Originally known as Langer Fort, the first fortifications from 1540 were a few earthworks and
blockhouse, but it was King
James I who ordered, from 1621, the construction of a square fort with
bulwarks at each corner. In 1667, the
Dutch, under
Michiel de Ruyter, landed a force of 2,000 men on Felixstowe beach in front of (what is now called) Undercliff Road East and advanced on to the fort, but
were repulsed by Nathaniel Darrel and his garrison of 400 musketeers of the Duke of York & Albany's Maritime Regiment (the first
Royal Marines) and 100 artillerymen with 54 cannons. The fort was considered part of
Essex in the 18th and 19th centuries; births and deaths within the garrison were recorded as 'Landguard Fort, Essex'. A new Fort
battery was built in 1717, and a complete new fort on an adjoining site was started in 1745 to a pentagonal
bastioned trace. New batteries were built in the 1750s and 1780s. The biggest change occurred in the 1870s when the interior
barracks were rebuilt to a keep-like design and the river frontage was rebuilt with a new casemated battery covered by a very unusual
caponier with a quarter-sphere bombproof nose. Several open bastions were enclosed, and a mock
ravelin block was constructed to house a submarine mining contingent. Two landscapes were commissioned, c.1755, from
Thomas Gainsborough - then still little-known and living at
Ipswich (1750-9) - for the Governor's Quarters at Landguard by his friend
Philip Thicknesse, Lt.
Governor of Landguard Fort. These were later destroyed by the damp conditions at the Fort, but an engraving of one of them survives. In the
Napoleonic Wars, the strength and combat readiness of the Fort caused the Army repeated concern. In 1801, General Lord Cornwallis, Eastern District commander-in-chief visited Landguard Fort. After 1804 steps were taken to extend and strengthen the Fort with the supply and ammunition stores moved across to Harwich for safety. The badly-disciplined garrison had drunk gin found on a captured smugglers' boat leading to the death of four soldiers, probably from
alcohol poisoning. During the
Second World War, Landguard Fort was used as one of the launch sites of
Operation Outward. This was a project to attack
Germany by means of free-flying hydrogen balloons that carried incendiary devices or trailing steel wires (intended to damage power lines.) Between 1942 and 1944, many thousands of balloons were launched. The main uses of the Fort and nearby structures were: • Headquarters for the coast artillery guns defending Harwich Harbour. In 1944 radar was installed for their fire control. By 1941 4 6-inch and 2 twin six-pounder guns were operational on the Landguard Peninsula, housed in concrete emplacements which still remain; • Headquarters and Plot Room for the heavy anti-aircraft defending the Harwich-Ipswich area. This function was moved to
Martello Tower Q in Felixstowe town in 1941; • Naval Port War Signal Station; controlling ship movements in and out of Harwich Harbour, Stour and Orwell; • Remote control station for defensive minefields in the harbour entrance. Observers on top of Landguard Fort witnessed and plotted many air raids, German minelaying actions, shipwrecks and air crashes. In 1944, in a probable false alarm, the Landguard guns opened up on supposed German midget-sub raiders in the harbour entrance. Later that year, Allied landing ships loaded at the former RAF piers just to the north. The 10-inch gun pit in Left Battery was converted into an
Anti-aircraft Operations Room for Harwich in 1939. The Army left the Fort in 1957. The fort has been structurally consolidated. It is now under the guardianship of
English Heritage and is open to the public. ==See also==