At some point between 1895 and 1907, Shornemead Fort was disarmed. Subsidence had made it structurally unsafe for its emplaced guns to be fired, and it was in any case strategically redundant by that point. It was used for a time by the Thames Militia Division (Submarine Miners), Royal Engineers, as a training facility linked with the nearby submarine mining depot. It was temporarily re-armed in 1913 with two 12-pdr. QF guns in emplacements outside the fort and again in 1941 when it was designated as an emergency battery. Two 5.5-inch naval guns were installed in the same emplacements as the 1913 guns, east of the fort, with concrete gun houses protecting them. An embarkation hard was constructed on the riverside below the fort to support the D-Day operation. Aerial photographs from the time show the battery, fort, associated concrete pillboxes and searchlights surrounded by dense tangles of barbed wire. The fort was reduced to care and maintenance status in November 1943, while the battery was deactivated in 1945 and demolished around 1976.