#defenses — Public Fediverse posts

Just Like Ukraine, West Running Short of Munitions for Air Defenses: NATO Official https://www.byteseu.com/1994350/ #According #Admiral #air #ammunition #and #are #Countries #Defense #Defenses #due #Europe #for #french #Islam #Just #Like #low #Missile #munitions #NATO #of #official #Pierre #Production #rates #running #short #times #to #Ukraine #vandier #West #Western

Bitcoin’s Quiet Revolution: Building Defenses as Geopolitics Roar

Bitcoin developers unveil quantum attack prototypes as Morgan Stanley launches a spot ETF and geopolitical events drive volatility.…
#Politics #bitcoin #bitcoins #Building #defenses #geopolitics #Morgan #quiet #revolution #roar #stanley
https://www.europesays.com/2911518/

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/03/tuesday-march-24-2026/

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/03/tuesday-march-24-2026/

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/03/tuesday-march-24-2026/

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/03/tuesday-march-24-2026/

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/03/tuesday-march-24-2026/

Some #US #air #defenses from #Europe have been moved to the #Middle #East amid the ongoing #war against #Iran, the head US military commander in Europe

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-war-us-israel-trump-03-12-26?post-id=cmmnlzcg100003b6vomlz1h9y

#Iran Hits Radars That Underpin #US Missile #Defenses
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/politics.html#31

#CNN at #Tehran’s Shahran oil depot after strike
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/youtube.html#51

Two fires in rural #Limassol ‘definitely set maliciously’,
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/world-capitals.html#Nicosia

#China’s double-photon device breaks efficiency ceiling
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/world-capitals.html#Beijing

Top Met #Police cop who planned King's coronation embroiled
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/uk.html#2

#Vance, #Rubio y otros miembros del círculo íntimo de
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/etc-states.html#46

#US #air #defenses may not be able to intercept many of #Iran’s one-way #drones

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan #Caine acknowledged, are posing a bigger problem than anticipated

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/04/politics/us-air-defenses-iran-attack-drones-challenge

Europe to ramp up nuclear defenses amid ongoing Russia Ukraine tensions

https://misryoum.com/us/us24/europe-to-ramp-up-nuclear-defenses-amid-ongoing/

NEWYou can now listen to US News Hub MISRYOUM News articles! Europe is ramping up its nuclear defenses, as France expands its arsenal and Poland signals interest in closer nuclear coordination with allies. "I have decided to increase the numbers...

#Europe #ramp #nuclear #defenses #amid #ongoing #Russia #Ukraine #tensions #US_News_Hub #misryoum_com

Europe to ramp up nuclear defenses amid ongoing Russia Ukraine tensions

https://misryoum.com/us/us24/europe-to-ramp-up-nuclear-defenses-amid-ongoing/

NEWYou can now listen to US News Hub MISRYOUM News articles! Europe is ramping up its nuclear defenses, as France expands its arsenal and Poland signals interest in closer nuclear coordination with allies. "I have decided to increase the numbers...

#Europe #ramp #nuclear #defenses #amid #ongoing #Russia #Ukraine #tensions #US_News_Hub #misryoum_com

Friday, January 23, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/01/friday-january-23-2026/

Friday, January 23, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/01/friday-january-23-2026/

Friday, January 23, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/01/friday-january-23-2026/

Friday, January 23, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/01/friday-january-23-2026/

Friday, January 23, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/01/friday-january-23-2026/

Ringo #Mühlmann, an #AfD politician, has repeatedly asked to disclose details on subjects such as local #drone #defenses and #arms transports to #Ukraine.

This information, his political opponents say, could be of great interest to #russian intelligence.

https://www.politico.eu/article/germanys-far-right-afd-accused-of-gathering-information-for-the-kremlin/

EU seeks better defenses against China export curbs, other economic threats

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The European Commission outlined plans on Wednesday to make the European Union more resilient to threats such as rare…
#Economy #better #China #curbs #defenses #economic #EconomyofEU #EconomyoftheEU #EU #EUeconomy #Europe #export #other #seeks #threats
https://www.europesays.com/2610067/

