Dacian Warbands

So onwards and upwards with the Dacians and an opportunity to bring progress up to date with my Dacian Warbands recently outlined in my project update that stated boldly that I had six warbands done and planned to press on with the next six.

Romano Dacian Collection Update

It was on the completion of warband number seven that I realised that I hadn't taken any parade shots of warband number six completed back in the early autumn of 2018 before I started work on my Sarmatians and so when I went back to put links to the previous units in this post I suddenly realised my error; this despite the previous unit taking part in Will's and my Xmas game and appearing in that post - doh!

So here are the previous posts for those interested on looking back or seeing them for the first time and here I will feature units six and seven.

Dacian Warband One
Dacian Warband Two
Dacian Warband Three
Dacian Warband Four
Dacian Warband Five

Warbands six on the right and seven on the left

As will be seen from previous posts I have looked at the wargaming features of these large units that like most warband armies focus their hitting power in the initial charge and by using their size in manpower to hopefully overwhelm the smaller Roman units they are most likely to come up against.

In addition a Dacian force offers added extras in terms of slightly better protected and more enthusiastic warriors in the form of their Cap-Wearer elite units and the added punch of their falx wielding ones.

Illustration by G Embleton - Osprey - Rome's Enemies - Germanics and Dacians

What little information there is on the look of these units is based primarily on the visual references left from antiquity in the form of Trajan's column and the Adamclisi monument which gives tantalizing hints as to the look and dress of Dacian soldiers captured in the illustration above and which informs the look of my units.

Warband number six with its 'brave warriors' out front 

As for the way the Dacians organised their forces and how they operated on the battlefield it is left to the imagination and educated guesswork but based on more recent periods I have wargamed in I think units or groups of infantry anywhere between five hundred and a thousand warriors wouldn't have been unreasonable to have seen used; allowing for command and control issues with sizes greater than that, with these groups representing the upper end of that scale and twice the size of my Roman cohorts.

As a warband force the Dacians tend to get lumped alongside the Celts and Germans who engaged the Romans along the Rhine-Danube frontier particularly as the delineation between empire and barbarian tribal areas became more established.

However whilst showcasing these new additions to the collection I thought it might be interesting to look at the early clash between Rome and Dacia just prior to Trajan assuming the purple and describing the challenge that they posed to the empire.

Moesia, Pannonia and Dacia - 117AD
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RomanEmpire_117_-_Moesia_Superior_and_Moesia_Inferior.svg

The Dacians were a Thracian people, but Dacia was also occupied by Daco-Germans and Celto Dacians supported by allies such as the Roxolani Sarmatians as outlined in my post covering the Sarmatian units.

Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus 51 - 96 AD - Domitian
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domiziano_da_collezione_albani,_fine_del_I_sec._dc._02.JPG

In the winter of 85/86 AD Dacian forces attacked Roman defences in Moesia, ravaging the wider country and killing the Roman Governor, Oppius Sabinus, in a battle which is reported to have seen the loss of three thousand legionaries; which prompted Emperor Domitian to reorganize Moesia into two provinces before leading the operation to clear the provinces of the invaders.

The Dacian ruler at this time is thought to have been Diurapaneus (Durpaneus) who either forcibly or willingly yielded power to Decebalus.

The new king attempted to sue for peace but his approaches were contemptuously rejected by the Romans and Decebalus is reported to have sent a second messenger, mockingly advising Domitian to buy peace from him by forcing every Roman citizen to pay him two coins each year if they could not expect war and great misery - talk about nerve!

In the spring of 87 AD the jibe had its effect with Praetorian Prefect Cornelius Fuscus leading, what is described as, a large army built around Legio V Alaudae and many auxiliaries across the Danube via a floating bridge where the river narrows above the Iron Gates, an eighty-three mile long narrow gorge on the central Danube.

Little is known from the few surviving accounts of this campaign other than Fuscus' army was seemingly crushed by the Dacians to the extent that Fuscus was killed and Legio V lost standards and artillery pieces that were not recovered until fifteen years later in 102 AD by Trajan's troops.

