Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland

Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland PDF Author: Mike Osborne
Publisher: Tempus Publishing Limited
ISBN: 9780752443294
Category : Fortification
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
The pillboxes of Britain and Ireland are among the most important military structures employed in the history of the defence of these islands. This work presents the first thorough study and classification of pillboxes and related structures, including selection posts, Seagull and concrete trenches, gun-houses and turrets, battle headquarters and spigot-mortar emplacements. The author traces the use of small, free-standing defence structures from ancient times to the present, placing the pillbox within a historical continuum and identifying its course of development. The work also presents a typology of British and Irish pillboxes through a catalogue of known types and individual examples, and examines their tactical employment in the landscape. Mike Osbourne has been involved in the recording of defence structures for over 30 years and was co-ordinator of the Defence of Britain Project in the eastern counties. He is also the author of Defending Britain: Twentieth-Century Military Structures in the Landscape, also published by The History Press.

Pillboxes

Pillboxes PDF Author: Henry Wills
Publisher: Harvill Secker
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Book Description
Beskrivelse af de mange bunkere, specielt de mindre, bygget i England i 1940 som forsvar mod en tysk invasion. Deres forhistorie og taktiske funktion. Omfattende illustreret med s/h fotos, tekniske tegninger, kort og lokalisering af stadig eksisterende anlæg.

British Fortifications, 1485-1945

British Fortifications, 1485-1945 PDF Author: Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476689717
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
This book details British fortifications used from the Tudor period beginning in 1485 through the end of World War II in 1945. With the advent of firearms, the Tudor period indeed opened a new chapter in the histories of Britain, fortification and warfare. By 1500 AD, Britain and Europe at large entered a new phase, marked by the foundation of colonial empires and a broadened sphere of influence and rule. During the following centuries, British sailors, ruthless adventurers, fighting men, and greedy merchants laid foundations to fortify the most widespread and most prosperous colonial Empire the world had ever seen. This text focuses on British coastal fortifications and on combinations of fortresses used for more general strategic purposes. Featured structures have protected points of vital importance, such as capital cities, military depots, ports, harbors and dockyards at essential locations in Britain and throughout the British Empire.

Pillboxes and Tank Traps

Pillboxes and Tank Traps PDF Author: Bernard Lowry
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 178442014X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 78

Book Description
A concise, illustrated guide to these Second World War defences scattered across the British landscape. 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.

Pill Boxes on the Western Front

Pill Boxes on the Western Front PDF Author: Peter Oldham
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1848844395
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Book Description
When the First World War froze into a static line of trenches stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss border, the most obvious means of protection against the murderous machine-gun fire which both sides inflicted upon each other was some form of shell-proof shelter which from which fire could be returned in safety, hence the development of the pill box. The idea was certainly not new but the technology required to build them under the prevailing circumstances presented problems hitherto undreamed of. In this remarkably absorbing study of what at first seems a somewhat arcane study of what at first seems a somewhat arcane subject, Peter Oldham, himself a concrete technologist, examines the problems of the design and construction of the pill boxes of the Western Front. He describes how the innumerable difficulties involved in what might to the untrained eye seem to be a fairly simple structure, were gradually overcome. Containing as it does, a gazetteer of the remaining pill boxes and bunkers still to be found in Flanders and Picardy, this book will prove an invaluable guide to the members of many clubs and societies which annually make pilgrimages to the battlefields of the First World War and certainly add a new dimension and interest to their visits to the Western Front.

Fortress Britain

Fortress Britain PDF Author: Ian Hernon
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752497170
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 430

Book Description
As Stuart Laycock's book All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: and the Few We Never got Round to shows, the British have not been backward in coming forward when it comes to aggressive forays abroad. But it hasn't all been one way. In 1193 for example, the Danes teamed up serial offenders, the French, for a full-scale invasion. The French Prince Louis the Lion came close to success exactly 150 years after the Battle of Hastings. The 100 Years War saw multiple raids on British towns and ports by the Spanish and French. Following the Armada, there was the bloodless invasion of 1688, Bonnie Prince Charlie's march south, the remarkable American John Paul Jones' attack on Whitehaven during the American War of Independence, the German occupation of the Channel Islands and – the great what if of British, perhaps world history – the threat of Operation Sealion. Ian Hernon brings his journalistic flair to bear in this dramatic narrative of the survival of an island race over 900 years – sometimes, surprisingly, against the odds. Whilst such a history (one leaving out the boring bits) is bound to entertain, it also cannot fail to inform: where were shots last exchanged with an enemy on the mainland? At Graveney Marsh in Kent.