La #révolution de l’ #immunité #ancestrale : quand nos #défenses sont un héritage des #bactéries

https://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2025/11/24/la-revolution-de-l-immunite-ancestrale-quand-nos-defenses-sont-un-heritage-des-bacteries_6654660_1650684.html

#China has helped #russia gain a key #battlefield advantage in its grinding #war against #Ukraine, dramatically increasing exports of key components needed to make the fiber-optic #drones that have enabled #moscow to overwhelm #Ukrainian #defenses

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/10/13/china-russia-drone-parts-ukraine/

Sunday, September 28, 2025

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025/09/sunday-september-28-2025/

The talks in #Alaska left #putin convinced that #Trump has no interest in intervening in the conflict and that he is unlikely to do much to bolster #Kyiv’s #defenses

#US #russia #Ukraine #war

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-20/putin-decides-russia-can-step-up-ukraine-attacks-and-trump-won-t-act

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Russia occupied less than 1% of Ukraine’s territory since November 2022, monitoring group says — Russian media shows US armored vehicle with Russian, American flags storming Ukrainian positions — Russian gasoline prices hit record highs after drone strikes shut refineries — Muscle beaches, drag racing, and drones falling into the sea. Summer in Odesa hasn’t stopped — In Ukraine, democracy finds its fiercest defenders … and more

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025/08/tuesday-august-19-2025/

A recent confidential report to the Federal Budget Committee, reported by Der Spiegel, issues a stark warning from the Federal Court of Audi... https://news.osna.fm/?p=6306 | #news #defenses #digital #failing #germanys

Ukraine’s new interceptor #UAVs starting to knock Russia’s long-range #drones out of the sky

Ukraine is already using interceptors to shoot down Shaheds and is expanding their production

As with much of #Ukraine’s unmanned aerial vehicle development, a fleet of nascent interceptor drones (which shoot other drones out of the sky)is filling gap in traditional anti-air #defenses, as US cuts weapons aid * #Russia expands its drone fleet.

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraines-new-interceptor-drones-are-starting-to-knock-russias-long-range-shahed-drones-out-of-the-sky/

#UkrainianDrones #StandWithUkraine

What’s the best way to protect Earth from killer #asteroid attacks? #NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test is preparing Earth’s planetary #defenses. spectrum.ieee.org/planetary-de...

#Ukraine's #SBU security agency said on Friday it had uncovered a #spy network being run by the #Hungarian state to obtain #intelligence about Ukraine's #defenses.

#russia #war

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-says-it-uncovered-hungarian-spy-network-2025-05-09/

America's cyber defenses are being dismantled from the inside

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/23/trump_us_security/

#HackerNews #cyber #defenses #are #being #dismantled #from #the #inside #cyberdefense #cybersecurity #nationalsecurity #infosec #technews

How #plants #epigenetically regulate their chemical #defenses.

#solanaceae #withanolides #ground-cherry #Physalis #regulation #gene_expression #agriculture #pesticides

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-epigenetically-chemical-defenses.html

👨‍💻 #OSINT: A strategic asset for intelligence agencies?

🛡️ From geopolitical monitoring to industrial protection, counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, cyberattacks, and physical intrusions, #OSINT proves to be indispensable for intelligence agencies across a wide range of fields.

📣 During a conference at The Institute for Higher National Defence Studies, Sylvain HAJRI, CEO of Epieos, provided an in-depth demonstration of how #OSINT can be #strategically employed not only to conduct effective #operations but also to bolster #defenses against external threats.

We extend our sincere gratitude to all the organizers and participants for their contributions in making this event a resounding success.

My latest video is about Self-regulation (the mental level of psychology). It's about defense mechanisms and coping skills.

#psychology #mentalhealth #coping #stress #defenses

https://youtu.be/qHMR9MO9wvI

#Minnesota finally #bans the #LGBTQ+ #panic #defenses.

The #bill has been in #limbo for years, but was pushed through by #out #lawmaker #BironCurran.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/05/minnesota-finally-bans-the-lgbtq-panic-defense/

(AMNN:)
The #Martian Information Minister reports today that there was no successful landing and that Martian air #defenses engaged and shot down their second #UFO in just 10 days. She reiterated that there are definitely
NO pesky #Earthlings roaming the Martian countryside.