The latest addition to the growing Dacian host, warband number seven, with plenty of flesh on show.

Rome renewed the offensive in the following year led by General Tettius Julianus (Iulianus) who already had considerable experience fighting tribes on the Lower Danube, leading a much more powerful force of four legions (III Sythica, V Macedonica, II Audiutrix and VII Claudia), again taking the direct route towards Sarmizegetuza via a pontoon bridge of boats and engaging the Dacian army in the narrow mountain valley at Tarpae, not for the last time.

The battle reported by Cassius Dio was described as fierce with countless Dacians killed and Vezina (Avezina) one of Decebalus' chief aides surviving by hiding among the dead to wait for darkness to make his escape.

Tapae erased the shame of Sabinus and Fuscus' defeats but victory was soon eclipsed with a rebellious uprising on the Rhine lead by Antonius Saturninus, Governor of Germania Superior, forcing Domitian to order a rapid withdrawal from Dacia to redeploy his forces in response.

If that were not the only issue Domitian was facing he was also attempting to prosecute a war against the Germanic tribes in Pannonia (Marcomanni and Quadi) and the Sarmatian Iazyges for not supporting Rome in its war with Dacia and thus indirectly supporting the latter.

However according to Dio the operation against Marcomanni ended in disaster, much to Dacia's benefit and to quote.

"Domitian, having been defeated by the Marcomanni, took to flight, and hastily sending messages to Decebalus, king of the Dacians, induced him to make a truce, though he himself had refused to grant one in response to the frequent requests of Decebalus. And so Decebalus accepted his overtures, for he had suffered grievous hardships; yet he did not wish to hold a conference with Domitian personally, but instead sent Diegis (his brother) with the men, to give him the arms and a few captives who, he pretended, were the only ones he had."

When Diegis arrived in Rome he went before the Senate and symbolically handed over the weapons and in an impressive ceremony was crowned with a gold diadem by Domitian himself, however Dio states that:

"the truce had cost (Domitian) something besides his losses, for he had given large sums of money to Decebalus on the spot, as well as artisans of every trade pertaining to both peace and war, and had promised to keep on giving large sums in future."

Dio then went on to describe the festivities that followed to celebrate his victory!

"He graced the festival that followed with many exhibits appropriate to a triumph, though they came from no booty that he had captured; ... The exhibits which he displayed really came from the store of imperial furniture."

The stage was set for what would be increasingly seen as Rome's humiliation at the hands of Decebalus and his Dacians.

 Following Domitian's assassination in September 96 AD and the following rebuke placed on his reign by the Senate 'damnatio memoriae' or condemnation after death, both Emperors Nerva and Trajan who followed him actively distanced themselves from his memory and in the case of the latter used his record to provide the 'casus belli' or justification for the war that followed in the winter of 100/101 AD.

Four Days in September, The Battle of Teutoburg (Second Edition) - Jason R. Abdale

Another year another book review and given my focus on the Roman Principate what better way to start the first book review of 2019, than to pick up my historical reading with a title I had been eyeing up for a while prior to picking this copy up in January, but was wary of ending up with another author rehashing the sources mixed with a generous lashing of unsubstantiated opinion, which many 'coffee table ancients titles' seem to end up being.

I am glad to say that Jason Abdale's offering does not, in my opinion, fall into that growing library but offers some interesting thought-through opinion mixed with an assessment of the primary and secondary sources and the archaeology story that has been revealed in the last thirty odd years since the discovery of the Kalkriese battle site by the late Major Tony Clunn.

Before launching in to offering my thoughts about this title I should just say that my own reading habits have taken a slight detour in recent months, since my last book review in October 2018, as I have taken the time to engage with J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium with The Silmarillion and The Hobbit read just before Xmas, and now up to half way through the six books covering The Lord of the Rings, with a lot of side reading using the material published by Christopher Tolkien covering the wider story and I have had a lot of fun in that process by listening to various podcasts on the subject in tandem with the reading, links provided below.

