Military Archaeology

WOW! That guy with the 200-odd pics of Spurn Head sounds almost as obsessive as me!
Speaking of Hawaiian pillboxes, I wonder where BigIceman got to with his pics of defences in Hawaii?!
Found an unusual strongpoint which may interest you, Ian. It's built of red sandstone with a concrete roof, it has loopholes in all sides, and it's oriented north-south. The only entry is through three roof hatches. It stands in the grounds of a former stately pile in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, but when I visited a few weeks ago it was too icy to risk climbing on the roof. I'll try and get some decent pics for you soon.

 

Some interesting news...University of Glasgow has just announced a Postgraduate course in Battlefield Archaeology...so maybe I Will do it professionally! MLitt/PgDip Battlefield Archaeology
And from the same source (ok-Dr Tony Pollard of Two men in a trench fame) comes volume 1 of the Journal of Conflict Archaeology . This is the in-house journal of CAIRN (Conflict Archaeology International Research Network) and vol. 1 seems to have something for everyone.

 

good stuff man, i need to attend that battlefield archeology class bet that will be fun

 

United Kingdom Fortifications Club Secretary passes away.

I received a letter from the club Treasurer this morning informing me that Peter Cobb, UKFC Secretary, had died. I don't know any more details yet, but I know Peter didn't keep in the best of health.
Peter was the UKFC to a great extent, since he was editor, chief contributor, and publisher of Aldis, the club magazine, as well as chairman. He was indefatigable (in the true sense, Mr Galloway!) in his study of fortifications, and what he didn't know about WW2 structures wasn't worth knowing. I had the pleasure of his company each summer when he arrived in Scotland for a couple of weeks to conduct a series of surveys on interesting sites. I learned an immeasurable amount of knowledge from him.
An ex-RN career man, Peter is survived by his wife, son and daughter, and will be sadly missed by all who were ever fortunate enough to have known him.

 

I'm very sorry to hear that, Gordon - and I hope that others will step into the breach to continue his work.

 

thats too bad... i know there are going to be good people who will follow his tracks...

 

Historic Warships at Birkenhead to close.

Only just found out about this. A real shame, a great collection of ships and the U boat is incredible.

The interior is as though it was brought out of the sea yesterday. Really spooky, with bottles still in racks and the knobs on the cooker still on.

They're hoping to keep the U Boat at least in Liverpool as part of a Battle of the Atlantic museum.

More at: Historic Warships

 

that is really cool, do you have pictures of the u-boat? this site seems rather scarce of pics...

 

Here's some

U 534 exterior

And some more showing interior

U534 Salvage

 

For those of you not on my mailing list you might want to look at the latest update at the Pillboxesuk site.

Unusual Pillboxes at Heysham , Lancs

Bison Mobile Pillbox

Alnwick Loopholed Wall.

Also a new section on mystery structures - Can you identify them?

Click here to see the latest update.

 

Those unusual pillboxes where intrigueing. I hope that you get an answer. The truck mounted pillboxes were an intersting idea. I never saw anything like that before. I did see something of a similar idea in Hawaii at a museum. It was a ready made machine gun position in a turret. Dig a hole, lay a little culvert pipe for the crew to enter and fill in. Instant pillbox. Here is a link.

Pacific prefabricated pillbox

 

thanks Ice.

looks like you had great weather!

We also had something similar to the turret pillbox in your pics.

Allan Williams Turret

Also this, which is very rare, so I have no actual pics.

Tett Turret

Not a enviable position!

 

Many thanks for the updates, pillboxesuk....

I can only be thankful that the Bison Mobile Pillbox was never seriously tested in combat.

 

Those are very similar ideas for pre-fabricated one man pillboxes. They would be great for an airfield or beach. Not being able to retreat would be a big drawback. The Tett Turret would sure be great for a wooded area though, put the right kind of camouflague on it and they would be hard pressed to find you after you stopped shooting.

 

I managed to visit the STARFISH bombing decoy site at Craigmaddie Muir, Torrance, north of Glasgow today.



Still well-preserved, but flooded and used as a rubbish tip inside. This is the escape hatch from the crew's quarters.



On the moor behind and to the right of the camera were various earthworks originally, and in these were set up the oil fires, pyrotechnics etc which gave the site it's function. Didn't have time to look for them today though.
There was originally another bunker about a mile and a half to the east, and a post-war RAF pics show it surrounded by bomb craters. Unfortunately, the entire moor is a peat bog, and I suspect that the bunker has long since sunk, since I couldn't find it. What I did find was this anomaly:



This appears to be a set of holdfast bolts for a Heavy AA gun-but none are recorded up on the moor, and why the hell would they site them so close to a bombing decoy?!
There was also this concrete raft, which may or may not be more holdfasts.



Behind these are Lennoxtown Castle woods, surrounding the castle of the same name which is now a mental institution. On the night the Luftwaffe blitzed Clydebank, my father ( a War Reserve Constable in Stirling, which came under the same civil defence district)was ordered through to Lennoxtown as part of two carloads of reinforcements. They were told to search the castle woods, as a German airman had been seen baling out. After two hours, they found him...buried up to the waist and slumped forward, covered by his chute. It hadn't opened, and he'd gone in feet first.....

[ 10. February 2006, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

Fascinating stuff Gordon.

I wonder if the holdfasts could be for the oil storage tanks?
I understand these sites could get through more than 25 tons of fuel in 4 hours. I'm not sure how they would store that amount.

Ian

 

Ian,
I've just had a look at CANMORE, and discovered I was looking about half a mile too far west for the second bunker! It's further over, among some limekilns (brilliant piece of camouflage! ).
At the point I found that concrete, all the map shows is three airshafts. Now, pitshafts usually need a damn sight more than a bit of concrete to cover them over, so I don't think I found one. Don't know what though.
I suppose you could have a point about the oil storage; that is only a few hundred yards away from the earthworks, so it could be something that simple.
On the subject of Beaches, Fields, Streets and Hills, I still can't get a hold of it. It was supposed to have been published in December, but according to the University bookshop that's now been deferred to March, for some strange reason. Any more luck yourself?

 

thats very cool stuff man

 

I got to the old airfield at Macmerry in East Lothian today, to photograph what was left of it.















I think this is the technical site. It's on a working sheep farm, and the farmer says this is all due to be demolished in the next few weeks.

 

On the airfield's NE perimeter, I found this generator building...



...But next to it was this type 27 pillbox..







The type 27 had a central well for mounting an LMG in an AA role, but the entrance was sealed on this one. I had to climb onto the roof to get this shot of it...