She went on to say that Defense Minister Marvin is working on an uber weapon known as the *Illudium Pew-36 Explosive Space Modulator* that
will eliminate all future threats in a single #Earth shattering #KABOOM!

Dude just blocked me. 🤣

Here's how I was trying to reply:
- - -
@KristianHarstad
Do you always uncritically post questionable headlines? 🤷🏽‍♂️

#China 🇨🇳 can *consider* #invasion all it wants, but #Taiwan's 🇳🇫 #defenses, #US 🇺🇸 aid, and #geographical #obstacles all deter an easy invasion.
- - -

Study found #injured #plants #emit certain #chemicalcompounds which can infiltrate a healthy plant’s inner tissues and activate #defenses from within its cells. A better understanding of this mechanism could allow #scientists and #farmers to help fortify plants against #insect attacks or #drought long before they happen. study marks 1st x researchers have been able to visualize plant-to-plant communication https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41589-9 #ClimateCrisis #farming #agriculture

Chairwoman Andrews-Maltais encourages #tribes to reach out to their #legislature to increase and strengthen the laws of #ICWA to fortify the #defenses against ever-present threats.

#HaalandvBrackeen #Brackeen #lawfedi
#legalscholarship
#lawprof

#Trump's "#defenses" #summarized in seven words:

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH THEY CAN'T DO THIS TO ME"

A day of firsts; the thread about the start of the air war over Britain above the Firth of Forth

This thread was originally written and published in July 2023.

On September 3rd 1939, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, drawing the country into what would become the Second World War. This early period of the war is sometimes called the “Phoney War”, on account of the relatively limited military activity between France, Germany and Britain on the Western Front. However on Monday 16th October 1939, the air war over Britain commenced over the Firth of Forth as German bombers made their first air raid on the country of the war and the RAF squadrons defending Edinburgh went immediately to war.

603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron – an auxiliary squadron defending its home city from RAF Turnhouse – claimed the first German aircraft to be shot down by an RAF fighter over British territory in WW2 on that very day. At about 14:45, Red Section under Flt. Lt. “Patsy” Gifford fatally damaged a Ju-88 bomber near Cockenzie. The German aircraft, from squadron KG30, crashed into the Forth 4 miles offshore. The Cockenzie fishing boat Dayspring, skippered by John Dickson, rescued the crew. They admitted that they were reluctant at first to do so, but they were sailors foremost and overcame their misgivings to help those in peril on the sea.

Rear gunner OGefr. Kramer had been killed before the plane crashed and was never found, but pilot OLt. Hans Storp and crewmen Hugo Rohnke and Hans Georg Heilscher were saved and sent to the military hospital at Edinburgh Castle, the first German military prisoners in Britain of WW2. The grateful Storp gave his gold ring to John Dickson in thanks for his life.

Earlier that morning, at 09:30, the “Chain Home” radar station at Drone Hill in Berwick shire had identified two enemy aircraft approaching over the North Sea. At 10:21, Flt. Lt. George Pinkerton of 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron became the first RAF fighter pilot to attack a German aircraft over Britain when his Spitfire engaged and damaged a He-111 bomber over the Isle of May. This aircraft – one of two from squadron KG26 – had been on a reconnaissance flight to photograph the naval dockyard at Rosyth and was chased east out to sea where it evaded its pursuers, returning safely home. 602 Squadron had been redeployed eastwards to defend Edinburgh and the Forth and had been based out of RAF Drem in East Lothian for just 3 days.

A confused game of cat and mouse now commenced between the RAF and Luftwaffe all along the East Coast of Scotland for much of the morning and early afternoon as attempts were made to intercept sporadic German incursions. The radar sets failed to work properly and broke down, phantom raiders were reported by the public and the ground controllers got their calculations back to front and sent the defending fighters in the wrong directions.

That afternoon the weather was good – clear skies with only broken cloud. At 14:20, the Royal Observer Corps, trained ground spotters whose job was to identify and report enemy aircraft over land, confirmed the presence of Ju-88 bombers in East Lothian. These were 12 aircraft commanded by Haupt. Helmuth Pohle of squadron KG30 and had been sent on a mission to attack the Royal Navy at Rosyth, based on the reports from the morning reconnaissance flight that George Pinkerton and 602 Squadron had intercepted. Once again, those Spitfires were scrambled to meet the raiders. At 14:27, the anti aircraft battery at Dalmeny reported the bombers flying up the Forth. The attackers had been forbidden to attack the Dockyard itself for fear of civilian casualties, so aimed for the ships anchored in the Firth. While the gunners frantically phoned for permission to open fire, the bombs began to fall.