My 2001 Film Edition copy of the six books in one from Harper Collins 2001

https://theprancingponypodcast.com/
https://tolkienprofessor.com/

That said I thought I would take the opportunity my recent sojourn in Southern Spain offered me, to try out something I very rarely do, that is to read two titles in tandem, and so whilst Lord of the Rings occupied the night-time slot, Four Days in September grabbed the other hours of down time in the day and I found myself gradually adapting to shifting my focus from Middle Earth to the forests of first century Germania with less and less trauma as both reads settled in to a pattern, allowing me to read the latter title within the week.

Anyway enough of this fantasy stuff, back to the historical reality of the first century Roman frontier of Germania and the four epic days of battle that occurred in 9 AD as a Roman army of three legions were brutally removed from the Imperial order of battle.

I tend to approach my historical reading, front and centre, from the perspective of an historical wargamer and thus my reviews are very much geared towards my intended audience, you dear reader, most likely coming from a similar perspective if you have ended up reading this blog.

Thus with my own collection of ancient Germans assembled and recently outlined in my plans for building my Pricipate ancient collection, the period covered by this book is very much in "my wheel-house", to use a phrase borrowed from across the pond.

Abdale's book was first published in 2013 and, as the author points out in his introduction, that this second edition benefits from the eradication of the two principle criticisms his first edition drew amid what was generally popular acclaim from the peer reviews, namely a thorough proof read to remove spelling and grammatical errors in the text and a re-writing of certain sections to make them easier to read and follow. I have to say that I was not troubled with either aspect in my read so can only conclude that a good job was done with this new edition.

The book lays out its stall in the introduction by pointing out that the seeds of the destruction of Varus' army in 9 AD lay very much in the twenty years preceding the battle and that with the destruction of elements of the Vth Legion in Gaul by raiding Germans and the loss of their eagle to them, to the vivid reports of the ferocity of Germans in battle with both Romans and Gallic allies, the Roman commanders of the period could have foreseen the troubles that lay ahead with their further involvement in trying to 'Romanize' the territory east of the Rhine; and that the appointment of Varus, an administrator rather than a military man such as Drusus or Germanicus, was not an appropriate appointment for a territory that still festered with resentment and potential revolt, just needing the right circumstances to provide the ignition.

That ignition point was reached when Arminius, the Cherusci tribal Prince now supposedly brought within the Roman fold by his appointment to the Equites of the Roman hierarchy and therefore entirely trustworthy enough to lead his own tribesmen in an auxiliary cavalry ala and act as a go-between/interpretor for his boss Varus. This position thus allowing him to build a network of conspiracy that would allow him to doom the 17th, 18th and 19th Legions and roll back Roman territorial gains made under Drusus.

All this background is well known from the Roman sources, but Abdale interweaves the general account with background data as to who the two principle actors were in this drama and what brought them together as well as bringing his own expertise in studying tribal history and culture with an emphasis on ancient European tribes, to look closely at the nature of the German tribes of this period and what aspects made them different, one to another.

This latter aspect I found very compelling from a wargaming perspective as I am interested in trying to move away from a 'vanilla' German army to one that allows the different tribal characteristics to be modelled.

Thus the profiles described had me imagining the cavalry based forces emphasised by the description of the Cherusci and Tencteri or the intriguingly disciplined fighting style of the Marcomanni with their professional standing army of 70,000 warriors and 4,000 cavalry, with Paterculus quoted that 'the army constantly drilled and was brought up to a Roman level of professionalism", or the hinted at fighting ability of the Marsi a small but possibly fierce tribe, their name derived from the Latin 'Mars, God of War' that despite its size warranted their selection by Arminius to receive a captured legionary eagle.

In addition to the descriptions of the German tribes Abdale assessed the state of the Roman army at this time and the likely organisation and look of the troops involved based on the sources and the archaeology, that confirmed a lot of my own thinking about the Roman army at this time, and the transitions in equipment and organisation that had or, likely-had, occurred by the time of the battle.

