WW1 and WW2 Defences - Suffolk and beyond

Following my last post, I was informed of a third Spigot Mortar pedestal surviving. This one was buried under bracken, nettles etc  and had clearly been removed from its original location. I suspect it was originally sited within the field, just on the edge of the Covert and was removed after the War (the field is ex-arable). The pedestal is unusual in that it is slightly different  to the standard design. It has also been very crudely made, with beach shingle mixed with rubble in a concrete mix. I'm also uncertain if the pedestal was mounted on a concrete base slab- the reinforcing steel rods that the spindle was mounted on (known as the 'birdcage' or 'spider') are normally set into the concrete base slab. The attached images would suggest they were not. The recommended shuttering for the pedestal was a concrete pipe - in this example shuttering seems to have been corrugated iron sheets for the top half - not sure what they used for ...

I have posted on some of the remains to be found at Sandymount Covert a while ago, but it was one of my first posts and I have refined recording a bit since then. So another visit was required to more comprehensively record the traces of WW2. Sandymount Covert was more or less occupied throughout the war by the military. In 1940 the Covert was an "Emergency Platoon" area, to be manned by the Reserve Company of 2/4 South Lancs Regt. if required. A Bren gun was to be sited to cover the ground to the south of the Covert.  During the second half of 1940, an Emergency Coastal Battery with two 4" guns was  established at nearby Dingle Great Hill. Above: Location of Dunwich Coastal Battery and the two Coastal Artillery Search Lights (CASL's), of which only fragments remain now (see below) In 1941 a section of medium machine guns from 1/7 Middlesex was in support of 15th Div, with guns sited on the eastern edge of Sandymount Covert to cover the ground towards...

This last post, on our recent trip to the Somme, will end by remembering a few individual soldiers. So how do you choose out of the thousands buried in the Somme Cemeteries? Relatives were allowed to add a personal inscription to the headstones. The British decided to charge for this as it was thought it would give the families a more personal stake in the grave (The Canadian Government paid for the inscriptions while the New Zealand Government refused to allow personal inscriptions). Most inscriptions are well known religious verses or simple messages from mum, dad, brothers and sister or wife. The following are chosen from inscriptions  that caught my attention and as I have no known relative to remember, I'll remember these names: PRIVATE J RAMSHAW: "PAUSE, OH YOU WINDS OF FRANCE  AS AROUND HIS GRAVE YOU MOAN & WHISPER" PRIVATE E.G. HENDERSON: "SOME TIME WE WILL UNDERSTAND" PRIVATE C.T. CRACKNELL: "FROM OUR HAPPY HOME AN...

The first of two posts to remember the fallen in the Great War and all subsequent conflicts. The first of these two posts was inspired by Sydney C. Hurst's book, "The Silent Cities". After the Great War, Sydney Hurst was working for the Imperial War Graves Commission, but in his spare time was working on a project to photograph the cemeteries and memorials to the missing in France and Flanders. So impressed was Maj-Gen Sir Fabian Ware (Vice-Chairman of the Imperial War Graves Commission) with this work, that Sydney Hurst was given special leave by the Commission to complete this work - the result his book, "The Silent Cities" (the phrase "Silent Cities" originated from Rudyard Kipling). The book was intended  to satisfy two demands of the time - the first a photograph of the general appearance of each cemetery and, the second, to give clear indications of the situation of each cemetery as would enable its geographical surroundings to be some extent v...