The first wave of attackers targeted the cruiser HMS Southampton. At 14:35, the 500kg bombs fell around the ship but missed; however two of her boats that had been anchored alongside, including the Admiral’s personal barge, were sunk. At 14:38 – three minutes after the start of the attack – the orders for the defenders to open fire were given and every anti-aircraft gun on land and on ships that could be brought to bare opened up. At the same time, the next wave of attackers, those led by OLt. Hans Storp, arrived. They approached from the south over Threipmuir Reservoir and commenced their bombing run.

By now, both 602 (City of Glasgow) and 603 (City of Edinburgh) squadrons were in the air. Yellow Section of 603 attacked Storp and put his port engine out of action. The plane limped towards East Lothian out to sea, in a futile attempt to escape, which was where Red Section under Patsy Gifford brought it down. The victorious 603 were now ordered to return to Turnhouse to re-arm and re-fuel, leaving the defence in the hands of 602 Squadron. Blue Section, under George Pinkerton, spotted the aircraft of Helmuth Pohle over Inverkeithing and gave chase through the broken cloud. Pinkerton and his wing-man Archie McKellar attacked, killing two of the German machine’s crew and incapacitating both its engines. It headed for the sea near Crail and ditched three miles off of Fife Ness. The time was somewhere between 14:45 and 14:55, the Observer Corps putting the crash at the latter time, but McKellar and Pinkerton are credited with gaining the “first kill” before Patsy Gifford in some chronologies.

The events of October 16th had not yet concluded however. About 25 minutes after Pohle’s machine crashed, another Ju-88 bomber appeared over the outer reaches of the Forth. It had escaped interception up to this point as the ground observers had initially thought it to be a friendly Bristol Blenheim (an easy mistake, as the two were somewhat similar and the Ju-88 was a brand new aircraft and almost totally unseen by British eyes this early in the war). It found the destroyer HMS Mohawk off of the fishing village of Elie & Earlsferry and attacked; dropping its bombs and firing its machine guns at the ship.

By the time it was chased off by one of 602 Squadron’s Spitfires, 13 men including First Lieutenant E. J. Shea had been killed. Her captain, Commander Richard Jolly, was fatally wounded but refused to abandon his post and brought his ship safely back to Rosyth before dying a few hours later. In total 16 men from the Mohawk would lose their lives that day.

The last of the raiders that day appeared in ones and twos across the Lothians around 16:00 and were chased across the Forth, RAF Turnhouse, Edinburgh, Leith and Portobello by the Spitfires of 603 Squadron, but to no avail. Minor injuries were caused across the city from broken glass as bullets fired in the sky came down to earth and painter Joe McLuskie, working on a house in Abercorn Terrace, Portobello, was hit in the stomach and had to undergo emergency surgery in Leith Hospital. The raid had also claimed its first animal victim of the air war over Britain when Lady, a spaniel belonging to Mrs Mercer of Alma Street in Inverkeithing, was struck by shrapnel from falling “friendly” anti-aircraft shells and had to be put down as a result. The noise of the bombs and guns had panicked the animal and it had run off into the street.

Off of Crail, a fishing boat hauled four ditched German airmen from the sea. Crewmen Kurt Seydel and August Schleicher were already dead, Kurt Naake was mortally wounded and would not survive, leaving pilot Helmuth Pohle – nursing a broken jaw – as the sole survivor. He was sent to the naval hospital in Port Edgar. The bodies of Seydel and Schleicher lay in state at St. Phillip’s Church in Portobello, their coffins draped in Swastika flags, and were buried with military honours observed by a respectful turnout of locals at Portobello Cemetery. The proceedings were led by Henry Steel, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and many men from both 602 and 603 Squadrons were in attendance with the pipe band of 603 providing a musical lament. The pair were re-interred in a German military cemetery in England after the war.

