The Allhallows decoy was constructed sometime between 1940 and 1941 to defend oil storage facilities nearby on the Isle of Grain. It was one of eleven designated QF controlled fire decoys of P series; or petroleum division. It’s purpose was to simulate burning oil industries to trick the Luftwaffe into thinking the real targets had…
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80 years ago, HMS Belfast was first launched, in a career spanning WW2, D-Day, the Cold War and many more historical events. Today the armoured 11,000 tonne floating museum welcomes tourists and visitors alike to explore across all 9 decks, allowing people to explore a warship like never before. From the bomb store to the…
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In the Second World War, access to the River Thames was controlled by two defensive ‘booms’. The first at its very mouth ran from Shoeburyness to Sheerness, whilst the second lesser-known but still substantial boom ran from Scars Elbow Battery on Canvey Island to St. Mary’s Bay in Kent. This was a kind of floating…
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Behind Fairleigh Court in Leigh on Sea remains an impressive set of six Anderson shelters. Anderson shelters were issued free to all householders earning £5 a week, and cost £7 for those earning more. They were issued from February 1939 prior to British declaration of war, and throughout the Second World War. When the war…
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This page documents a fascinating chance discovery by BTP Liam whilst on holiday in Northern France in Summer 2012. Whilst the photographs are quite poor quality and feature a rare glimpse at an extremely youthful-looking BTP Liam, they may be of interest to future explorers. There was plenty more remains along the coast that I…
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Down Canal Road in Strood lies these anti-tank defences. Built at the start of the Second World War, they were intended to slow down any tanks trying to get onto British soil. On the battlefields, anti-tank traps would have lead tanks and other military vehicles down specific routes where they would encounter mines and other…
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The HMS Wilton was a Royal Navy minesweeper and minehunter ship built in 1970. It was the first ever warship constructed from fibreglass which gave the vessel a very low magnetic signature against magnetic mines. It was armed with a single Bofors gun. In 1974 the ship took part in Operation Rheostat, to clear the…
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Photo from Baltimoresun.com. 6 million Jews | 220,000 Gypsies | 70,000 Homosexuals | 250,000 Disabled People | 7 million Soviet Civillians | 3 million Soviet Prisoners of War January 27th, is the international memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust, the genocide that resulted in the murder of millions. 27th January is the date, in 1945, when the largest Nazi…
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June the 6th 1944, shortly after midnight, 24,000 British, US, and Canadian, airborne troops landed in the region of France that the amphibious assault would capture around 6:30 in the morning that day. Allied troops began landed on the 50-mile stretch of perilous beaches of Nazi-occupied Normandy in order to push back the short-lived Nazi…
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German bombing during the Second World War left London heavily damaged to this very day. At 4.18 in the video below filmed in 2013 – albeit an early amateur production, we catch a glimpse at a large bombsite in Whitechapel which has remained undeveloped and left to become overgrown since the war. it is thought…
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