Skip to main content

Atwick, East Yorkshire

During my recent visit up to Yorkshire, I visited Atwick. As with much of the Yorkshire coast south of Bridlington, it is eroding fast here, and as with many sites along this stretch of coast, the front line defences have disappeared. The pillboxes surviving today were part of the rear line of defences.

It is easy to see why this stretch of coast was heavily defended - as a sketch I came across at TNA shows - the whole beach from Bridlington to Spurn was suitable for landings, the cliffs would have easily been passable to German infantry, with suitable gaps along the coast for tanks.



Above: A sketch of the beaches along the Yorkshire Coast (TNA) - the red areas are  suitable for landings, the green areas not - and below a view of the beach at Atwick looking north towards Bridlington and Flamborough Head.

The surviving pillboxes are all of the Northern Command lozenge design. One which has its entrance sealed  has all its wooden weapons-shelves in place. Also surviving in the area are two partially sunken posts, presumably these would be Command Posts (platoon or company HQ's?).  They are not identical, one being larger with two rooms, the other smaller with one room only. They are the only ones I've seen along this stretch of coast and I don't know if others exist. They are not shell proof with additional protection given by covering with earth as images 7 and 8 below clearly show.

Atwick 'gap' was blocked with anti-tank cubes but the only remains of these now have been heaped up to act as sea defences.

Image 1-4: Lozenge pillbox with wooden weapons shelves still intact.
Images 5-6: The smaller of the two sunken posts, with pillbox in background (image 6)
Images 7-8: The larger of the sunken posts, with lozenge pillbox in background.
Image 9: The pillbox near the second sunken post.
Image 10: Remains of tank blocks, Atwick gap, now part of the sea defences.












Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eastern Command Line - a lazy post

As the title suggests, just a lazy post today, a few pics of CRE Colchester design pillboxes in the Sudbury area to round of the thread on this May visit. Also one pic of concrete road block cylinders now being used as part of river bank defences. This is the first time I have come across this type of road block in Suffolk although I suspect it was probably used quite widely on this Stop Line, perhaps I will come across more examples / references in time. These pictures do show a timeless landscape - traditional floodplain meadows still used for grazing, with the Second World War clearly marking its presence. Lets just hope both the pillboxes and  grazing meadows will be preserved.

RAF Hethel Defence Post

At RAF Station Hethel, a remarkable defence post still exists.  Admittedly, RAF Hethel is in Norfolk and not Suffolk, but the records for this site do provide some interest in relation to the defence of airfields in Eastern Command. Work on Hethel began in 1941 and the station was opened late 1942 and was actually one of the RAF Stations handed over to the USAAF for the use of its bomber units. The defence post was constructed in accordance with a new policy adopted by Eastern Command. Previously, airfield defences had been built as a result of the Taylor Report and largely consisted of pillboxes and breastworks which were large and conspicuous and vulnerable to air attack. Experience at Crete had shown the need for small inconspicuous field works. The new defences were to now consist of small two man weapon-slits and small machine gun pits constructed in accordance with “Infantry Training, 1937” Supplement No.3 – “The design and lay-out of Field Defences, 1942”. Above...

Anti-tank ditch

December 31st Decided to visit the anti-tank ditch at Aldringham Walks this afternoon. It was constructed between late 1940 and early 1941 and ran from (north to south) Sizewell to the north of Thorpeness Mere. Some of its length is still visible today (see map and bottom photo)). The war diary of 9th Cameronians (15th Div) mentions the construction of the ditch in Margaret Wood (vicinity of No 12 Platoon, B Coy).  The diary also mentions a pillbox being destroyed by the RE in No 12 platoons area, but no luck in finding any remains this time. The diary would also indicate the ditch was a combined obstacle with Z1 scaffolding. The top left photo shows the remains of a weapons pit/shell slit; six pieces of angle iron revetment still exist - one of the pieces is clearly visible in the photo. Perhaps this is part of No 12 platoons position. Many years ago when beating up the young woodland I found a Yorkshire billhook with the WO arrow dated 1946, so this area would appear to have ...