Pillboxes and Tank Traps by Bernard Lowry

Author:Bernard Lowry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pillboxes and Tank Traps
ISBN: 9781784420147
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2014-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Light anti-aircraft position for two machine guns at Kingscliffe airfield. Second World War researcher and author Austin Ruddy stands in one of the pits (actually sewer pipes). In the distance to the left is one of the airfield’s Oakington pillboxes.

The upper section of a Pickett-Hamilton Fort, showing one of the loopholes. Entry was via a roof hatch.

The Taylor Report of late 1940 had recommended that airfield defences be graded according to the tactical value of the site – not only front-line combat airfields but also those holding, for example, large reserves of aircraft or precious components such as aero engines. On many airfields the defences would now, from 1941 onwards, be co-ordinated from specially designed battle headquarters, and the RAF would have its own troops with the formation of the RAF Regiment in February 1942. The purpose-designed (the drawing was issued in 1941) battle headquarters was sited in a position of best view, sunken and with a 360-degree vision slot beneath a thick concrete cover. Telephones and messengers enabled the officer in charge to co-ordinate an airfield’s defences; sometimes these included the Royal Engineers’ designs, such as the so-called ‘Seagull Trench’, or were designs worked out by the airfield’s own Works Department. A circular design was known as the ‘Oakington’ (an RAF airfield where the design originated and where examples remain), the ‘Mushroom’, or simply ‘FC’ after the manufacturer, the FC Construction Company. Some designs were extremely simple, for example the Stork mounting for machine guns: the guns, which were designed for both air and ground defence, and the gunners were contained in vertical concrete sewer pipes. Although the Army had abandoned the building of pillboxes by the beginning of 1941, many of the RAF’s airfields would remain defended by pillbox-like designs, often referred to by the RAF as ‘defence posts’. The force had large stocks of aircraft machine guns, both modern and obsolete, and these were used to arm its specially designed pillboxes, with the guns on Turnbull swivelling mounts.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.