Still waiting for an invasion that never came. Nature is camouflaging these World War 2 relics more efficiently than they ever could have been when they were first built in an effort to protect the heartlands of England from a German invasion force being grouped in readiness to pile over the channel during September of 1940 - 80 years ago to the very month.
The British Expeditionary Force had been thrown into a situation it was not equipped to face. High Command had completely underestimated the speed and the efficiency that the German Blitzkreig could cut through French defences and the BEF was forced back to Dunkirk. The evacuation was the end result of a total rout, but the real victory lay in the voluntary armada of "little ships" which rescued British and French soldiers (some of the few who hadn't thrown in the towel and surrendered to the Germans as soon as the Maginot Line fell).
The British Army was left seriously undermanned and due to the amount of ordnance, vehicles and small arms abandoned on the beaches: seriously under-equipped. This was the point that Britain was at its most vulnerable. The top brass knew that it was a race against time to turn Britain into an island fortress using any and all means at their disposal while the armed forces numbers were bolstered by recruitment and the weapons stockpiles were refreshed.
The concept of creating consecutive lines of quickly constructed hard defence structures was suggested in a communication dated 22nd June 1940. It detailed the pressing need for the rapid construction of GHQ Zones. These were to be a continuous line of anti-tank obstacles built to take advantage of naturally occurring landscape features such as deep rivers, marshes and steep escarpments.
On 25th June 1940, General Paget (Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief: Home Forces) submitted General Edmund "Tiny" Ironsides anti-invasion plan to the War Cabinet. It was titled: "Home Forces Operation Instruction No.3". This was the Genesis of The Defensive Line initiative that was stepped out with incredible speed in a northerly direction all over Britain.
The stop-lines were set in place to block or at least delay the advance of German armoured columns and infantry, holding them in a specific area while nearby Battalions moved in to counter attack. Each Stop-Line was a continuous anti-tank obstacle covered by pillboxes and other entrenched positions. All strategic bridges were mined and made ready for demolition. All natural bottlenecks in the landscape along both major and minor road and rail routes were also mined and booby-trapped by Army Engineers. The LDV (Home Guard) added to the more conventional defences with lethal Heath-Robinson devices such as batteries of buried flame fougasse... think "napalm" and you've got the right idea... two of the few items not in short supply were petrol and the high-explosive: amatol.
The scary thing is that to this day: over 9,000lbs (just over 4 tons) of amatol set as demolition and mine charges beneath British roads, railways and bridges by Canadian diamond mining engineers between 1940 and 1942 are still unaccounted for. Many Local Defence records kept by the Home Guard units were lost after the war. There are also flame fougasse batteries still being discovered by people digging the roadside verges of their front gardens.
Something not to be sneezed at. A single fougasse was either a 45 or a 55 gallon drum filled with a mixture of petrol, engine oil and shredded rubber which had a large lump of amatol and a detonator at the bottom. The barrel was buried at an angle in a hole in the ground so that the top was between 4" and 6" below the surface. There wasn't just one either. A fougasse battery was 3 drums in a spaced line - that's 3 drums... either side of the road.
The last three photo's in this set are for illustration purposes only. Although - Hopwas Wood Bridge that leads up to Whittington Barracks (picture below) was mined... as was the canal bridge in Hopwas village.
Thanks for looking.
The British Expeditionary Force had been thrown into a situation it was not equipped to face. High Command had completely underestimated the speed and the efficiency that the German Blitzkreig could cut through French defences and the BEF was forced back to Dunkirk. The evacuation was the end result of a total rout, but the real victory lay in the voluntary armada of "little ships" which rescued British and French soldiers (some of the few who hadn't thrown in the towel and surrendered to the Germans as soon as the Maginot Line fell).
The British Army was left seriously undermanned and due to the amount of ordnance, vehicles and small arms abandoned on the beaches: seriously under-equipped. This was the point that Britain was at its most vulnerable. The top brass knew that it was a race against time to turn Britain into an island fortress using any and all means at their disposal while the armed forces numbers were bolstered by recruitment and the weapons stockpiles were refreshed.
The concept of creating consecutive lines of quickly constructed hard defence structures was suggested in a communication dated 22nd June 1940. It detailed the pressing need for the rapid construction of GHQ Zones. These were to be a continuous line of anti-tank obstacles built to take advantage of naturally occurring landscape features such as deep rivers, marshes and steep escarpments.
On 25th June 1940, General Paget (Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief: Home Forces) submitted General Edmund "Tiny" Ironsides anti-invasion plan to the War Cabinet. It was titled: "Home Forces Operation Instruction No.3". This was the Genesis of The Defensive Line initiative that was stepped out with incredible speed in a northerly direction all over Britain.
The stop-lines were set in place to block or at least delay the advance of German armoured columns and infantry, holding them in a specific area while nearby Battalions moved in to counter attack. Each Stop-Line was a continuous anti-tank obstacle covered by pillboxes and other entrenched positions. All strategic bridges were mined and made ready for demolition. All natural bottlenecks in the landscape along both major and minor road and rail routes were also mined and booby-trapped by Army Engineers. The LDV (Home Guard) added to the more conventional defences with lethal Heath-Robinson devices such as batteries of buried flame fougasse... think "napalm" and you've got the right idea... two of the few items not in short supply were petrol and the high-explosive: amatol.
The scary thing is that to this day: over 9,000lbs (just over 4 tons) of amatol set as demolition and mine charges beneath British roads, railways and bridges by Canadian diamond mining engineers between 1940 and 1942 are still unaccounted for. Many Local Defence records kept by the Home Guard units were lost after the war. There are also flame fougasse batteries still being discovered by people digging the roadside verges of their front gardens.
Something not to be sneezed at. A single fougasse was either a 45 or a 55 gallon drum filled with a mixture of petrol, engine oil and shredded rubber which had a large lump of amatol and a detonator at the bottom. The barrel was buried at an angle in a hole in the ground so that the top was between 4" and 6" below the surface. There wasn't just one either. A fougasse battery was 3 drums in a spaced line - that's 3 drums... either side of the road.
The last three photo's in this set are for illustration purposes only. Although - Hopwas Wood Bridge that leads up to Whittington Barracks (picture below) was mined... as was the canal bridge in Hopwas village.
Thanks for looking.
Last edited:
