Military Archaeology

I did some more rummaging over in Fife the other day and found this lot.
First is an ARP sign in Burntisland, pointing to a church across the road....



Next is an unusual pillbox on the shore at Burntisland, facing west towards the harbour and along the old frontage of the former shipbuilding yard.





Along the coast in Kinghorn was this old look-out post. It stands on the edge of a ravine, overlooking the harbour. There was a coastal battery on the hill behind the camera in the first photo, but it's long gone. This building may have been associated with it. It may also have been used by RN Coastwatchers because of its position. The town cemetery is on the other side of the wall.





On the way home I snapped this memorial to Donibristle airfield (HMS Merlin)in the car park of Dalgety Bay station.



And a close-up of the plaque...

 

Great pictures and links as usual Gordon. I am unfamiliar with what the ARP stands for.

 

That's Air Raid Precaution, bigiceman - a Civil Defence organization consisting of non-military volunteers.

 

Cheers Ice.
To add to what Martin said the ARP were responsible for making sure the blackout restrictions were adhered to, emergency equipment set up and ready, firewatcher rotas set up & operating, everyone carrying gas masks & knowing what to do in a raid etc.
Built-up areas were divided into sectors of 500 people, and Warden's posts, First Aid Posts, surface shelters, Decontamination centres, emergency morgues etc set up within the sector. Some Warden's posts were purpose-built ( I haven't seen any in Scotland yet), but most were requisitioned private houses.
I forgot to say that the hill behind the pillbox is actually the remains of a Cromwellian fort, and there appears to be a trench (possibly WW2) behind the rampart which faces the same direction as the pillbox.

[ 22. September 2005, 03:11 AM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

Thanks Martin and Gordon. This is a level of detail into the preparation and planning on the British home front that I was unaware of. That level of cival defense planning must have been a terrific burden to establish but it also must have yielded enormous benefits.

Gordon, do you ever run accross anyone who was assigned to the pillboxes and other fortifications during the war when you are looking about?

 

Ice,
The only ex-defender I've ever met was a Polish gentleman I know who was one of the troops stationed around Findo Gask airfield in Perthshire.
Pillboxes etc would have been manned either by regular troops, or Home Guard. There's probably more chance of tracing an ex-HG than a regular, because at least some of the HG would have remained in the area for the duration. As far as the coastal artillery batteries in Fife go, there were several coast artillery units of the Territorial Army who manned them until late in the war, when they would have been replaced by HG.
I would like to have a go at contacting ex-wartime members of these units, but it's trying to find the time unfortunately.
I have an acquaintance who interviewed hundreds of ex-RAF personnel who manned the various wartime radar stations in Scotland/NE England. He spent years doing it though.

 

Ice,

My Grandfather and Uncle served in the Home Guard, an armed militia formed of men who were either too young or too old to serve in the regular army. More Home Guard Info.

Their view was it was far safer to be outside rather than inside a pillbox as most had only one exit and were considered death traps.

 

This probably rates as my find of the year. While I was over at Burntisland the other week, I saw these on the beach.







Turns out they're 1940 anti-landing obstacles! Each stake is around three foot high, and surrounded by four staked-down spars, each of which is three foot long. The central stakes were originally much higher, but at some point they have been cut down to minimise the navigation hazard to fishing vessels/pleasure craft etc.
They stretch for a good few hundred yards, and seem to make a \ | / pattern, but whether this is intentional or just the effect of 65 years of tidal action, I don't know.
This is the view north-east to Kinghorn:



This is the view south across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh...



And this is the view south-west back towards Burntisland....



The main railway line runs along the shore here on an elevated stone embankment, so perhaps these were all that was thought necessary to protect the beach. There is a pedestrian underpass straight off the beach onto the main road, but this would have been blocked.
At the Burntisland end of the beach is an 18th century Limekiln, immediately to the rear of that pillbox I pictured earlier. There's no surviving physical evidence to prove it, but all the structure would have needed to turn it into a strongpoint would have been the sandbagging of the various entrances.

