Hi Bernard, I’ve been reading some snatches of officer diaries from the eighteenth century where they talk of building gun batteries for various cannon&18, 24 pound canon and so forth. One example talks of two hundred men being assigned to set up a battery of nine 24 pound cannon. And the officer mentions it being difficult to get sufficient timbers and planking to make the platform. I dont quite understand this. I had assumed the ground would be leveled and maybe the canon dug in. Why the need for an elaborate timber platform?? And speed apart why so many men? Regards Willie