defence of england ww2
The date stamp is September 1942 and this corresponds with the letter O also stamped on the inside. Close to Axminster, a square pillbox was disguised as a Romany caravan. Plan View of an Essex Lozenge at embrasure level. The most common of these defences were called “pillboxes”, squat concrete forts that were sited at … Today, hardly anything remains of the anti-tank ditches, but at the time they must have been the most conspicuous of all the fortifications. Appearance also varied due to the building materials used, although all the FW3 designs are formed from reinforced concrete. Another variant Type 22 is referred to as drawing CRE 1094: this is effectively a thin-walled version of CRE 1113, with 1 ft 6in thick walls. Wick . Eastern Command commissioned a number of variant forms for their area of operation. Second World War maps held elsewhere. This design was made from reinforced concrete shuttered by corrugated iron; this gave the design the popular name Armco after the manufacturer of corrugated iron of that name. The most common of these defences were called “pillboxes”, squat concrete forts that were sited at … Guide to World War 2 Records:Civil Defence. Huge collection, amazing choice, 100+ million high quality, affordable RF and RM images. [23] In a variant on the Scottish Command Line, the entrance was moved from the long wall and the two rifle embrasures were increased in size to allow a Bren and Boys Anti-tank rifle to be mounted side by side.[24]. The armed forces are managed by the Defence Council of the Ministry of Defence, headed by the Secretary of State for Defence. The pillbox is actually an enlarged Type 22 with a central AA well and 3 ft 6in walls. Immediately after the war, there were more pressing matters to attend to than conserving the detritus of a battle that never happened. The front section of an Essex Lozenge at Burnham on Crouch, The rear section of an Essex Lozenge at Burnham on Crouch. In some cases, the reinforced concrete roof was sculpted to make the distinctive form of a pillbox less obvious from the air. [78] [108], Years after the war, memories faded and in the public mind it became popular to assume that the few pillboxes and other concrete objects that could easily be seen were all that was done to defend Britain; that their purpose was just to bolster morale and that there would have been no realistic hope of resisting a German assault. by Chaz Bowyer. At first defence arrangements were largely static and focused on the coastline (the coastal crust) and, in a classic example of defence in depth , on a series of inland anti-tank 'stop' lines. Its purpose was to provide a number of basic but effective pillbox designs that could be constructed by soldiers and local labour at appropriate defensive locations. Ditches and trenches have been filled, loopholes repaired, wood and metal re-cycled. Fifty or so remain extant. Many other libraries and archives hold maps dating from the Second World War period. Weapon change requires selection of appropriate bracket. Note stretched hexagonal plan with central anti-ricochet wall. Photos of locations showing english and british pill boxes, pillbox, bunkers and anti-tank defences built to resist a German invasion of England in World War 2. The eared pillbox is, like the lozenge pillbox, found only in the North East of England and has an irregular hexagon plan. The central cross-shaped pillar acts as an anti-ricochet wall. In March 1940, General Brooke carried out penetration trials and recorded that a 25 mm anti-tank gun could easily penetrate up to 2 feet (60 cm) of reinforced concrete. This research has revealed the number and distribution of such sites in England. The office forms part of the British Cabinet.. A three mile stretch of the British coastline in the New Forest region, from the town of Barton on Sea to Milford on Sea has been exposed. Each wall is about 6 feet (1.8 m) long and it was generally built to the bulletproof standard of 12 inches (30 cm) thick, although shellproof versions with walls around 40 inches (1.0 m) thick were also built such as the granite and concrete examples on the Cowie Line in Kincardineshire and along the upper Thames in Oxfordshire. The Pattern 57 Civil Defence battledress blouse jacket below sold on eBay for £137 (plus £10 shipping). [74][75][76] The Ruck machine gun post was relatively widely used in Lincolnshire and along the east coast of England,[77] but is now extremely rare with just a handful of extant examples. The German Threat to Britain in World War Two. Other, more imaginative, pillbox applications recorded include use as a pub cellar, a conversion to a ladies' toilet, and an open-air theatre box office. Map of Heavy Anti-Aircraft gun sites. Derek Wood and Derek Dempster describe the early days of the fight for the skies. BERKSHIRE RECORD OFFICE. The long narrow observation type embrasure suggests these pillboxes were mainly intended as guard