Both Patsy Gifford and George Pinkerton would receive the Distinguished Flying Cross award for their efforts that day. Gifford, a reservist who was in peacetime a lawyer and town councillor from Castle Douglas, was sent to command 3 Squadron RAF in November 1939. He was shot down and killed over Belgium in May 1940.

Gifford and Pinkerton both have claims to their “first”. However neither claimed either the first British or first RAF aerial victories of the war. On September 26th 1939, Lt. Cdr. Bruce S. McEwen of 803 Squadron Fleet Air Arm and flying from HMS Ark Royal (therefore a Royal Navy aviator and not in the RAF) shot down a German Do-18 flying boat over the North Sea off Norway, the first British aerial victory of the way. The below photo was taken by the destroyer HMS Somali when they rescued its crew.

Another Do-18 would become the first German aircraft brought down by an RAF aircraft flying from the British mainland, was claimed by a Lockheed Hudson patrol aircraft of 224 Squadron Coastal Command out of RAF Leuchars on 8th October. The Hudson, actually a modified American airliner and intended to be a bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, proved to have a surprising capability as a long range fighter in the early part of the war.

And two weeks after 602 Squadron’s Pinkerton and McKellar brought Helmuth Pohle’s war to a premature end off of Crail, Archie McKellar shot down an He-111 bomber of squadron KG26, flown by Uffz. Kurt Lehmkuhl over East Lothian. This was the first RAF victory that brought down a plane over land, the machine making a crash landing in the Lammermuir hills near Humbie.

Another He-111 was shot down by 602 Squadron out of RAF Drem on February 9th 1940, with Squadron Leader Douglas Farquar bringing it down in a field just outside North Berwick.

This was the first chance for British intelligence to get a close up look of such a machine in a flyable condition and it was therefore partially dismantled and towed away for onwards transport to the Boffins down south. The plane was put back together, repaired, and commissioned into the RAF as part of the “Rafwaffe” of captured machines. Here it is seen going down Dirleton Avenue in North Berwick to the bemusement of onlookers.

Remarkably, there’s a colour cine film of it going down Musselburgh High Street, exciting much local interest, on its way to RAF Turnhouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwhXwLhWDEc

Hans Storp’s Ju-88 would suffer the misfortune of being the first pilot and aircraft to be shot down twice in the war, when in December 1939 a re-enactment of his last flight took place for the propaganda film “Squadron 992“. An RAF Bristol Blenheim (which the observers had confused with the German Ju-88 back in October) stood in for the German machine on this occasion. The Cockenzie fisherman John Dickson, his crew, and their boat the Dayspring reprised their roles from that day and played themselves for the cameras.

You can watch the film Squadron 992 on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XycuXAtLyo4

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#Delaware poised to become 17th #state to #ban #LGBTQ #panic #defenses.

The Bill passed with #unanimous, #bipartisan #support in #senate

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Delaware #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Homophobia #Transphobia

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/06/30/panic-defense-delaware/

The thread about Leith Fort and why it was soon abandoned as a defensive position

Historic Environment Scotland released a very nice 3D model of a 19th century gun from Fort George mounted on a “traversing frame“.

In case you didn’t know, there was also once an artillery fort in Leith – Leith Battery or Redoubt (but for simplicity’s sake we shall call it the Fort) – and most of its guns were mounted in this manner. The animation shows a 32pdr weapon and Leith originally had smaller 24pdrs (pdr, or pounder, was the weight of the shot in pounds, the method by which such artillery was classified).

The Fort had been built in something of a panic commencing in 1780, after Leith and Edinburgh had been threatened by the squadron of the American John Paul Jones in 1779 during the War of Independence. A temporary battery of cannon was placed in North Leith to cover the entrance to the Port of Leith from seaborne assault; the tidal nature of the harbour meant any ship intent on entry had to navigate a relatively narrow and defined channel. When the dust from the John Paul Jones panic had settled it was decided to formalise this battery into a permanent defensive fortification. It was somewhat unusual in origin in that it was largely paid for and constructed by not the military but by the City of Edinburgh and the town of Leith. It was further unusual in that its architect was the mason James Craig – better known for his plan of Edinburgh’s New Town – who was not a military engineer. Captain Andrew Frazer, the Army’s Chief Engineer for Scotland who had designed and superintended the construction of Fort George, therefore oversaw the practical details. The Board of Ordnance completed the construction and fitting out of the Fort after it was handed over to them by the Town Council only completed up to the level of the first storey. It took until 1793 until everything was finalised and it was formally occupied by the Royal Artillery.