With the background to the history leading up to the battle covered and the analysis of the Roman and German factions and their leaders, Abdale then launched in to looking at the campaign leading up to the battle in the autumn of 9AD and his view of the likely route taken by Varus and why.

Explaining that the discovery of one of two mule skeletons at the Kalkriese battle site, had a bell around its neck that had been stuffed with grass to silence it. The grass was later analysed and found to have been gathered in the early autumn leading to the assessment of the fighting having taken place in early September of 9 AD.

The author points out that although the Kalkriese site has been officially declared the site of the battle since 1998 by German archaeological authorities, it is an error to imagine the battle taking place in just one area; as the fighting occurred along a route of march over four days and the majority of the battle area still remains undiscovered and very likely to remain so, given the changes to the terrain in the intervening centuries.

Thus the interesting ongoing debate just as with some other ancient battle sites, such as the Battle of Watling Street with our own dear old Queen Boudica, is where the fighting occurred and what route the opposing armies took on their approach marches. I found Abdale's proposal for the likely route taken by Varus very compelling and it will be a ready reference when I get into planning some walking expeditions for future visits to Germany to follow up the one we did back in 2017, with visits to Vetera (Xanten), Aliso (Haltern) and the Valkof (Nijmegan), see links below for the posts covering those visits.

https://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2017/10/haltern-am-see-aliso-holland-2017.html
https://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2017/10/xanten-lvr-archaeological-park-roman.html
https://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2017/09/xanten-lvr-archaeological-park-roman.html
https://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2017/08/valkhof-museum-nijmegan-holland-2017.html

The coverage of the battle gives a good analysis of the two forces and the problems each likely encountered getting their forces to the scene of the fighting and the likely break down of the control that followed such a confused period of fighting; with an interesting analysis of the likely fact that only abut ten thousand or less, of the potential fifteen thousand legionaries of the three legions involved actually took part in the battle and the infusion of reinforcements Arminius received at the end of the battle as word spread throughout the neighbouring tribes of the easy pickings awaiting anyone else keen to get involved.

Following the description of the battle in its various stages and its conclusion the author then looked at the aftermath with the revenge campaigns of Germanicus, together with his and Arminius' eventual deaths and the later ongoing policy adopted to Germania as a whole by Imperial Rome afterwards.

The books contents are laid as follows:

List of plates
1. Caesar Augustus
2. Publius Claudius Nero
3. Tiberius Claudius Nero
4. Drusus Claudius Nero
5. Gravestone of Marcus Caelius
6. The Hermannsdenkmal Monument

List of Maps
1. The Roman Empire, 15 BC
2. Germania, 15 BC
3. The Intended Route of Varus' March
4. The Battle of Teutoburg Day 1
5. The Battle of Teutoburg Day 2
6. Distribution of Artifacts found at Kalkriese Hill

Chronology of Events (two pages)
Introduction (two and a half pages)

Chapter 1   Rome
Chapter 2   Germania
Chapter 3   Varus
Chapter 4   Arminius
Chapter 5   Germania under Rome
Chapter 6   The Battle
Chapter 7   The Aftermath

Notes
Bibliography
Index

The text is covered in two-hundred and nineteen pages with sixteen pages of notes linked to each chapter and seven pages of bibliography detailing primary and secondary sources referred to followed by a very handy two page index to the chapters.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I know that because time slipped by without my noticing as I delved further into it.

All my first preconceptions of what more can be said with the speculating about where, when and why the Battle of Teutoburg took place were quickly overcome as I found myself engaging with the points made by the author and, importantly for me, finding little gems of information that I intend to incorporate into my wargames.

The usual criticism of most military history books today can partially be levelled at this title with regard to maps, but only partially in that at least it has some and the ones it has are relevant to the text, so much so that I found myself reading Abdale's description of the likely route taken by Varus and the most promising site for Arminius to have launched his first attacks and cursing not having a map to give me a clearer idea of why that was the case only to turn the next page and find that map.