[ 27. September 2005, 05:06 PM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

Very rare indeed!

The Defence of Britain Database only lists 2 sites in the whole of the UK as surviving.

This one isn't listed.

 

I'm starting to wonder if they've realised the war's over in Scotland.....

A rare sight indeed and yet again - thanks for posting the pix, Gordon !

 

Martin,
It's to keep you lot on the right side of the border!
Ian,
Are those two beaches in Scotland? I think Tyninghame beach in East Lothian has the remains of scaffolding on the beach, and I'm sure there's something else up in Angus - the Lunan Bay area?

 

Both south of the border! Well one is just....

Bawdsey, Suffolk, England
Bawdsey Beach, East Lane, Bawdsey., Condition: Very Bad (Grid ref: TM 3585 4028 Grid ref: TM 3580 4039 Grid ref: TM 3586 4036 Grid ref: TM 3580 4010 )

Widdrington, Northumberland, England
Druridge Bay, Condition: Extant but condition unknown (Grid ref: NZ 280 965 )

Photos of Druridge Bay Remains

I was at Druridge Bay earlier this year but didn't see any evidence, and certainly nothing as clear cut as Burntisland. Should be grade 1 listing!

[ 29. September 2005, 05:14 AM: Message edited by: pillboxesuk ]

 

Talking of rare finds...check out this purpose built gun emplacement with remnants of its original camouflage paint and pitched roof to disguise it from the air.

Ellastone Camouflaged Gun Emplacement

 

Nice one, Ian. Superb pics!
Haven't seen an emplacement like that myself yet. Are the defences on Bawdsey beach anywhere near the old Chain Home station? It is Bawdsey I'm thinking of?!
There are also anti-tank blocks on the beach at Seahouses in Northumberland, and a pillbox on the dunes next to a deserted Coastguard lookout on the road to Bamburgh.
If you go south of Seahouses, there's a roadside pillbox on the back road to Alnwick, not far from the wartime airfield.
I just sent a report form and the pics of Burntisland beach to the RCAHMS in Edinburgh, so they should be online in the NMR in the next few weeks.

 

I remember ( on holiday in Seahouses in the early -70s ) walking in the dunes between there and Bamburgh ; coming across a large hollow filled to the brim with masses of rusting coiled barbed-wire and pickets. There must have been literally tons of it which must have just been rolled up off the beach and dumped there post-war.

And no - I didn't bring it home.....

 

Shame on you, Martin!
I was in Seahouses a couple of years back, but didn't get much time to thoroughly scour the shore...........
Just found this story btw Work unearths WW2 pillbox
They lifted it to a new location?!

[ 29. September 2005, 04:21 PM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

I have a mate show lives in the area, I've asked him for some pics. Watch this space!

I've always thought one of these should be preserved in a museum, although ideally in its original location....

 

This is the old wartime Chain Home radar station at Kingsmuir, near Anstruther in Fife.
This is the standby generator building...





And this is one of the actual radar buildings-not sure if it's the transmitter or receiver building...





This little building stands at the end of the field



The technical site used to survive about half a mile down the road, but is now cleared away.
When Kingsmuir closed post-war, it was replaced by a Rotor radar building at nearby Troywood...


...Which is now open to the public as Scotland's Secret Bunker

These two Nissen huts are still used by one of the local farmers at East Pitcorthie....

 

...While over near Glenrothes, still in Fife, this pillbox guards the entrance to the village of Thornton, and also marks the start of the Fife Command Line...





While these concrete anti-tank pimples ('Dragon's Teeth') lie behind a wall directly across the road...



Originally they would have been spread across the road itself.

[ 02. October 2005, 03:57 PM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

Fortified pubs!

At two crossings of the Leeds Liverpool Canal canalside pubs either had loopholes added to existing buildings or extensions added intended to blend in with the surroundings. This example is the Slipway Inn near Burscough.



The sign is of a more recent vintage, but the welcome extended to uninvited German tourists would have undoubtably been very warm indeed 60 years ago!

More pics here