. I salute you!
Reminds me ovva battery overlooking the approaches to English Bay, Vancouver. The search-light towers are down at the water-line. The gun casements are up a very steep escarpment. Come seeit, sometime !
This will go down as one of my favorites, because I was so not expecting it and because as always, the historical detail was fascinating even if these weren’t some bad boys who laid waste to Japanese vessels. Thanks for this one, Ian 👍
I love coastal defense guns- I grew up visiting fort miles in Delaware Almost every year when I grew up- they used to have all of their large guns sitting in a field but have since placed them in a more museum like areangement
Bula Ian... thank you for the great video of this heritage site. Just so you know, the Queen's gun was manufactured during the reign of Queen Victoria and the King's a year or two later when King Edward VII succeeded her.
Great history lesson Ian. Thank you for your work.
Was waiting for a complete field strip of the gun!
Really enjoy watching your videos, Thank you.
If you're this close to NZ, you should come here and do a video. We have some interesting old war stuff.
Yes, the The Makara gun emplacements outside of Wellington are nearly identical to this Momi Bay site.
Aloha; I hope you had a chance to do a similar presentation on New Caledonia and why it was deemed essential for the Allies to protect. Mahalo
These installations, as with many in Britain and elsewhere were known to the axis forces. Thus they served to provide detterent greater than the cost of provision..
You should check out the coastal defense installations at old Fort Pickens in Florida.
There is a AA and coastal battery at Lomolomo 5mins away and an USN flying boat/seaplane base thats under water at Saweni 15mins away from Nadi airport.
I've always wanted to go to Fiji, there was this girl I met in my junior year of college that I fell madly in love for. Even though we didnt have much time together, Ill always remember her face.
I didnt get a picture of her but I can still see her face in my mind, and sometimes I recognize parts of her face in various magazines I see and read.
Her and her family suddenly had to move to Fiji and Ive always wanted to visit to see if I could find her some day, but every time I tried to go it seemed like there was something stopping me from going, my fear of water, flying, huge sudden traffic jams, or even one time a nuclear disaster!
Anyways thanks for reading this, in case I don't see you... good afternoon, good evening, and good night!
A most excellent presentation!
I was really looking forward to these being available to win
Excellent, thanks Ian!
I was waiting for the ballpoint pen to come out and the disassembly to start.
You should swing up to the Marin Headlands north of San Francisco sometime to check out the Nike missile and naval gun batteries scattered along those hills and beaches. Super cool.
Another great place to visit to see very well preserved
Coastal and anti aircraft emplacements, radar instillation and light Japanese tanks is Pohnpei FSM.
There were pretty extensive coastal defense sites along the US west coast, especially in Puget Sound in Washington state. Most of those are now Washington State Parks, and are open to tour. A few still have the guns in place.
I could kick myself!
In '88 I traveled the south of Viti Levu from Nadi to Suva and back. I hung out with a couple of Fijian soldiers, and we talked about their experiences as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon - but none of them said anything about the Involvement of Fiji in WWII, let alone that there were museums about it 😞What a missed opportunity 😞
There are indeed many of these sort of gun emplacements still standing around the U.K. . It’s interesting to see one with a gun still in place, albeit disabled. Most of the gun emplacements I’ve seen are fully stripped of any guns and in many cases uncared for and left to the elements. Many are now looked after by small local charities such as the Blyth Batteries from the First and Second World Wars on the North East Coast of England (North of Newcastle upon Tyne). Well worth a visit during the summer months when some of the support buildings are open to the public.
And the Hartlepool raid, and planned Sunderland raid, of WWI demonstrated why you needed coastal batteries in the North East.
Can't wait to see you take this out on the range 😄
Ian writing off a tropical vacation by claiming it as a business expense. Well done sir, well done.
Great video thank you Ian
What, no disassembly...!? another great Video and from a great location
I was expecting Ian to field strip it LOL, great history.
Others might note that Fiji is the destination of HMS Bounty during its ill-fated trip to obtain Breadfruit which eventually ended in mutiny.
A similar, 3 gun battery was placed on Point Grey (Vancouver, BC) controlling the entrance to the harbour during WW II. I don't know the current state, but ~20 years ago one of the battery emplacments (minus the gun) was still in very recognizable shape albeit partly overgrown with blackberry brambles, right behind the Museum of Anthropology. Not surprisingly, the layout of the gun platform and local storage for shells and cordite looks very much like this. There were (likely still are?) also two, remotely controled two story concrete searchlight towers on the beach below (now better known as clothes optional Rec Beach). I used to go sit at the battery site sometimes and try to picture what it looked like fully installed - really neat to see this video and get that filled in a bit more.
We have a trio of forts in Wa state that covered a triangle from port townsend to whidbey Island and I don't recall the 3rd forts location but on completion they fired all of Fort Casey's guns simultaneously during the commissioning ceremony and blew out every window in the area.. and it was a big area
It's not in the sound, but there is Fort Columbia at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Washington side. It still has two 6" guns but they are not original. It was transferred there in 1994 when Fort McAndrew (Newfoundland) was decommissioned.
The third battery was at Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island.
@@levigato125 That's the one.. Flagler.. thank you
Small correction The Battle of Coral Sea was the one that stalled the Japanese advance towards Fiji, not the Battle of Midway.
There is at least one fortification in Wellington New Zealand which is almost identical in design to this one! This makes a lot of sense but it is so interesting and satisfying to see. I've always wanted to know what the old fortifications would look like with guns installed and because this is almost exactly the same, now I know!
Really enjoy this type of video! Great job.
There’s a similar battery in Darwin Australia but with 9 inch guns. Very cool.
I like how with the wind and that bird or whatever it almost sounds like there's some ominous electronic music playing in the background while he talks about the tourist economy in his hawaiian shirt next to the old cannon.
I like how Ian made a silent movie at the end
Yes, a pity - sound levels dipping at different points. A shirt mike attached to a simple recorder can make a big difference!
Skill issue
Ah, Fiji. You can't get any further away, before you start coming back.
In Fiji King and Queen can often mean north and south. The kings road goes north from Suva all the way around to Lautoka, and the Queens road goes west out of Suva around the south part of the island to Lautoka. Lautoka and Suva being Fiji’s only two cities. Everything else is a town or village.
If any of them are still there, I would really be interested in seeing a video on the coastal guns in the Dalmatian Channels off of southern Croatia. There was a battle which took place there in 1991 and the Croatians had multiple calibers of guns being used as coastal defenses. Everything from 76mm ZiS-3 divisional guns to 90mm cannons (I assume they were American AA guns).
Fiji has to be one of the most desirable postings in wartime ever, especially as the Japanese never really came near it.
Amazing video ! 👍🏻
An unexpected but very welcome video