However the maps are black and white and show the bear minimum of detail as to where things were in relation one to another and I found myself wanting more in terms of the terrain and the proposed battle sites in relation to modern day German towns and rivers and had to refer to Google maps to get a clearer understanding.

I know from reading recent editions of Ancient History magazine and other articles that the debate as to whether Kalkriese is really part of the Teutoburg battle has re-emerged together with the search for Varus' likely jump of point, the fort of Aliso, with Haltern still being my preferred option until archaeology proposes another convincing alternative, but until our knowledge base moves on to another more convincing and compelling account of this most famous ancient clash I think this book will stand as a very interesting addition to the ongoing historical discussion.

I was fortunate to pick up my copy of Four Days in September from The Naval and Military Press for just £4.79 which is a sweet price for a brand new hard back book especially as the publishers Pen & Sword have it on for £19.99 and the best new hard back price from Amazon is, at the time of writing  £5.23. Either way I was very pleased with my purchase and my copy is a useful addition to my growing ancients library.

Romano-Dacian Collection Update and Plans

With the new year well and truly under way I thought it would be of interest to outline where we are with the Romano-Dacian collection and my future plans for this year and on into 2020 as I develop the ancient collection as a whole going forward.

The last time I took time to take stock of where the collection had progressed to was back in September last year with my video clip looking at units added and some of the main reference sources I was using in that build process.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2018/09/king-decebalus-warband-five-and-roman.html

In this update my video clip takes more of a look at the current state of the collection with the most recent additions of Sarmatian cavalry units and new sabot command bases and then mentioning the goals of what total numbers of units I have in mind that will see the collections completed.

I immediately here voices in my mind with the end of that last sentence.

'Completed!! A collection is never completed as you can always find an excuse for adding that particular new range of models or a peculiar unit that you always intended to get around to at some stage and well now seems as good a time as any."

By completed, I mean the planned collection will be done and will be wide and varied enough to allow for the games I have in mind to produce and be played.

The latest additions include two units of Sarmatian light cavalry and new command sabot bases

So at the time of writing the collection stands at the following position and equates to about a year's worth of work, not allowing for the fact that I am now able to devote far more time to my hobby that was the case in this previous period:

The new look table sporting new trees, hills and rivers

Alongside the figure collection, the terrain collection has been constructed consisting of new scatter terrain pieces with a new collection of trees, fortifications including city walls, a marching camp, river sections and roads and new modular hills.

City walls and breaches completed early this year

So the last twelve months has seen a good start to the project and a solid foundation of work to be built on in this year with three units already added since January with a unit of Sarmatian Cataphracts and two of light cavalry.

The scenarios from the Warlord Hail Caesar supplement will provide the
core of games that will inform the build project as we go

In addition this first stage has allowed the first couple of games to be played running the 'Hold the Pass' scenario from the Warlord Games Hail Caesar Dacian Campaign Book which is giving a focus to the build project in that I am adding units which will gradually allow more scenarios to be played from that collection whilst adding more units overall which will allow other games to be played going forward.

'Hold the Pass' played with Will for our Xmas game and second game using the new collection

OK then, what does the plan look like for this year and what will the collection look like when its done?

The Romans form the core of the collection as they will fight all my other factions as well as themselves hence I have acquired double the number of units to allow some civil war actions.

The Romans are also straight-forward to paint and assemble in that the small cohorts, only eighteen figures compared with a thirty-eight figure warband means I can turn them out fairly speedily in comparison to my barbarian armies.

Finally in addition to civil war you can play out the odd revolt, such as the Batavian uprising in the 1st century that allows those auxiliaries to team up with German warbands producing yet another variation on a theme.

All the units are assembled and ready to be painted and produced together with their shield decals and I have some heavy artillery units ready to stage the siege games with my wall sections that I have in mind.

The Dacian horde is at the halfway stage with work completed so far and the first half of this year will be focused on bringing this collection to a conclusion with the addition of several units from the Sarmatians detailed below.

