If you pop the breakers at power or substation level, then tough for anyone supplied by it, eg hospital or internet provider, hence the huge standby systems they have. There are very few "special circuits", and if a raid kills a station, then there's no power - period.

Incidentally, I've just learned about some "new" weapons (relative to the war). Bombs can now be deployed which contain thousands of metal fibres, intended to settle on power lines and cause them to trip - used in Iraq if story is accurate. This has been further refined to a much finer form of conductor which can be dropped in clouds, and is fine enough to be drawn in by things like PC cooling fans. These are intended to build up and coat items, causing them to fail.

Batteries had a limited range and could only throw their shells so high (18,000 feet I think, but this can vary of course), so had to be firing near vertical, sorry for the troops, but the last thing they'd need is a shelter during a raid. Light batteries were considerably less capable, maybe around 8,000 feet. This is a lot shorter than the guns' range across ground, thanks to gravity acting almost directly against the shell's path. If it was a local attack, wouldn't they still have been shooting at a closer target with a better chance of hitting it?

If the ramp was a later addition, then no mat would be needed and the terrain irrelevant, as the kit would have been centimetric. It would also have been mobile, so the record might not include such an arrangement.

Thinking a bit further, I wonder if the ramps were used for anything else?

Maybe they had radar controlled searchlights, or perhaps even some of those wonderful acoustic detectors illustrated in the old archive material?

As ever, I'm just having a bit of a waffle to see what pops out. We did find that gunner's manual a while ago, but like all these finds, although it mentioned AA gunnery, it seems to be regarded very much as the poor relation, and only ever gets a few lines, and little detail. All the meat is concentrated on the noble art of gun laying at a distance, and the further the better.

Back again, I had another thought.

As noted, a definitive bible on batteries would be nice, but without such a reference, it seems we are all having to make reasoned guesses based on what we see.

On that basis, it occurs to me that there is no requirement for engine room and the like at every site, dependent on how and when it was equipped.

For example, I'm sure some batteries had no need of any power at all, or any sort of radar. Guns would be moved by operators winding hand cranks, and gun laying would be set by the gunners in response to setting shouted (or passed by intercom) to them from others looking into optical range and height-finders. It was only as things advanced that these settings were transmitted to the guns, and the predictor was brought into service, bringing a degree of analogue computing to the process. As things progressed, more power was needed thanks to the increased automation, and the guns were taken over by the radar (centimetric - able to lock onto aircraft).

Looking at the aerial views of some of the batteries in remote areas, but nonetheless significant like Loch Ewe, it is clear that they (probably) didn't have any features other than the emplacements and command posts that still remain, and the roads and tracks worn into the ground suggest they had no additional building that have been lost. in many cases, associated building like camps can still be identified from ground marking, but there are none for magazines or engine rooms.

Yes, rambling away again

Yes I wondered how much power the earlier batteries required with hand cranking and no thermionic radar.  It can't have been all that much, just a few lightbulbs in the Command Post as the rest would have been blacked out.  The other thought I have is that if these buildings were engine houses and therefore essential to the operation of the battery why are they not earthed up?

I think there is a bible on HAA batteries but my copy has not yet been printed 2 years after my order - Dobson's AA Command.

Having just been in one of the upper north wards at IRC I had a reasonable view of this site and was quite surprised to see a group of 3 or 4 young men carrying out what appeared to be a detailed exploration or survey on all the buildings  the other day.  I have no idea who they were.  

Just noticed this thread. I've got AA Command, I'll try and look up Larkfield.