WW1 and WW2 Defences - Suffolk and beyond

This post will  look in more detail at the remains we recorded and attempt to relate them to what is known about Field batteries from Manuals and War Diaries. Obviously we can only record what remains - some features may have disappeared (either due to woodland management work as the battery is sited on the edge of a small covert or perhaps the position may have extended into surrounding arable land so any features obviously long since ploughed up). Another factor to consider is that as this position was only  occupied for a short while it may   never have been completed.  Make up of a Field Battery position A Field battery position would have consisted of the gun pits, a command post, shell trenches and crew accommodation. Positions for close defence may also have been constructed as well as slit trenches for Passive Air Defence (PAD).  The location would have been wired in. We recorded the area of the trench/gun pit/dugout and one of the other gun p...

Posting on this blog and the two websites has certainly slowed down over the last few months but this does not mean I've been idle - far from it! I've now completed my field work in the main Westleton training area, made another visit to the National Archives and also been carrying out recording in two other areas with David Sims. The next few blogs will detail the work on one of these locations. I stumbled on this site last winter, but as I am so far behind in converting cassini grid references could not tie it down to any locality in the War Diaries. However David was able to provide the answer - it is the position of a four 75mm gun battery . It is an interesting survival as earthworks related to actual Field Batteries are incredibly rare which is strange considering the number of practice gun pits that still survive in Suffolk. We have interpreted the remains as comprising a Battery Command Post, and at least two remaining gun pits (it is possible that all four remain)....

Took a walk down to Shingle Street / Hollesley Marshes today. I noted that some scrub had been cleared around a couple of the pillboxes, so had another look inside. Although I've been in them before I noticed something new in one of them that relates to the title of this post. 15th Division Operating Instruction (Beach Defence) No 10 Apr 16th notes the following: Unoccupied Pillboxes : Surplus pillboxes for which no personnel are available to man after “stand to” constitute a danger should they be occupied by the enemy. The loopholes of all surplus pillboxes within two miles of the coast will be filled with concrete under arrangements of C.R.E. Commanders of No’s 1,2,3 & 4 sub-sectors will forward lists to this H.Q (copy to C.R.E) giving exact sites of all such pillboxes by 21 Apr 1941. Although the photos below show that this order was clearly carried out on this pillbox, there is dating evidence  on the inside of two of the blocked embrasures I had not noticed before. O...