This is my first Geocache placed, it's nice and small and isn't placed so you have to interfere with anything, lots of muggle activity so pick your timing.
Only contains a small logbook, so bring a pen and some tweezers! :)
Not much history is known about it, but here's a little bit of generic info:
Almost 28,000 pillboxes were built in 1940/41 but now it is estimated only about 20% remain and many of these are in a poor condition. There may only be 1000 left in good condition. Their survival is threatened, even though interest in pillboxes is growing, and many more are likely to disappear. This website is a record of ones I have seen and how you can find them on walks throughout the country.
What is a pillbox and why were they built?
- A pillbox is the name given to a small defensive structure from which a few soldiers could keep an invading army at bay.
- The pillboxes we see today were all built during the Second World War when fears of an invasion were at their height.
- After the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk in the spring of 1940, Britain stood alone in Europe without any buffer zone to repel an invasion.
- In 1940, General Ironside was appointed to oversee the defence of Britain and so began the biggest campaign of defence building in British History.
- A line was drawn through a map of Britain along the eastern side and around the industrial areas and London, and called the GHQ Line. This was to be the line of final defence. Pillboxes were to be built along the coast, around industrial cities, along rivers and along canals and railways, and it was hoped that troops in pillboxes could hold off the invaders long enough for other mobile troops to arrive and counterattack. Behind the GHQ Line defence was to be left to the Home Guard.
- The first line of defence was to be the RAF and then the Royal Navy. Only if they failed would the pillboxes be used, and if they too failed, then the defence of Britain was mainly down to civilians. If an invading army made it past the GHQ Line it was thought that Britain's downfall would be complete.
- Pillboxes were never used, as fortunately, the first line of defence held and the RAF prevented any real chance of a German invasion of Britain.
How were they built
- The War Office Directorate of Fortification and Works issued a series of standard designs for pillboxes, known as FW3 Type 22 to Type 28. These detailed the size, shape and thickness of the walls etc.
- The Royal Engineers were in charge of identifying suitable sites. They had to be sited where they had a good field of fire and could defend a vulnerable position.
- Sometimes the military were in sole charge of their construction but often this was sub-contracted out to commercial building firms.
- The construction was hampered by a lack of skilled labour and many unskilled labourers had to be employed.
- The building work was very difficult and at times dangerous, men worked long hours in poor conditions, often in very isolated countryside.