Defence of the Realm 1. A walk from Minehead or Blue Anchor along the West Somerset Path.
Free Parking at Blue Anchor Sea Front. Pay&Display at Minehead and Dunster Beach Holidays Site.
A lovely afternoon walk with good cafes at both ends and at Dunster Beach during the season if you want to do both. Walk one way and catch the steam train back, maybe. Nearest car parking for DoR1 is at Dunster Beach Private Holiday site. TA24 6TH (Please remember to Pay&Display).
This cache has been adopted by Thefisherfamily6.
Only Defence of the Realm 1 and 3 still active.
Please add photos to the gallery. Watch out for lots of muggles.
DEFENCE OF THE REALM 1 1940 ... and the cream of the German Army (80,000 crack troops in the first wave and 400,000 to follow) were massing in France to invade and subdugate Britain. As France fell under the German jackboot one French General declared: "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." Churchill quipped.. “some chicken, some neck!" Viewed objectively, Britain's position was hopeless. Hitler had amassed a huge war-machine which was out-producing Britain in almost every field of military production by a factor of two or even three to one. Europe was at his mercy. Soviet Russia was his ally. Only 21 miles of English Channel stood between him and his next intended conquest……Britain. The first stage of the deveastating German War System (the Blitzkrieg ) was for the the German Airforce to bomb Britain and break the will of the people and their ability to fight back with any force. The Battle of Britain began with 600 Royal Air Force planes and 2750 German Planes. If the RAF failed to defeat the Lufftwaffa then all there was to stop the Blitzgrieg were the Hard Defences of the Realm all over the Country, including 1000,s of Pill Boxes Churchills imortal words ‘We shall fight them on the beaches… ‘ would have become a reality. By carefull planning, a lot of good fortune, a dose of luck, and extream skill and bravery, the RAF won the air battle and a deflated Hitler ordered his Army to leave attacking Britain for later and advance on Russia . British home defences of World War II .. Pill Boxes were constructed as a part of British anti-invasion preparations. In May of 1940, the Directorate of Fortifications and Works was set up at the War Office . Its purpose was to provide a number of basic pillbox designs which could be constructed by soldiers and local labour at appropriate defensive locations The basic designs were adapted to local circumstances and available building materials such that, outwardly, two Pill Boxes of the same basic design could look quite different. The height of a Pill Boxes could vary significantly according to local needs: some were half buried so that the embrasures might be as low as ground level, others were raised up to give a better view; those built into hillsides might lack embrasures on some walls; the entrance could be moved and its size varied as might be convenient and there may be additional walls to protect the entrance, a freestanding blast wall or a steel door outside. . Construction often took advantage of whatever materials were available locally (for example, at the coast, beach sand and pebbles would be used) and this expedient use of local materials had the added advantage of aiding camouflage. More than 20,000 pilboxes were constructed across the country.
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