Kaylyn & I went to see the scheduled firing of the East Fort canon today on Heritage Day at Hout Bay. The weather unfortunately deterioted an hour before firing. We ended up huddled under and umbrella. The Heritage Trust had opened the WWII Pillbox and some people huddled in there listening to the fascinating history of the Pillbox, Canon and Fort. With the rain pelting down it was decided for safety'ssake to just fire the single canon near the pillbox instead of the rolling barage that was planned with the 6 canon further down.
The WWII Pillbox was used for range finding to direct fire from a 9.2" battery on the other side of the bay. It was one of a chain of such defences that prevented the Japanese from attempting a landing at the Cape during WWII.
The canon themselves date back to about 1781 and were placed there to protect the harbour and landing.
See all my East Fort photos from previous occasions as well at www.flickr.com/photos/dvdmerwe/tags/eastfort/.
Also see the stunning video I shot of the actual firing at www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkOqjtwaM4E. You can hear the rain coming down on my umbrella.
See where this photo was taken at maps.yuan.cc/.
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