Pillboxes and Tank Traps
()
About this ebook
With invasion a very real threat, in 1940 Great Britain began a huge military construction programme designed to stop an invading army in its tracks. Around vulnerable coastlines, and inland, thousands of pillboxes, anti-tank barriers and other obstacles were erected to defend against attacks from sea and sky. Though many of these structures were dismantled in the wake of the Second World War, the coast and even some inland areas still boast a wealth of fascinating remains.
In this fully illustrated introduction, fortifications authority Bernard Lowry guides the inquiring reader in identifying these remaining defensive structures and explains their seemingly 'random' placement across the British landscape.
Bernard Lowry
Bernard Lowry has had a lifelong interest in military architecture. He is a founder member of the Offa's Dyke Association and the Castle Studies Group, and for seven years was Honorary Secretary of the Fortress Study Group. After taking retirement he was for several years an Area Co-ordinator for the award-winning Defence of Britain Project.
Related to Pillboxes and Tank Traps
Titles in the series (100)
The English Seaside in Victorian and Edwardian Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Campaign Medals 1914-2005 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Church Misericords and Bench Ends Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Perambulators Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVW Camper and Microbus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Buckles Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Buttons Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Poole Pottery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoyal Jubilees Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeat and Peat Cutting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lorries: 1890s to 1970s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tractors: 1880s to 1980s Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victorians and Edwardians at Play Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Victorians and Edwardians at Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chocolate: The British Chocolate Industry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritain's Working Coast in Victorian and Edwardian Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Campaign Medals 1815-1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClarice Cliff Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Gallantry Awards 1855-2000 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5British Railway Tickets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAirfix Kits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scalextric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLondon Plaques Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Women’s Suffrage Movement Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Duels and Duelling Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5London’s Statues and Monuments Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5British Postcards of the First World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Building Toys: Bayko and other systems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meccano Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTraditional Building Materials Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
Forgotten War: The British Empire and Commonwealth’s Epic Struggle Against Imperial Japan, 1941–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in the First World War 1916-18 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The German Army at Cambrai Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe BEF in France, 1939–1940: Manning the Front Through to the Dunkirk Evacuation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Striking Back: Britain's Airborne and Commando Raids 1940-42 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The British on the Somme 1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBattles at Sea in World War I - Heligoland Bight (1914) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChurchill's Underground Army: A History of the Auxillary Units in World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVillers-Bocage: Operation 'Perch': The Complete Account Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rise of the Tank: Armoured Vehicles and Their Use in the First World War Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Flers & Gueudecourt: Somme Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeachhead Assault: The Combat History of the Royal Naval Commandos in World War II Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pioneers of Armour in the Great War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOther Side of the Wire: Volume 1 - With the German XIV Reserve Corps on the Somme, September 1914-June 1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 16th Durham Light Infantry in Italy, 1943–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFighting Through to Hitler's Germany: Personal Accounts of the Men of 1 Suffolk 1944–45 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAirfields and Airmen: Ypres Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of the Bellicourt Tunnel: Tommies, Diggers and Doughboys on the Hindenburg Line, 1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVietnam Studies - Allied Participation In Vietnam [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnited States Army in WWII - the Mediterranean - Salerno to Cassino: [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsS.A.S. in Tuscany, 1943–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Royal Dragoon Guards: A Regimental History, 1685–2018 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ship-Busters: British Torpedo-Bombers in World War II Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Total Germany: The Royal Navy's War against the Axis Powers 1939?1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSanctuary Wood & Hooge: Ypres Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Airborne Armour: Tetrarch, Locust, Hamilcar and the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment 1938-50 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDesert Raids with the SAS: The Wartime Experiences of Major Anthony Hough—Action, Capture and Escape Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScorpion and Scimitar: British Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicles, 1970–2022 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAirborne Combat: The Glider War / Fighting Gliders of WWII Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Battle of the Lys, 1918: Givenchy and the River Law Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social History For You
Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5made in america: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flight of the WASP: The Rise, Fall, and Future of America’s Original Ruling Class Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Other People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories of Rootworkers & Hoodoo in the Mid-South Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Pillboxes and Tank Traps
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Pillboxes and Tank Traps - Bernard Lowry
VISIT
The land defences of Britain 1940–2, showing principal stop lines (these often following physical features) and Army Commands.
AN ISLAND FORTRESS
THE B RITISH I SLES , located off the mainland of Europe, have faced the threat of large-scale invasions for almost a thousand years, the last successful landing being that of William of Normandy in 1066. William and his knights also brought over their horses (as the Wehrmacht , still partly dependent on horse-drawn transport, would have done in 1940). Medieval wars with France and Henry VIII’s conflict with Catholic Europe led to invasion fears and as a result a number of artillery forts were built along the south coast. The conflict with Napoleonic France led to the building of Martello towers (brick-built artillery towers sited to defend the vulnerable coastline of south-eastern England) from the end of the eighteenth century. The rise of the French navy under Napoleon III initiated the building of the powerful Palmerston forts around the main naval bases (named after the British Foreign Secretary) in the mid-nineteenth century. With the outbreak of the First World War and with German forces on the other side of the Channel, anti-invasion defences were constructed along British coasts. These included fieldworks, together with small concrete defence works; the latter were christened ‘pillboxes’ after their apparent resemblance to the small, round boxes used at that time to contain pills. Small reinforced concrete defence works had also been used with deadly effect by Germany, in conjunction with machine guns, along the Western Front.
The outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 and the occupation of much of western Europe by Germany in the summer of 1940 meant that invasion was once again a likely threat. Even before the German offensive in France had ended, the British GHQ Home Forces had issued an instruction in the middle of May 1940 for defensive steps to be taken against the landing of enemy troops by air, tactics that had been employed successfully in Norway and Holland. With the fall of France in June, Germany began to make preparations for the invasion of Britain, issuing Führer Directive 16 on 16 July. If Germany had had sufficient maritime ability to invade at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, then this might have met with success. However, she had also lost vital aircraft, especially transports, and much of the armoured equipment used in France was at its last gasp. Operation Sea Lion, the code name for the invasion, was planned to make use of both seaborne and airborne forces, and a date was set by Hitler and the German High Command for the launch of the operation: 16 September 1940. The planned invasion envisaged seaborne landings between Worthing and Folkestone with airborne landings behind the port of Dover.
A number of events led to the postponement of the planned invasion, the principal one being Germany’s failure to gain air superiority during the Battle of Britain. Another factor was the German navy’s (and probably also Hitler’s) disquiet at the chances of successful and sustained landings in the face of the much stronger Royal Navy, coupled with the prospect of deteriorating seasonal sea conditions. In addition, the attraction of an attack on Germany’s ideological enemy, the USSR, meant that in the late summer of 1940 Hitler had already begun to switch his attention eastwards, and the army groups gathered for Sea Lion were gradually moved to Poland. Hitler would pin his hopes on the success of the U-boat offensive and the Luftwaffe’s night bombing campaign against Britain, expecting that this would bring the country to its knees and lead to its surrender, or to the agreement of terms favourable to Germany, especially once the USSR was defeated. But this was not known to Britain in the latter part of 1940 and into 1941. Whilst Britain prepared for what