posts or fire watching posts, but would have served as a defensive position in the event of an attack. Notes. This design is frequently found on or near beaches — ideal for providing enfilading fire. Berkshire Record Office 9 Coley Avenue Reading RG1 6AF. The Second World War We have carried out historical research into Second World War sites such as anti-aircraft gunnery, radar, coast artillery, the bombing decoys and civil defence structures at the National Archives, Kew. In addition to receiving compensation, farmers whose land was used to build the structures were paid after the war to fill in ditches and trenches and to demolish pillboxes. For the defense of Britain, Fighter Command was divided into four groups, of which the most hard-pressed during the Battle of Britain were Number 11 Group, defending southeastern England and London and headquartered at Uxbridge, Middlesex; and Number 12 Group, defending the Midlands and Wales and headquartered at Watnall, Nottinghamshire. Note rectangular plan featuring a roofed fighting compartment and an open anti-aircraft compartment (grey). There is a very large forward embrasure. It was designed for infantry armed with rifles and/or light machine guns. The gun shield of the artillery piece would largely fill the aperture. It was not successful, and this defeat marked a turning point in the Allies’ favour. 48 examples of this type remain extant but a number of these are no longer in their original locations. Seacoast defense was a major concern for the United States from its independence until World War II.Before airplanes, many of America's enemies could only reach it from the sea, making coastal forts an economical alternative to standing armies or a large navy.After the 1940s, it was recognized that fixed fortifications were obsolete and ineffective against aircraft and missiles. ©anti-aircraft.co.uk 2010-2017 Shetland Islands. The scale of airfield defence depended on the likelihood of attack, with those airfields in south or east England, and those close to navigable rivers, ports and dockyards being more heavily defended. It is essentially a modification of the FW3 type 23 having an open light anti-aircraft position in the centre and fully enclosed bays at either end. In addition, there were designs for gun emplacements suitable for either the Ordnance QF 2 pounder or the Hotchkiss 6pdr gun[2] (designated Type 28) and a design for a hardened medium machine gun emplacement. It was described as being possibly the most dangerous, cheap and nasty of all the pillbox designs. [84], According to the manufacturer, four men could dig the position out and erect the turret ready for firing in two hours and remove it completely in 30 minutes. The Defence of Britain Project databases were created from field and documentary work carried out between April 1995 and December 2001. Horizontal section at the level of the embrasures. [91][92], Only five examples were thought to remain, all at former RAF Hornchurch,[91] but two well-preserved examples were rediscovered in 2014 in Docking in North Norfolk. photo:jonathan eastland/ajax ref: d162508_6108 [79], The need to defend airfields presented special problems. Many of these were later reinforced. One side has the entrance, which has an attached porch. Weapons were mounted on a tubular rail for 360° traverse. Walls are normally constructed to bulletproof standard at about 18 inches (46 cm) thick. Pentagonal pillbox at Alton Barnes, one of five at this former airfield, Plan view of a pentagonal pillbox and its AA variant. In 1940 a network of defences was hastily built all over the British Isles to prevent an anticipated German invasion. A rear view of an eastern Command Type pillbox showing the huge blast wall covering the entrance. [111] Interest was stimulated, both public and professional, and local surveys were carried out. UK WWII Defence Locations. It comprised a revolving concrete turret mounted on a ball race that allowed it to be turned easily. Embrasures were available precast and factory produced to standard designs, but as these were in short supply some embrasures were improvised from brick or concrete paving. The type 24 was always built to at least bullet-proof standard of 12 inches (30 cm) thick, but often was thicker. [112][113] From this and other surveys, it is estimated that some 28,000 pillboxes and other hardened field fortifications were constructed in the United Kingdom, of which about 6,500 still survive. Some have a low entrance that allows an extra embrasure above. Hover mouse over icon to identify HAA site. Variant FW3/23 with 4 embrasures and an internal anti-ricochet wall. Some pillboxes were carefully constructed to resemble a quite different, innocent, structure: a haystack, a disused cottage, seaside kiosk, bus-stop shelter or railway signal box. Usually, there is no ground level entrance: to get in one had to climb over the wall into the open section and then pass through a door to