The D-Day allied invasion of France, 1944, was an enormous logistical project which saw Essex overrun by military preparations to send off thousands of allied troops to the beaches of Normandy. Stansgate Abbey and Stone Point in the St. Lawrence area of the Dengie Peninsula are both sites home to little-known yet surviving ramps constructed in…
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Wakering Camp was constructed potentially around June 1944 as a ‘Diver’ battery – a late-war heavy anti-aircraft 3.7-inch gun battery of at least eight guns, established to defend against V-1 flying bombs. It was one of two in Great Wakering, with another four at Foulness. There were at least 43 huts, and in July 1944…
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In preparation for Operation Overlord, the codename for the Battle of Normandy, Canadian troops build a replica section of the Atlantic Wall. In 1940 Germany had seized large areas of France, however were concerned about being attacked from the Americans, before they had a chance to invade Britain. Hitler gave the order for German soldiers…
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When Britain came under aerial attack in the Second World War, thousands of Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries and associated army camps were built across the country. These are a fairly uniform and easy-to-recognise ruin one can find in anywhere from open farmland to housing estates. We have looked at other nearby batteries, such as those in…
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Before the Second World War, an experiment was carried out to test the effectiveness of searchlights, or floodlights, of a special mirror variety possibly used to concentrate more light. These prototypes were designed to be able to spot and dazzle German aircraft flying across British land, by lighting up the night’s sky. Each installation would…
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A pillbox can be found, which is located on the very eastern most point of Two Tree Island (just before the marshland), facing out at the invader coming down the Thames. It was in poor condition, suffering a gaping hole in it’s roof, and the concrete around it flaking away with the lightest touch. Despite…
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Left abandoned in Rainham, several concrete barges were placed here at Coldharbour Point as flood defences in 1953 and have formed part of the coastline ever since. Used primarily in the Second World War, these steel and concrete ships are also known as ferro cement barges, or FCB’s. Barges of these type were particularly important during…
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The Quick-Firing ‘Wing Battery’ just south-west of Coalhouse Fort inland of Coalhouse Point was constructed in 1893 to counter enemy torpedo boat technology which presented itself as a new potential threat to shipping in the Thames. It would have housed four 6-pounder quick firing guns each capable of unloading 25 rounds per minute. These were…
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Radar Tower On the river Thames foreshore just south of the fort lies an early radar tower built in the Second World War. There was also once a searchlight emplacement here, now lost to erosion, but a tripoded MG pillbox does survive further west along the foreshore. Because radar was a very secret British technology…
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Nore Fort was a set of towers out in the very mouth of the River Thames, between Great Wakering and Sheerness. The fort designed by Guy Maunsell as a sea-platform anti-aircraft battery, and was built in 1942 during the Second World War. Nore followed an ‘Army’ style of fort; cuboid metal platforms on stilted reinforced-concrete…
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