for illuminating seaborne targets, a command post and the barracks for the garrison were built outside the original Palmeston fort. The site was manned by 365 and 366 Coast Batteries of 571st Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery, formed from Brean Down Fire Control in December 1941 and disbanded in April 1944. Several experimental weapons were trialled at Brean, by the Admiralty's Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development, based at HMS Birnbeck. The only evidence being a short length of launching rail, designed to launch a bouncing bomb. Some of the better known weapons trialled were the seaborne Bouncing bomb designed specifically to bounce to a target such as across water to avoid torpedo nets, anti-submarine missile AMUCK and the expendable acoustic emitter (designed to confuse noise-seeking torpedoes). Gallery See also List of hillforts and ancient settlements in Somerset References Notes Sources van der Bijl, Nicholas (2000). Brean Down Fort: Its History and the Defence of the Bristol Channel. Cossington: Hawk Editions. . Further reading Brown, Donald (1999). Somerset V Hitler: Secret Operations in the Mendips 1939–1945. Newbury: Countryside Books. . External links Victorian Forts data sheet information at the National Trust Palmerston Forts Brean Down Fort Visitor Information Forts in Somerset Palmerston Forts National Trust properties in Somerset Hill forts in Somerset Scheduled monuments in Sedgemoor History of Somerset Iron Age sites in Somerset Coastal artillery