The number of completed units shows the progress made here and the work planned is staged in such a way to allow an ever increasing choice of scenarios to be played s the collection grows, which aligns with my general philosophy to collection building in turning out units that facilitates that core principal.

Work commenced on the Sarmatian part of the collection in December last year and that experience has allowed me to gauge how long the rest of them will take to complete.

My experience in putting these few units together shows that these cavalry based forces, and I include a future plan to build Parthians in that description, are a relatively fast collection to put together because of the size of units, eights and sixes, needed to be constructed and I expect to have this collection nearing completion early next year after the Romans and Dacians.

The Germans will be my next big warband collection and with units such as some of the cavalry and light troops interchangeable with my Dacians and with a few German warbands planned to be built to allow for Foederati units to work alongside the Romans, plus some German allies cooperating with the Dacians I expect to start work on some of these units at the back end of this year, with the core of the collection coming together in 2020.

The figures are assembled and ready to be built into units as and when so the move from Dacian warbands to German ones should be fairly seamless and there should be a steady flow of these big figure groups coming off my desk in the foreseeable.

The final part of the ancient collection will not require much additional work other than perhaps some interesting command bases to capture the look of this rebel force combining my Roman and German collections, by which stage I will be very much turning my mind to the Britons, another twelve warband force, and Parthians, similar in scope to the Sarmatian force, where I intend to draw a line under the Principate but with six quite different factions put together to allow for games covering about two hundred years of the Imperial Empire - what fun!

This review then forms my painting and modelling focus for the best part of this and next year and I hope to produce some interesting games as it grows alongside other features that will look at additions to the terrain collection and other associated modelling ideas.

More anon.

Bateria de Cenizas - Murcia, Spain

It's that time of year when Carolyn and I often jump on a plane and fly down to our place on the Costa Calida or 'Warm Coast' and that name rather gives a clue as to why.

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing the seasons change here in dear 'Old Blighty', and we don't get the harsh winters in the south-west that other parts of the UK have to endure, but this time of the year in southern Spain is more like early English spring weather and a week of it just seems to break up an English winter.

You don't see many flamingos gracing the shoreline of the River Exe so it was a thrill to stop and photograph these chaps on the way to Portman Battery feeding on the edge of the Mar Menor

So during our week away Carolyn and I decided to explore a bit more and try to find places we haven't done before and I was amazed to find that despite coming to this part of Spain for the last eighteen years I had completely missed checking out the coastal batteries that were constructed in the early 1930's to protect the Spanish naval base of Cartagena.

The map illustrates the gun coverage of the two fifteen inch coastal batteries either side of Cartagena with (2) Cenizas the one we were headed for with the La Manga resort and strip and Mar Menor enclosed sea to its right.

The Bateria de Cenizas is only about a thirty minute drive from our place but lies on a part of the coast that we had never really explored before, with mountains and cliffs rising up from the Mar Menor and La Manga Strip, fronting up to the sea before the bay, next along, opens up into the mouth that forms the entrance to the harbour of Cartagena.

The Mar Menor seen from the road leading up to the battery with the La Manga strip standing out in the Mediterranean Sea and the Golf resort nestling just below the hills nearest to camera

Following the coast road out from the Mar Menor we found ourselves driving up into the hills that soon become very rocky and sparse once you leave the manicured slopes that form the famous La Manga Golf Resort.

The coastal village of Portman lies between the battery and Cartagena and seen here through the trees lining the military road

Parking the car nearby to the flint road that is the old military road leading over two intervening small mountains, we grabbed a rucksack with water and a picnic and headed up the three kilometer climb to the site.

The tunnelled out access to a likely reserve magazine on the rearward hill

The old road is a tortuous zig-zag climb leading up to the seaward side of the last mountain and the Head of Ashes which is what Cenizas means in English.

Coming around the corner on the first part of the climb we discovered this tunnel which I suspect formed a reserve ammunition magazine for easy access to trucks bringing up the ammunition.

I also suspect this is a likely roost for bats which would mean in the UK a grill would be across the front to prevent nosey tourists going in and disturbing a protected species.

