Great Wakering Common Camp
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, …
Hankley Common D-Day Training Wall
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 …
Butlers Farm HAA Battery, Shopland
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. …
North Fambridge Experimental Searchlight
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 …
Two Tree Island Pillbox
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 …
Rainham Marsh Concrete Barges
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 …
Coalhouse WW2 Defences & Radar Tower
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 …
Nore Fort Remains
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 …
Shoeburyness Anti-Submarine Boom
Redesigned to block off Russian subs in 1950-53, the boom was originally built on a smaller scale out of wood in 1944 during World War …
Sudbury Anti-Aircraft Pillbox
First visited by BTP Liam in 2011, revisited 2017. “I went on a day trip to Lavenham, in Sudbury back in 2011, and came across some relevant, although …
Rochford Anderson Shelter
Whilst exploring the site of Rochford Airfield, extending around the current London-Southend Airport, we came across what appeared to be an overgrown Anderson shelter used …
Allhallows QF Bomb Decoy
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 …
RAF Lympne
First visited by BTP Liam in 2011, we returned to the site 7 years later so see what remains of the former RAF site. The …
HMS Belfast
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 …
Canvey to Hoo Inner Thames Boom
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 …
Southminster Mega Pillbox
This heavily-defended concrete strongpoint has been described as the ‘monster’ pillbox, and is potentially the largest in Britain. It is located in the flat expanse …
Fairleigh Court Anderson Shelters, Leigh-on-Sea
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 …
Atlantik Wall Ruins at Sainte-Cecil & Hardelot Plage
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 …
Strood Anti-Tank Defences
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 …
Oozedam Farm & WW2 Defences, Fobbing
We visited Oozedam Farm in January of 2018, on a trek across Fobbing Marshes which saw us head from the farm to discover a lost …
HMS Wilton
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 Holocaust
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 …
Britain’s Volunteers of the Home Front
The Royal Observer Corps (Cold War) and Home Guard (Second World War) In 2014, 888,246 hand-crafted ceramic poppies were set in the grounds of …
The D-Day Landings 70 Years On
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 …