the covered section. World War II defences of the former airfield of RAF Cranage is a Scheduled Monument in Cranage, Cheshire East, England. Elgin. A specific sub-type of the section post is the Seagull trench named for its W-shaped plan view like a seagull's wings. [20][21][22], A thick-walled variant was introduced to a shellproof standard; it was larger externally and had walls 36–50 inches (91–127 cm) thick. The approximate numbers of extant pillboxes of each type are given based on data from the Defence of Britain database, records from County HERs and submissions to the UK Pillbox Study Group. [84] The army did not favour the design – most were installed at airfields. [109] Even the Home Guard came to be seen as something of a joke, as exemplified by the BBC sitcom Dad's Army. Pillbox where some of the original brick shuttering and reinforced concrete has fallen away to reveal the internal network of rebars. Type 28 Infantry variant on the GHQ line in Surrey. It is octagonal in plan with walls between 9 ft 9 in and 11 ft 6 in (3.0–3.5 m). [84] Cost about £125.[84]. Erosion caused by weathering on England’s south coast is revealing some vital coastal defences from World War Two. Artists Roland Penrose (author of the Home Guard Manual of Camouflage),[99] Stanley William Hayter, Julian Trevelyan and many others were employed to conceal defences. Access was provided by means of a hatch in the roof. The rear wall is the longest at about 14 feet (4.3 m); this has the entrance with an embrasure on either side. This is actually externally indistinguishable from a Type 28A designed for a 6Pdr. It allowed the internment without trial of people suspected of being actively opposed to the ongoing war with Germany during the Second World War, pacifist and … Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was one of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during the Second World War. Oban. At the beginning of the First World War, just as in the Second World War, there was a very real fear of German invasion. Dunkirk evacuation (May 26–June 4, 1940), in World War II, the evacuation of about 198,000 soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and 140,000 French and Belgian troops from the French seaport of Dunkirk to England. Orkney Islands. The type 24 is the most common type, with more than 1724 recorded as being extant. The Defence Medal is awarded for non-operational service such as those service personnel working in headquarters, on training bases and airfields and members of the Home Guard. On 1 April 1964 a unified Ministry of Defence under a single Secretary of State absorbed the Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry. The four short walls each have a single embrasure. The walls are 14 feet (4.3 m) long and there is generally a freestanding blast wall covering the entrance on either the left or right side. In addition, the Air Ministry provided designs of fortifications intended to protect airfields from troops landing or parachuting. In a few locations, the narrow embrasure was replaced by a more standard rifle embrasure, as the narrow embrasure would have been difficult to use as a firing position due to its position and size. This design is only found in the Dover area of England and is very often found at high commanding positions. They are most commonly found in Essex and Suffolk along the main Eastern Command line and 64 examples remain extant. 36 examples of this type remain extant. Defence against invasion is likewise a field where the interests of the historian of home defence may impinge on those of the naval historian. This is a square pillbox with walls of length 12 ft 6in similar to a Type 26 but slightly larger; the walls are thin at 1 ft 6in. The turret was set above a pit; in early designs, the pit was formed by a standard section of concrete pipe 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter. They were popularly known as pillboxes, a reference to their shape. No need to register, buy now! Tel 0118 901 5132 Fax 0118 901 5131 In the case of the larger factories, the standard FW3 types were used, but at smaller sites a special type was used. In May 1940, flushed with the palpable successes in Poland, Denmark and Norway, the German air arm felt indomitable. They were popularly known as pillboxes, a reference to their shape.[1]. It was recognised by politicians and military staff before the First World War that there was a possibility that aircraft would attack England. Defence Medal 1939-1945. Eastern Command Type 22 (CRE 1113) variant plan. This drawing shows the primary triangulation of southern England, the lengths of the sides of each triangle being noted. Note large embrasures with projecting boxes (grey) and small internal anti-ricochet wall. In the late 1970s, journalist Henry Wills began research on the topic, eventually publishing Pillboxes: A Study of UK Defences in 1985. 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