The route up is quite busy even at this time of the year with walkers coming up and going down trying to avoid getting taken out by mountain bikers relishing the downward trip at speed.

The rather stunning entrance to the Cenizas Battery that greets the visitor on the final bend in the route up to the site

It takes about forty minutes to get to the top and on rounding the last corner one is greeted by the remarkable art-deco style gates to the battery with the guardhouse on the left and an appropriately shell shaped sentry shelter on the right.

Chichen-Itza, Mayan City in Yucatan State, Mexico

One of the feathered serpent heads or Kulkucan, modelled on those seen at Chichen Itcha City in Mexico

The gate is a distinct throw back to the early twentieth century and postmodernist art themes characterised by the likes of Picasso with this gate inspired by the Chichen Itza ruins and the Temple of Warriors where can be seen the feathered serpent heads depicted at the foot of each of the gate pillars.

A fifteen inch shell shaped sentry box guards the main entrance

The Guardroom on the main gate

The Spanish coat of arms that tops this military gate is missing the Royal Crown indicative of the establishment of the battery during the Second Republic

Bateria de Cenizas as it would have looked back in 1932

Period photographs on the information board close by help give a sense of how this entrance might have looked during its time as an active military base and a quick search on the web reveals pictures of the khaki clad troops who served the guns in the period leading up to and including the Spanish Civil War.

The foundations are laid for one of the massive fifteen inch gun barbettes allowing the guns a theoretical 300 degree turn

The site was a former 19th century gun position but work on the modern position was part of the  'Defence Plan 1926' for the protection of the naval bases at El Ferrol, Port Mahon and Cartagena, with work commencing on February 16th 1929 under the direction of Captain of Engineers, Angel Ruiz Atencia and not completed until December 1932.

The Steam locomotive 'La Corturela' begins the task of towing one of the Vickers 15" guns up the Cenizas Mountain.

The position was developed to include two below ground level magazines with personnel accommodation blocks positioned on the back slope of the mountain and dug in concreted barbettes for two turreted, single mount, 15 inch Vickers-Armstrong 1923 model naval guns with the ammunition hoists and diesel engine drive mechanisms securely placed deep within the mountain-side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_15-inch_Mk_I_naval_gun

The guns were built in Sheffield, part of an eighteen gun order placed by the Spanish government, and were transported from Barrow on the cargo ship Brompton Manor arriving in Portman Bay on 7th June 1930 where, after a period of bad weather that delayed the unloading process, they were eventually brought ashore for transporting up the mountain on a specially constructed light railway and towed up it by a steam locomotive nick-named 'La Corturela'.

The two gun battery on Ashes Head offering excellent observation over the bay 

Cenizas, (Ashes) Battery with Portman Bay close by where the guns were landed in 1930 and Cartagena naval base just further along to the left of picture

The guns and their mountings struck me as almost identical to the ones I had seen back in 2005, built to protect Singapore and also reminded me of the pictures of the Dover battery used to fire at German positions and shipping in the channel during WWII.

As you can see they are fully encased in a steel gun house designed to protect the crew from shell splinters but not thick enough to resist a direct hit.

The guns are quoted as being just short of fifty-eight feet in length and weigh eighty-six tons, firing shells weighing in at 1,885 lbs requiring a 474 lb charge to launch them. The range is quoted at twenty-two miles and a well trained crew could be capable of firing two shells a minute.

These guns were set up in 1934 and carried out their first test fire on May 28th of that year and together with the Bateria Castillitos were so positioned to be able to interdict the sea area in front of Cartagena.

Looking down the barrel of a 15" gun with Cartagena peeping behind the mountain in front.

Each gun was supported by an observation platform built using the local rock in various shapes and sizes designed to add a modicum of camouflage to the buildings and with lookout positions enclosed with armoured anti-splinter screens.

Barr-Stroud range finder, similar to those fitted at Cenizas

The platforms mounted Barr-Stroud telemeter range finders linked to Vickers plotter calculators for providing range finding data to the gun captains.

