The battery covered an area of about 7 hectares acquired by the State in 1936 and was one of the bastions of Cagliari’s “Sea Front”; it was the last anti-ship battery in the Gulf of Cagliari to be set up. Since 1939 it had been served by personnel of the 4th MILMART Legion (Maritime Artillery Militia) with 5 Officers, 16 NCOs and 82 Militiamen. It was armed with four 152/50 Armstrong mod. 1918 shielded pieces, a 120/40 A. illuminating piece and four anti-aircraft machine guns. The rangefinder was a 4-meter Goerz. The main ammunition depot was hewn out of rock and had 2,000 rounds. Each piece had a buried reserve of ammunition and 6 rounds of ready employment, placed in as many holes in the granite boulders placed to form the parapet of the emplacement. Since early 1943, a 120/240 S. Giorgio projector (mobile and towable, previously employed by the nearby Capitana anti-aircraft battery) complete with an infantry column and Galileo model airgun completed the battery’s equipment. The anti-ship guns’ only wartime action was in April 1943, when they fired at the British submarine “Safari.” Anti-aircraft guns fired in August 1943 against American P38 aircraft. The site still contains the telemetry post, emplacements and shelters, ruins of service buildings, guardhouse, observation post. Three machine gun emplacements also existed during the war in the northeast area of the battery. Nuraghe Diana, overlooking the battery, housed a small, well-camouflaged observation post, which was in telephone connection with the “Faldi” battery. In addition, a telemetry station and an observatory, located in an unspecified tower and “Casa Capitana,” respectively, constituted “Out-of-Battery Observers.” Shortly after the war the battery’s quarters and facilities were used as a marine colony. Note, on the Capitana and Is Mortorius shorelines, two examples of small forts that guarded against landings and gunfire from the sea.