Britain, Ireland and the Second World War

Britain, Ireland and the Second World War PDF Author: Ian S. Wood
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748630015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
For Britain the Second World War exists in popularmemory as a time of heroic sacrifice, survival and ultimate victory overFascism. In the Irish state the years 1939-1945 are still remembered simplyas 'the Emergency'. Eire was one of many small states which in 1939 chosenot to stay out of the war but one of the few able to maintain itsnon-belligerency as a policy.How much this owed to Britain's militaryresolve or to the political skills of amon de Valera is a key questionwhich this new book will explore. It will also examine the tensions Eire'spolicy created in its relations with Winston Churchill and with the UnitedStates. The author also explores propaganda, censorship and Irish statesecurity and the degree to which it involves secret co-operation withBritain. Disturbing issues are also raised like the IRA's relationship toNazi Germany and ambivalent Irish attitudes to the Holocaust.Drawing uponboth published and unpublished sources, this book illustrates the war'simpact on people on both sides of the border and shows how it failed toresolve sectarian problems on Northern Ireland while raising higher thebarriers of misunderstanding between it and the Irish state across itsborder.

The Archaeology of the Second World War

The Archaeology of the Second World War PDF Author: Gabriel Moshenska
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473822300
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Book Description
The Second World War transformed British society. Men, women and children inhabited the war in every area of their lives, from their clothing and food to schools, workplaces and wartime service. This transformation affected the landscapes, towns and cities as factories turned to war work, beaches were prepared as battlefields and agricultural land became airfields and army camps. Some of these changes were violent: houses were blasted into bombsites, burning aircraft tumbled out of the sky and the seas around Britain became a graveyard for sunken ships. Many physical signs of the war have survived a vast array of sites and artefacts that archaeologists can explore - and Gabriel Moshenskas new book is an essential introduction to them. He shows how archaeology can bring the ruins, relics and historic sites of the war to life, especially when it is combined with interviews and archival research in order to build up a clear picture of Britain and its people during the conflict. His work provides for the first time a broad and inclusive overview of the main themes of Second World War archaeology and a guide to many of the different types of sites in Britain. It will open up the subject for readers who have a general interest in the war and it will be necessary reading and reference for those who are already fascinated by wartime archaeology - they will find something new and unexpected within the wide range of sites featured in the book.

In Search of the Real Dad’s Army

In Search of the Real Dad’s Army PDF Author: Stephen Cullen
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1848842694
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
What was the Home Guard? Who were the men and women who served in it? And what can be said of their real role and significance once the popular myths have been stripped away? Despite the fame of the Home Guard – of Dad’s Army – the true story of this wartime organization tends to be neglected. The myths obscure the reality. Stephen Cullen’s aim in this thoroughgoing new study is to cut through the misunderstandings in order to reassess the Home Guard and its contribution to Britain’s war effort – and to deepen our understanding of the men and women who were members of it. He sets the Home Guard in the long historical context of domestic defense planning, then focuses on the preparations made before the outbreak of the Second World War. In detail he traces the changing role of the Home Guard during its wartime existence as it adapted to meet the multitude of challenges it faced – from civil defense and intelligence gathering to training for guerrilla warfare. Using vivid eyewitness testimony and oral history, he takes a grassroots look at the men - and women – from all ages and social backgrounds who made up this national defense force. The equipment, uniforms, weapons and vehicles they used and the field defenses they manned are described as their role developed over the course of the war. He also examines the evolution of popular views of the Home Guard from wartime days to the present – the notion of the People’s Army, the thinking of early Home Guard commentators like George Orwell, and the writings of more recent historians who have sought to explain an organization that retains such an extraordinary hold on the popular imagination.
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