The first director platform with the light railway running past up to the gun for bringing up additional shells from the magazine

Carolyn stands in for the observation officer

Armoured splinter screens still in situ

The mounting plinth for the Barr-Stroud range finder

Beneath each of the observation platforms were two rooms likely designed to house the personnel manning the range finding calculator using the data from the range finders above and then transmitting it to the gun captains in the turrets.

To the rear of the guns and observation platforms were the below-ground forward magazines and further back the accommodation blocks for the garrison.

Shells brought forward to the on site magazines would be be brought in on light rail trolleys via these tunnel encased entrances, seen below, leading to the below-ground level magazines.

The light rails lead into the protected tunnel that form the entrance to the shell magazine

Enclosed tunnel leading to one of the two forward magazines

The entrance to the other magazine building

It would seem that the only time the guns fired in anger was during the Spanish Civil War and right at its conclusion with the Nationalists very much in control of events after the fall of Catalonia in February 1939.

The roof of one of the magazines looking down from ground level

The Republic still controlled the capital and about thirty per cent of the rest of Spanish territory but with over two hundred thousand troops already lost, the resignation of Republican President Manuel Azana and the recognition of the Francoist government by the UK and France, the Republican situation was very bleak.

Ammunition was brought up from the magazine using these light cranes

However hard line communists within the Republic were insistent about continuing the struggle in spite of the warnings coming from the head of their military.

One of the cities that still held out for the Republic was the naval base of Cartagena, but when a new commander for the republic was appointed and sent to assume command on the 3rd March 1939 a rebellion broke out to be supported on the following day by a Nationalist fifth column lead by Colonel Arturo Espa who seized the coastal batteries and radio station putting out requests for support from Nationalist forces to help secure their hold on the city.

One of the shell trolleys can be seen in the doorway of the magazine and the remains of the light rails used to move it and the shells

On the 5th of March the Nationalist airforce bombed the harbour in Cartagena and sank the Spanish Republican Navy destroyer Sanchez Barcaiztegui leading to the rest of the fleet of three cruisers and eight destroyers setting sail for Bizerte in North Africa where they were interned by the French authorities.

Spanish Republican Destroyer Sanchez Barcaiztegui sunk at Cartagena on the 5th March 1939

On the 7th March a Republican army brigade arrived in Cartagena and promptly returned the city and its coastal batteries, including Bateria de Cenizas,  back under Republican control, only just arriving ahead of sixteen Nationalist transport ships sent to support the uprising with 20,000 troops aboard.

The depth of the below-ground magazines can be seen here with the light crane used to bring up the shells from it

On hearing that the rebellion had been crushed the Nationalist fleet withdrew, all except one of the ships, SS Castillo de Olite, which headed in towards Portman Bay having failed to pick up the signal to withdraw due to a broken radio set.

SS Castillo de Olite

The ship, carrying  2,112 men, was fired on by the Cartagena shore batteries and was hit by three shells, breaking in two, with the loss of 1,476 crew and Nationalist soldiers and of the rest, 342 were wounded with 294 taken prisoner after being rescued by local fishermen and the lighthouse keeper.

Sadly within four weeks of this action the war would be over with the surrender of Republican forces on the 1st of April 1939.

The light rails leading from the magazine past the range finding platform towards one of the gun barbettes.

The guns fired their last rounds on June 12th 1981 during a firing exercise and the battery continued on in service until 1994 when it was finally decommissioned and left open to the general public.

The garrison accommodation blocks are built on the rear slope of the position.

As mentioned, this and the neighbouring battery at Bateria Castillitos are part of a series of such emplacements built by the Spanish government in the 1930's and you can see some excellent pictures with more information on the design of them with the link below looking at a similar site at Port Mahon in Menorca.

https://armourersbench.com/tag/coastal-guns/

Other stuff to come: Carolyn an I are off to Cartagena a little later this week to check out more of the Roman and Punic remains in the city and I have review of plans for the Romano-Dacian collection going into 2019 together with the wider ancient collection in the longer term.