I have read more than once than the Fort was something of a folly, incapable of fulfilling its intended purpose of defending the Port of Leith. But if you plot the fields of fire of its artillery you get a good idea of how advantageously sited it actually was; the intensity of the red shading shows how many guns can be trained to fire at that particular point. The effective range of the 24pdr weapons was just shy of 1,000 metres; any ship making an attack on the port therefore had to transit a considerable distance under the overlapping fire of the Fort‘s guns. A newspaper report of artillery practice in 1840 confirmed the guns were capable of firing on practice targets located at 200 to 1,200 yards distant with some degree of accuracy.

A contemporary account notes;

The Battery will effectually command the range from one mile to one mile and a half of the road for shipping and the entry to the harbour

John Smith’s Houses and Streets of Edinburgh

An original survey of the fort made by the Board of Ordnance in 1785 gives details of its planned artillery. The principal battery, annotated at a and b were the eight 24pdr cannons; those at b were on traversing frames, those at a on wheeled carriages. The traversing frame offered the advantage that the gun could be rapidly trained to aim at the target, the wheel carriage was quite cumbersome and required block and tackle to shift its aim. If you follow the link to this Youtube video, it shows such a 24pdr cannon on a traversing frame being loaded, aimed and fired by re-enactors at Old Fort Henry in Ontario, Canada. Notice it takes the best part of 3.5 minutes to complete the loading and firing drill although regular gunners in the 18th and 19th century would have probably had this down nearer to a minute.

At c was a colossal 13 inch mortar: that distance being the diameter of the bore, not the length of the weapon! The mortar was a terrifying weapon, more suited to siege work and with a very slow rate of fire thanks to its huge 195lb (90kg) explosive bombs. But even a near miss from one of these would have made it very difficult for any small boats caught in the blast, or for ships trying to anchor outside the port or come alongside its piers. In addition it could fire a special “ball light” shot to help illuminating the scene for night actions. You can read a full information leaflet about the 13 inch mortar here.

In addition to all this firepower there was a trainable 18pdr weapon to protect the seaward entrance and a single 68pdr Carronade mounted at the lower level. The Carronade was for point-blank use against ships trying to force their way into the Port of Leith. It was a compact but very powerful weapon intended to cause extreme damage at shorter ranges. It took its name from its inventors, the Carron Company, a pioneering Scottish ironworks which was further up the River Forth, near Falkirk. Coincidentally they had a foundry in Leith at this time.

To protect the Fort from naval gunfire it had two broad parapet walls, faced and backed with masonry. The inner parapet, of the battery itself (at B on the diagram) was further protected with a ditch, through which ran a fence.

Protection from the ravages of the waters and storms of the Firth of Forth – which had reduced the seaward walls and bastions of Cromwell’s nearby 1655 Citadel to rubble in a matter of years – came from a sea wall was constructed in front in 1785. To reinforce this and to secure it against direct assault by small boats, 3 rows of large wooden posts were driven into it.

The rest of the Fort‘s defences all pointed landward, with loopholes along the walls and corner bastions to provide enfilading fire (i.e. they can shoot lengthways along the face of a wall, to prevent any attackers from taking refuge up against it from the defenders above). As well as its 100 gunners, there was accommodation for a squad of 12 defending soldiers and their sergeant. It was not designed or intended to resist a siege, this was purely self defence to prevent it being overwhelmed before regular forces from Edinburgh could come to its relief.

There is a single contemporary image of the Fort that I am aware of, a sketch made in 1784 looking from the west towards Leith. In it we can see the grass-covered battery wall, with the notches cut in it for firing the guns through, the flag pole, and some of the accommodation buildings to the right.

Helpfully, it confirms that the Fort was actually armed, one of the 24 pounders can be seen poking through its loophole.

In 1805 and 1806, it is recorded that Leith had five 24pdrs and four, later siz, 18pdrs. The 24pdrs were still there, on more modern carriages, around 1843 when David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson took some calotype photographs of some of the weapons and men of the Fort. A newspaper report in the Caledonian Mercury of April 1847 noted the strength at Leith Fort was seven 24pdrs, four 18pdrs and a 10 inch mortar.

