Skip to main content

WW1 Training Trenches - Beccles

With a few days off work, I've been out and about in the field. This is the first of two posts that will look at trenches - one from the First War and one from the Second!

This afternoon, I decided to combine a visit to an excellent  second hand bookshop in Beccles (cost me £24!) with a visit to look at the First War practice trenches on the Common. These WW1 practice / training trenches  are fairly well known. Although they have long been infilled they show up as marks in the grass extremely well from the air and also on the ground as well. I don't have any information of which unit dug them or when. Although how Suffolk was to be defended in the First War is something I want to start looking at, I doubt if I will ever find out which units were billeted in Beccles or when these trenches were dug; they would obviously have nothing to do with Suffolk's fixed defences in WW1 but would have been dug by troops as practice before being sent out  to France. 



Above: Top - aerial photo of the trenches, which still show up clearly.
Bottom - a plot of the trenches made with my hand held GPS

The above images show just how clearly the trenches still stand out; obviously from the air but also good enough on the ground to allow me to follow them with my GPS.  The crenelation of the fire trenches show up clearly, as well as saps leading out from the front line. Communication trenches lead back to a support line. Where these trenches dug to represent opposing lines??

The following images will show just how well they show out on the ground, which amazes me as photos I take of surviving WW2 trenches never seem to come out!





Above: A series of images of the trenches - they clearly stand out as the 'greener' vegetation. The last image shows a meter ruler for scale. 

An intriguing find was a small shirt button. It is certainly of the type used by the Army in the First War as similar buttons are one of the most common field finds my brother and I come across while walking the fields of the Somme. Stamped on the back, as far as I can make out, is: "BIRM    HGILL"; after the BIRM is a smaller M stamped above but the text formatting of Blogger won't allow me to show that! I'm sure that these buttons were also common place outside the Army, but it would be nice to imagine it came from the shirt of a soldier digging these trenches! Plenty of rabbit action in the area so it's not implausible that it could have been bought to the surface after all these years!



Above: Small shirt button found while recording these trenches. Top photo shows my GPS for scale.

Finally while here, I could not resit visiting the Type 22 pillbox on the Common. It is one of the variants with additional lower embrasures, considered to be for the Boy's Anti-tank rifle. 




Above: Type 22 Pillbox, Beccles Common

All in all a very enjoyable afternoon. I think I also provided the local dog walkers with amusement, wondering around at a snails pace with a GPS and taking random photos of a meter ruler etc!!
  

  


Comments

  1. Itsteapot27 August 2014 at 16:38

    I believe I was one of those bemused dog walkers, 2 dogs ( English setter and jack Russell ) I thought you were geo caching . Now on finding this site I know what you were doing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

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.
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more