Key facts Tett turrets at RAF Hornchurch, Essex The former airfield at RAF Hornchurch in Essex boasts the largest concentration of surviving tett turrets in the country. This ultra rare form of one-man pillbox would have been extremely cramped and restrictive for the guy inside! Thankfully the surviving tett turrets […]
Tim Denton
83 posts
Airfield Defence Pillbox The first thing that people say when they see a Seagull Trench is “Look at the size of that”! With overall dimensions of approximately 70ft X 13ft it is not surprising that this `Airfield Defence Pillbox` is something to get excited about! Paul Francis, Airfield Archaeologist, wrote […]
Turnbull Mounts Turnbull mounts were not exclusively used for mounting Vickers machine-guns but Brens, Lewis, water cooled Brownings and Hotchkiss MGs could all be used, there was even a request from Bovington if a gun bar could be designed for there Besa Machine guns. I suspect in fact that Bren […]
Key Facts
Key Facts The ‘Lifting & Turning Fort’ In the summer of 1940 many engineering companies approached government departments with plans for defence structures designed to their own specifications. The New Kent Construction Company of Ashford, submitted plans for a “disappearing pillbox” for airfield defence to the designs of Donald Hamilton […]
Key Facts Circular Design 360 degree field of fire low profile Gun mounted on railed mounting Usually found on Airfields More details and examples here
Extended Defence Officer Posts The function of EXDO (or, equally valid for this context. XDO) in the Royal Navy dates from April 3rd 1914 when the duty of so called `submarine mining` passed from the R.E.s to the R.N. The first such unit to transfer and be joined (i.e. re-badged) […]
Key Facts
Key Facts See The Northumberland Beehive Pillbox for more details
Key facts Allan-Williams Turrets at Bembridge Fort, Isle of Wight in 1988Photographs Kevin Briggs
A ‘Beginners’ Guide for visitors As a fairly regular Visitor to the Pas-De-Calais I decided one day to make a trip to France with the sole purpose of discovering the many Pillboxes and Gun emplacements which litter the coastline and make up the, Atlantik Wall’. Several trips later and it […]
Having decided to visit the Bombing Decoy Site at Offchurch we travelled eastwards along the Grand Union Canal towards Radford Semele so we could have a quick look at the Type 24 Pillbox, which is located on the non-towpath side of the canal at Radford Bottom Lock. The Pillbox can […]
WW2 History Trail in Hong Kong by Graham G. Matthews In Hong Kong This walk traces the battle for Wong Nai Chung Gap on 19th December 1941, perhaps the bloodiest day of fighting in the short but brutal struggle for Hong Kong during World War II. I have followed the […]
Myself and two friends decided to investigate the canal between Napton and Priors Hardwick which formed part of the Oxford Canal Stop Stop Line. De-bussing at Napton we headed for the towpath at Bridge 113 and headed South to Bridge 114 at Chapel Green and here on the west side […]
WW2 Defences beside the River Mole After an early morning visit to Dorking my wife and I decided to take an interesting riverside walk close to the Surrey hills, this by a strange coincidence would take us by some remaining WW2 defences! Starting at the bottom of Box hill and […]
A Walk Along Chesil Beach Abbotsbury Open Machine Gun Emplacements & Defences NGR: SY5665984083 & SY5666484097 During August 2006 I was kindly given a tour of some of the remaining defences in Dorset by Graham Matthews our previous PSG Web-master. Visiting Chesil beach at Abbotsbury was on the route and […]
A very clean and intact type 22 saw daylight again on 1st June 2010. The Pillbox had lain very much overgrown and hidden from view at the rear of the site of the old village hall at East Stoke near Wareham, Dorset. Graham had been given the chance to uncover […]
February 2010, A type 24 emerges from the undergrowth. On a cold and wet February day a keen PSG team tackled one of the most overgrown pillboxes to date, this time it would reveal what we believed to be the best surviving bullet proof FW3/24 on the MOD land at […]
A Hampshire 8 Sided Pillbox re-discovered. PILLBOX: S0011186 (Extant) A forgotten and unusual pillbox re-appeared again late October 2008 when myself, Tim Burt and Philip Riley met to carry out a project uncovering a part of Odiham’s hidden wartime history. During 1940 there was a possibility of airborne troop and […]
As part of the Maiden Newton at War Weekend members of the Pillbox Study Group carried out a restoration of a Type 22 Pillbox on the edge of the village.
