GQ stop lines

[raf]

hi guys.

is there any links or plans to show the defence of the uk by iron side.

ive seen the map of the uk with a few wiggley lines dividing the country up.

but is there any detail to say ...

what the beach deffenses were like
were,were the strong points
were would the divisions be placed.
were would they have mined the sea and which areas would have set the sea alight.


was there a battle plan etc

thans

[the_historian]

RAF,
Try and get a hold of Beaches, Fields, Streets and Hills by William Foot, or Defending Britain by Mike Osborne. They're the closest things we're ever likely to get to a 'big' and 'little' Doomsday for 1940 defences.
They're both available through Amazon UK, I think.

[raf]

thanks gorden.

the web seems to show good detail about the german defenses etc in france. but nothing much on the uk apart from pill box uk and defense of britain.

im registerd to is it sword and penn do they have these books

[the_historian]

Well,
Defending Britain is available from NPI Media-
www.npi-mediagroup.com

while BFSH is available from the Council for British Archaeology-
CBA 20th Century Archaeology Publications

-who also do the handbook Twentieth Century Structures in Britain
CBA Practical Handbooks

Or you can try to get both second-hand at UKBookworld.com old, rare and out-of-print book database

[smc]

Part of the GHQ line is near me running from Newhaven to the River Medway. A number of defences are still extant particularly at Old Lodge Warren a small slither of land next to the railway to the north east of the Wealden town of Crowborough in fact an entire run of 12 pillboxes are still there and largely intact except one which has been partially destroyed and another which is being eroded by the stream it was originally built to cover. Most are open and can be entered though many now house bats. The 12 boxes were flanked by two anti-tank ditches the northern side of which is still there. Below are a few shots I took on the day and posted on another site - the weather was bad and the snow played havoc with my flash in the dark woods hence the spots.

A word about the topography - the boxes were built backed onto a railway with one literally on top of the embankment - they cover Crowborough Ghyll, a fast running tributary of the Medway, which through the ages has cut a gorge like path through the valley bottom. The valley itself is steep sided and was originally open heathland but has now been left to overgrow with woodland.

The first is A110 (Number 666 in Foot's book mentioned above) built to cover a fording point across the Ghyll



The second is A115 and is not marked on Foot's map but is on the track between numbers 678 and 675. It is built into the embankment and commands a field of fire over the valley.



The last picture is of the anti-tank ditch which crosses the middle of the field and is now filled by a line of trees. The view in the picture is the one pillbox A108 (663 in Foot's book) would have had over it, that is out of picture to the right. Another pillbox is at the head of the ditch out of picture to the left.



All the above can be visited as Old Lodge Warren is open access but they can be very difficult to find but an interesting excursion and probably one to do in autumn when the trees are barer and views a little easier.

[raf]

thanks for the pics smc

ive seen most of the pics from various sites...but was just wondering what the battle plan was ..were the divisions would be and numbers

thanks