An 1860s newspaper illustration shows the City of Edinburgh Artillery Volunteers practising at the Fort, but their weapons look to be rather larger than the 24pdrs and on more substantial carriages than the iron ones shown in Hill and Adamson’s photos. It was reported that in February 1860 that three 32pdr and three 64pdr cannon were delivered to Leith from Woolwich; judging by the scale the weapons below are the 64pdrs. The Volunteers were raised in 1859 on the back of an invasion scare, and there was much enthusiasm to join; 9 batteries were formed in Edinburgh and Leith alone. Their role was to man the home defences in times of invasion and to provide mobile support to the regulars, using agricultural horses to haul their weaponry to where it was required.

A side-effect of the invasion scare was that the military stockpiled immense quantities of gunpowder and ammunition in both Leith Fort and Edinburgh Castle. Leith found itself being used as the main ordnance store for all of “North Britain”. The Town Councils of Edinburgh and Leith were alarmed to discover in 1865 that there were one hundred and thirty barrels at Leith, each containing 100lbs of black powder. This 130,000lbs amounts to 59 metric tonnes, “sufficient to blow the whole town into the Firth of Forth” as Mr Wishart, a Leith Town Councillor, put it. Official remonstrations to the government resulted in Blackness Castle, further up the Forth, being converted into a central gunpowder store for Scotland and by 1870 the stockpiles had a much safer new home, away from the centres of population and industry.

Hill & Adamson’s pictures also show a number of small, horse-drawn field artillery pieces. These would have been suitable for rapid deployment to firing positions outwith the Fort in the event of action.

Between 1795 and 1815, there are thirteen recorded substantial repair and improvement works at Leith, including making provision for it to hold French prisoners during the Napoleonic wars. However the Fort‘s life as an artillery battery was cut short. When the new wet docks began to be constructed in Leith along Commercial Street in 1801 by John Rennie they blocked the field of fire of the Fort and rendered it “useless as a work of defence“. These docks would take some 16 years to complete and ended in a government bail-out of the near-bankrupt Edinburgh Town Council, requiring that the latter cede land to the Naval Board who moved the Leith Naval Yard from Constitution Street to a more advantageous position directly below the Fort.

New defensive bastions were constructed on the sea wall of the wet docks, where cannons could be mounted in times of threat. The outer approaches of the harbour were to be defended by a Martello Tower, work on which commenced in 1809. Left also to the City of Edinburgh to finance and construct, it took them a whole 29 years before they handed it over to the military; unfinished! The Fort was ultimately re-purposed as an artillery depot, as a barracks and as a muster and training depot for artillery volunteers. By the end of the 19th century, the weaponry allocated to the Fort was a mixed bag of older weapons for drill purposes. It continued to serve as an artillery depot right up until the 1950s and its final occupants, the Royal Army Pay Corps, paraded out in 1956 and the location was locked up and abandoned.

It was afterwards re-purchased by the City of Edinburgh and it formed a core part of the Leith Fort Comprehensive Redevelopment Area, its inner buildings apart from a pair of guard houses were demolished and an infamous housing scheme was constructed within it’s tall, oppressive walls.

This scheme, which had all the ambience and aesthetic of a prison (and in later life, most of the social ills of one), was demolished in 2013 and a much more pleasant housing development replaced it, with the Fort’s oppressive walls much reduced in height. Somewhat appropriately, the new streets within are called Guardhouse Parade, Cannon Wynd and John Paul Jones View.

For a comprehensive paper with detailed research on the Fort and the Napoleonic defences of the Forth, you can download The Fixed Defences of the Forth in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1779-1815 by Gordon Barclay and Ron Morris from the Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal. This has proved an invaluable source for me on some of the details of how Leith Fort was actually used and equipped.

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Battle for Secure Caches: #Attacks and #Defenses on #Randomized #Caches

Post from Sept. 2021 which got no attention.

Some next level stuff... 👀

Source and Image Credit
https://www.sigarch.org/battle-for-secure-caches-attacks-and-defenses-on-randomized-caches/