Once the Second World started in 1939, Britain was keeping a close eye on the east-coast of the country to prevent any German invasion. Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex was little more than a small yacht town before World War Two however the town became much more important when Germany invaded France. With Kent and South-Essex heavily…
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Built close to Dagenham East Station, these anti-tank cylinders were built in World War Two to slow down any German tanks, should they have made it that far. The row of these concrete defences can be seen on Google Maps and spans over 80 metres, with a Type 22 pillbox at the eastern end. On…
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Coalhouse Point where the Thames suddenly narrows was home to several defences since 1402, and a D-shaped artillery battery fort stood here from 1539. The fort was replaced in 1799 with Coalhouse Fort which was rebuilt in 1847 and 1860. The large moat you can see to prevent invaders reaching the fort is a technological…
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Down an unmade lane in the quaint countryside Essex village of Hatfield Heath lies what at first appears to be a set of abandoned farm sheds. This hutment was in fact Prisoner of War Camp ‘High Hall’ 116, and once housed around 1,500 Italian, Austrian, and (from 1943) German soldiers captured in the European and…
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Situated along the Thames foreshore, these two pillboxes were built around 1940 as part of a huge scheme to build almost 30,000 pillboxes across the country, but especially the south-east. Located about 530 meters apart, each pillbox sits on a corner of the Essex marshes, opposite Greenhithe. Men from the Home Guard would have been…
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Nearly 1,000 anti-aircraft sites were built during the Second World War and 192 were retained for use with nuclear weapons in what would be known as the Cold War. Under a plan code named ‘Igloo’, 78 sites were chosen with 54 having guns permanently mounted however at the outbreak of the Korean War, 683 batteries…
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This Isle of Sheppey, which name comes from Old English for ‘Sheep Island’, was once two isles, Harty to the south east and the Isle of Elmley to the south west which have overtime merged, giving us the one island we know today. The port at Sheerness dates back to the 17th Century when it was established by…
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Opened in 1943, Rivenhall was used by both the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force. During the war it was used primarily as a combat airfield with various fighter and bomber units based there. In was closed following the end of the the war in 1946 although it was kept in reserve for a following…
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The SS Richard Montgomery was a US Liberty Ship, constructed in 1943. In 1944 it was part of a convoy delivering explosives with 7,000 tonnes on this ship along. Whilst heading to Sheerness on August 12th 1944, the ships anchor was caught in the sandbanks off the Kent coast, causing the vessel to become grounded….
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At the outbreak of World War II, the Port of London was the busiest port in the world. As such, a large proportion of supplies to the UK entered by ships navigating the Thames. The German Navy quickly sought to put a stranglehold on this route, and to this end, utilised a new secret weapon…
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