Anti-aircraft guns from Yorkshire's Fort Paull start 2,000-mile journey to Malta
The 3.7-inch AA was Britain’s primary heavy anti-aircraft gun during World War II and remained in use until they were replaced by guided missiles in 1957.
On Thursday the guns - which weigh 10 tonnes - were being craned onto lorries for the start of their 2,000-mile journey by road and sea to the island.
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Hide AdThe island's strategic location in the Mediterranean made it centre-stage during WW2, and it was subject to some of the most intensive bombardments of the war.
Auctioneer Andrew Baitson said: “They were bought here 20 years ago as an attraction for the Fort. Now they are heading off to a museum in Malta.”
Yorkshire’s only Napoleonic fort, the site closed as a visitor attraction earlier this year.
In September its entire contents, including a giant Blackburn Beverley transport aircraft, went under the hammer.
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Hide AdThe Blackburn Beverley and the Hawker Hunter XF509, which started out with 54 Squadron in 1957 and came to Hull in 2005, where it was fixed on a pole outside the former Humbrol Airfix factory on Hedon Road, are still on the site. Also yet to be moved is a railway carriage once used by Elvis in Cold War Germany.