WW1 and WW2 Defences - Suffolk and beyond

As well as the CHL Radar site already I've already posted about, also took in three pillboxes and the site of the Pakefield Emergency Coastal battery. The first pillbox is on the north side of Kessingland beach front, in the grounds of a small housing development. A typical 'Suffolk Square', but the entrance and all embrasures have been blocked up. The second is on the higher cliffs in between Kessingland and Pakefiled and required a climb up the cliffs to reach! Another 'Suffolk Square', sunk into the ground to embrasure level that would have enjoyed a sweeping field of fire over the beach (assuming of course it was actually built on the cliff front and is not there today as a result of coastal erosion!). Its now almost hidden from site by brambles. Further north still, can be found the site of Pakefield Emergency Battery. Even during the war, coastal erosion was a problem and the site of the guns and battery observation post has now disappeared, with just a few br...

An interesting walk along the coast from Kessingland to Pakefield last Monday. Took in three pillboxes, Pakefield CHL Radar site and the site of Pakefield Emergency Coastal Battery. This post will concentrate on Pakefield CHL Radar station. The British had realised the need for methods of detecting aircraft in the event of war and in the mid thirties, research was undertaken and developed on the use of  'Radio Direction Finding', or RDF. A prototype RDF system was built at Bawdsey (called Chain Home or CH) in 1937, and further development led to a 'beamed radar' (called Chain Home Low or CHL). This was more reliable than CH in bad weather and had a range of upto 160 km. Pakefield was one of the CHL sites operational during the war. Toady the remaining buildings are perilously close to the cliff edge. The site was also used as a Cold War Royal Observer Corps post. Reference: www.radarworld.org Image 1: Main building, Pakefield CHL, perilously close to the cliff edge Imag...

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.

Although many anti-tank gun pillboxes (Type 28 and 28a) were constructed throughout the country on either the GHQ Line or various Corps Stop Lines, how many actually had guns mounted in them is another matter. Certainly work on the GHQ Stop Line was halted before many (if any at all) were actually installed. On the Corps Lines in was another matter - certainly in Suffolk the defences on the Eastern Command Line were being maintained until 1941 at least (although again, given the shortage of anti-tank guns during the period 1940-41 most would have been installed for Coastal Defence rather than interior Stop Lines). However at Ballingham Bridge, Sudbury a six pounder gun was installed in a Type 28 pillbox according to documents at TNA. Today this pillbox still exists.  It would appear to be a variant of the standard design in that it has a non standard arrangement of embrasures for Bren guns / rifles. It also has a porch entrance.Whether it was built to a standard Type 28 design and ...

A belated post on a visit to the Eastern Command Line in the Sudbury area during May. Here, the anti-tank obstacle is the River Stour which is covered with numerous pillboxes along its length. Most are of a regular hexagon with a central open well with a mount for a light AA machine gun and a sunken entrance porch. One just to the south of Sudbury, near Great Cornard, has an extended separate blast wall instead of the sunken entrance. These are often incorrectly referred to as Type 27's, however the official DFW3/27 plan is a regular octagon. Research by Mike Osborne has shown that the examples found in Sudbury (as well as other parts of the Eastern Command Line and in Essex) are almost certainly a design by CRE Colchester - probably to plan CRE1113 which has both bullet and shell proof versions. The shell proof version have standard Bren gun embrasures, while the bullet proof ones have rifle embrasures which are reinforced with a metal plate. Remains of steel bars can be seen on s...