Defensible Barracks
These barracks were built in the 1840s to house the Royal Marines charged with defending the dockyard, and also to act as a gun platform capable of protecting the dockyard from attack by sea or land.
When the fort was built, numerous properties in Pennar were requisitioned and pulled down to allow the guns a clear field of fire.
Superbly built in limestone to a classic, if outdated diamond-shaped design, the barracks came complete with a dry moat guarded by corner bastions. A drawbridge led over the moat and through an entrance arch in the gate-house. Inside the fort, the barrack square is flanked by four, two-storey terraces; it has been described as ‘the finest Georgian style square in Wales’.
A recent aerial view of the Defensible Barracks
RAF Pembroke Dock The Royal Air Force’s arrival in 1930 brought hope to a community still reeling from the closure of the Royal Dockyard four years earlier. The sheltered Haven waters were ideal for the operation of flying-boats and the newly-formed No 210 Squadron flew here in June 1931. Their Supermarine Southamptons - and later Short Rangoons and Singapore IIIs - were an ever-present part of Pembroke Dock daily life in the 1930s. During WWII Pembroke Dock became one of the most important stations in waging the Battle of the Atlantic and the ceaseless war against the German U-Boat.
At one time in 1943 no fewer than 99 flying boats - Sunderlands and Catalinas - were at Pembroke Dock, making this the largest operational station in the world.
Firing a salute at the Defensible Barracks
