Strawberry Battery
With the Second World War imminent, the defences of Halifax Harbour were reconsidered and upgraded to defend against the increased threat posed by the German Kriegsmarine. A new anti-submarine net was stretched from York Shore Battery to Maugher Beach on McNab’s Island, making it necessary to relocate the short-range gun battery that had existed at Fort Hugonin since the turn of the century, which now found itself inside the new anti-submarine harbour defences. As such, Strawberry Battery was built between 1939 and 1940, on a bluff at the base of, and to seaward of Maugher Beach. It was better positioned to engage submarines and torpedo boats before they reached the net, and would complement a similar new battery being built on the opposite side of the channel on the shoreline below York Redoubt, to be known as York Shore Battery.
With construction completed by the spring of 1940, the two 12-pounder (3-inch) Mk I quick-fire (QF) guns that remained at Fort Hugonin were transferred to Strawberry Battery in May that year. The QF guns were complemented by four General Electric B2 dispersed beam searchlights mounted in concrete emplacements further down the bluff, closer to the water. The engine room for the searchlights, comprising five Westinghouse compound generators driven by five Gardiner diesels, was positioned behind the gun battery. A Battery Command Post (BCP) was located between and just behind the guns, with a crew shelter behind each gun position and a shared magazine between them. Although the battery was fully operational by May 1940, the various other wooden supporting buildings for stores, barracks, messes, a canteen and equipment sheds we added the following year, in 1941.
The only Canadian-built fortification on McNab’s Island, Strawberry Battery was manned initially by soldiers of the 51st Heavy Battery, 1st (Halifax) Coast Brigade, Royal Canadian Artillery. In November 1942 manning was transferred to the 52nd Coast Battery, 1st Halifax Coast Regiment, RCA.
The battery served throughout the remainder of the Second World War (1939-45) and remained in place unaltered until November 1947, when it was dismantled over the succeeding few months. The 12-pounders were moved to Fort McNab and placed in storage, and the various wooden buildings were dismantled during the summer of 1948. However, with the Cold War intensifying, the decision was soon reversed and Strawberry Battery was ordered reactivated in September 1948; it was operational again, with the 12-pounders restored, by April 1949. It remained active until 1956, primarily as a practice battery, when it was finally decommissioned and abandoned. Today little remains other than its concrete ruins and those of the searchlight emplacements; the ruins are not easily accessible.
References:
Harry Piers. The Evolution of the Halifax Fortress 1749-1928 (Halifax: The Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1947)
A.J.B. Johnston. Defending Halifax: Ordnance, 1825-1906 (Parks Canada, 1981)
The Friends of McNab’s Island Society website (https://mcnabsisland.ca)