Naval Guns in the Mounted Anti-Tank Role - Defence of Britain 1940

On the 24th of May a Royal Marine Quickfiring Regiment was projected to man 12-pounder naval guns in an anti-tank role in an attempt to stop the German panzers.

The first battery was formed from the R.M. detachments of H.M.S. :, recently sunk off Norway, which marched into barracks that afternoon, the remainder from the Land Defence Force of M.N.B.D.O. (I).

British troops prepare a QF 12-pounder Naval gun mounted on a Albion BY-series truck at Fort Horsted as part of coastal defenses. The position formed part of Britain’s anti-invasion measures following the fall of France in 1940. 1 December 1940 [IWM (H 5865)]

Events, however, moved too fast and the Marines were denied an opportunity of trying their formidable guns, mobilized in an improvized manner by mounting them portee on Albion trucks, against the German tanks.

Despite the manifest disadvantages of these weapons, there is no doubt that, if brought into action, they would have stopped the tanks.

Fort Horstead - Chatham

Fort Horsted lies in the Horsted Valley to the South of Chatham, Kent, England. It is a late 19th-century Land Fort, and one of six constructed around Chatham and Gillingham, Kent to protect HM Dockyard Chatham from attack

Deemed to have become obsolete by 1910, the fort formed part of Chatham's land defences in both World Wars.

References/ further reading:

1. REVIEW OF ROYAL MARINE OPERATIONS, 1939-1945.

2. Wikipedia - Fort Horstead