March 2008 saw myself and PSG member Tim Burt meet up to work on an overgrown Type 24. I had worked on an adjacent example at the beginning of January 2008 and as an on going project it enabled me to show PSG members a ‘cleaned off’ example during […]
Early in January 2008 I completed a relatively easy task exposing a fine collection of dragons teeth that had become virtually hidden by many years of undergrowth. Set on the sloping south bank of the Basingstoke Canal at Crookham in Hampshire, they once formed part of the aldershot west defence […]
I had been given permission by the landowner to carry out a study on the Vickers machine gun emplacement earlier in the year but had decided to leave until the winter months for the leaves to have fallen. Armed with spades, broom and various other tools, myself and fellow PSG […]
Restoration Of The Tulk‘s Hill Observation Pillbox When you have been married to a ‘Pillbox Spotter’ for as long as I have then you will understand that `concrete-itis` is just part of life`s rich tapestry and that it`s quite normal to drive around the countryside peering over hedges! If you […]
Revealed, a long hidden Hampshire Pillbox. On a bitterly cold day during January 2007, Graham Matthews and I spent a morning giving a ‘makeover’ to an unusual shell-proof pillbox near Hook in Hampshire. The wartime structure had lain shrouded in undergrowth for the past 30 years or so, and could hardly be […]
Study & ‘Makeover’ Of A Shellproof Pillbox The pillbox is on private land near to the GHQ line at Crookham in Hampshire and is one of only two of this design. During January 2006 the landowner very kindly allowed me to carry out a study and survey of the unusual […]
Restoration Of The ‘Dorset Round Type’ One-Off Design Pillbox At Sy 7600-9060 Initial Thoughts Whilst travelling around the Dorset countryside in the mid-1990’s as a ‘Field Researcher’ for the Defence of Britain Project, I stumbled across a unique Pillbox, the type of which I have not seen replicated at any other location in […]
       Key Facts Pre-cast concrete pipe 6 feet in diameter with 4 inch thick wall After casting it was deemed to be bullet-proof in 24 hours Weighed 32 cwt Constructed without the use of steel re-inforcing and relied on sandbags for internal protection of occupants Normally 4 feet high with […]
Key Facts Build variations can be found with different positioning of secondary loopholes and air vent, length and thickness of blastwall and design of main gun table. The highest concentrations of the Vickers MMG emplacement can be found on the Taunton Stop line and GHQ Line A and B in […]
Key Facts FW3/28 Generally, the pillboxes are positioned to allow the gun to fire along fixed lines, such as enfilading fire across an anti-tank ditch or a bridge. In these positions the limited traverse of the gun creates no real disadvantage and the small size of the embrasure provides greater […]
Key facts
Key facts This is probably the simplest of all but not the most common pillbox type. Variations in the standard design have been identified in Dorset, Kent and Somerset. The ‘Dover quad’ is a 13ft (4m) square pillbox with an overhanging roof slab. The ‘defence post’ found in Somerset is a little over 8ft (2.4m) square with […]
Key facts Information obtained from pillbox typology part 4 in Loopholes journal of the PSG. With kind permission of Mike Osborne.
Key facts Information obtained from Pillbox Typology Part 3 in Loopholes Journal of PSG. With kind permission of Mike Osborne
Key Facts One of the areas for most variation will be found in the shape of the Loopholes and the internal provision of weapon rests. There appears to be no hard and fast rules but the norm for the Type 22 Pillbox, essentially designed for use by riflemen, is […]
When invasion panic ensued in 1940 road blocks were thrown up everywhere, mainly to the detriment of the public, who walked into them at night or simply drove into them in their cars; individuals were even shot at occasionally – hardly surprising given the tense situation after Dunkirk. Blocks at […]
The Stanton air-raid shelter was manufactured by the Stanton Ironworks Co Ltd near Nottingham (the iron connection is in the mould pattern). They could be built in any length but usually consisted of 18 precast concrete arched-shaped units (each one in two parts), bolted together to form a standard (after […]
The reason for their construction on or very near Airfields is to provide the ‘Station Commander’ with a secure location from which he could direct the defence of ‘his’ property via landlines and runners in the event of being attacked by hostile ground forces. Officially known as the Type 11008/41 […]
Whilst rummaging through files recently at the Public Record Office I came across substantial material on the Spigot Mortar, a weapon which was, as will be seen, controversial at least, certainly in Southern Command on which this article generally concentrates. Although not available to counteract a German invasion in 1940 […]
It is probably not appreciated what an interesting and diverse subject it can be-literally a study in itself. It has much in common with Army-based defences, as you can never be sure what you are going to find! I’ve divided the subject into two sections: a short history, followed by […]