If arriving by car it is safer to drive down the hill some 4-500
meters from the main road, turn and proceed back uphill with a wall
on your left. Otherwise you run the risk of someone crashing into
the back of you coming off the main road. You can then use your
vehicle to shield your search.
The cache itself has been placed approx 50m from the pill box to
ease the searching away from the gaze of locals and also to prevent
it being muggled! Please be careful if you walk up to the pill box
as the road can be very busy and drivers tend to speed along this
section.
The original "Stop The Wehrmacht?" (GC2FZN9) in Portadown is now
archived having been replaced by "Stop The Wehrmacht? 2" (GC2RAGW).
Several others are located within a few miles of Portadown, the
Cranny Road cache (GC2705X) & two others near the Bann at Knock
Bridge & Moyallon, these are on private land but can be
observed from the road. (co ords: N 54 23.979 W 006 23.708 & N
54 24.123 W 006 23.660). For some of the history please see the
archive of GC2FZN9.
In a sentence or two, British command believed that there was
the possibility of a German invasion via the neutral South through
to the North and that a plan of defence using natural and man made
features would slow any advance. The Newry canal, Lower Bann, Lough
Neagh & Upper Bann form an East \ West split in the North, pill
boxes such as these were to form part of our defensive line (not
quite a Maginot line but a plan of some sorts). Archives show that
the plan at the time was to simply abandon the counties West of the
Bann to the jack boot if an invasion took place, with final
defensive positions to be taken around Belfast and a Doomsday
scenario of any remaining British forces to form a rearguard on the
'Ards peninsula should the Germans push ever eastwards towards
England. Thankfully these durable structures were never needed in
anger, but remain as silent witnesses to the stress of war that our
grandparents endured with German bombers overhead 70 years ago this
month.
CAUTION THE JUNCTION ABOVE GZ IS VERY BUSY AND HAS A
BLIND CORNER.