In the last two days I've come across two (2) references to this on the Net...and on searching that's IT. From the references it's some sort of oganisational/operational overlay for the South-East of England, particularly in 1940 with respect to anti-invasion planning for Sealion. Specifically... The operational area of the NZ division - 5th & 7th Infantry Brigade Groups and Milforce - stretched from Maidstone out to the coast north of Deal in ouine with Sandwich....and south then to Dover and Folkestone, then west again along the Royal Military Canal to Hay Street before turning north again back up to Maidstone...is referred to as "Area No.3 of the Aldershot Defence System" in the NZ Official History. Can someone tell me more, or route me to a map of the Defence System???
Phil, I have seen refs to this before, can't remember where just now. Try looking at Defense of Britain and Home Guard websites. Quite a lot on 'defence lines' I believe. Also 'Auxiliary Units' might be useful, an area I am (occasionally) researching. Too late to give further guidance, will try tomorrow. Knowing you, you are probably years ahead of me in this! Best Regards mate, Mike
I haven't gone through any of the "hardware" defence of britain sites yet, but over the last few years have been through a large number of Home Guard sites and the Auxiliary Units stuff... The majority of these are very...parochial?...inasmuch as they're more cocnerned with recording the LOCAL history of an area and its defences; a LOT of resourcing and provision of facilities for the Home Guard was by local town and borough councils it appears - so as council records have opened up, it's local historians and interested parties that are putting the Home Guard sites together. Not to disparage them at all - some of them are quite terrific in their level of detail - but there sems to be a strict division in the type of Home Guard sites out there... There's the "high level" overall-view ones...the "Dad's Army" ones or more interested in a brief overall view And the VERY detailed "local" level ones... But what is generally missing is any dovetailing of the local ones into the overall pattern of UK defence, particularly in 1940...and very little detail...being more interested in the LDV obviously!...on how the local units and areas worked with their local Army commands and the Army's overall plans. As I said - perfectly understandable. But unfortunately it means there's a whole level of organisation and operations that seems to have missed the attention of those local historians and interested parties as it's outside their chosen purview. Meanwhile - I won't say the Aux Units are transparent...but there's a suprisingly small amount of stuff extant on them! Probaly plenty more buried away in Kew, but little out there in the real world as yet. And of what there is - maps and the like of operational areas are most definitely NOT there! I presume that things were would up very much like Bletchley Park, being an Intelligence operation rather than pure Army...a "clean close" in late 1944 on Stand-Down with a lot of material simply being destroyed for the sake of security. Certainly there's the examples of the couple of Patrol bases that were missed entirely when demolition munitions were stripped out of many in 1942 and sent to North Africa; I remember at least TWO examples of Aux Unit weapons' and explosives caches surviving in private hands of Patrol members for many decades after the war. This should ideally have been imposible - BUT if records were simply burned I can understand why it happened!
The Taunton Line was pillboxes and well documented, so on the same lines there would of been different lines for different areas. It may have been a loose line of pillboxes or defensive post manned by the Home Guard, and regulars if the need arose, covering the area mentioned but not really recorded in documentation or unit histories. I recall reading years ago about them finding a circular pipe bomb buried around Coventry which was to be exploded in case of invasion and was in the end a pain to defuse.
Phylo I'd direct you to read Ironsides Line. This gives a basic overview of the stop line strategy put in place by General Ironside in 1940 and a good overview of the areas of responsibility of various forces. The country was broken into areas of operation responsibility. Aldershot Command being the smallest of all of them. The forces responsible for the area were require to man the command stop lines and the GHQ stop line in the event of an invasion, which in Aldershot command ran from Reading to South of Guildford. Elements of the NZ expeditionary force held no. 3 sector of the GHQ line from Tundry Lake to Culverlands. There's more detail in the book but I hope this helps. Steve
Steve, thanks for that reference, I'll have to track that down. Here's a question, though... Elements of the NZ expeditionary force held no. 3 sector of the GHQ line from Tundry Lake to Culverlands. Big chunks of the NZEF was due to be majorly expended in their counterattacking role on the day...so what elements did they expect to be left to filful this role???
What line or area were the Australian 18th Division responsible for compared to the NZEF? There is quite a bit in the 18th diaries that were discussed in the Sealion thread regarding their positioning and duties.
There is quite a bit in the 18th diaries that were discussed in the Sealion thread regarding their positioning and duties Are these online anywhere? I'd love to get a look at them...
Big chunks of the NZEF was due to be majorly expended in their counterattacking role on the day...so what elements did they expect to be left to filful this role??? The book just says detachments of NZEF along with 50th Anti tank Training Regiment RA, 12th Field Training Regiment RA and 121st O.C.T.U. RA under the command of Brigadier R.M. Birkett D.S.O. The book is Ironside's Line by Colin Alexander ISBN 1-901313-04-2 It's fairly limited but a good overview of anti-invasion defence strategy.
Are these online anywhere? I'd love to get a look at them... This is the link for 18th Brigade: Australian War Memorial - Second World War Diaries - AWM52, Item 8/2/18 25th Brigade was raised in Britain. http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/AWM52/8/AWM52-8-2-25-001.pdf There are also headquarters diaries. Australian War Memorial - Second World War Diaries There are also quite a lot of sub-diaries. Cheers Geoff
This is a sub of the headquarters diaries however it is for 44/45. Australian War Memorial - Second World War Diaries - AWM52, Sub-class 1/13 Second World War Diaries - AWM52, Sub-class 1/13 UK Units AWM52, Item 1/13/1 - AIF UK Force General Staff Branch AWM52, Item 1/13/3 - AIF UK Adjutant and Quartermaster General Branch AWM52, Item 1/13/4 - AIF Reception Group UK AWM52, Item 1/13/5 - 1 AIF Reception Camp UK AWM52, Item 1/13/6 - 2 AIF Reception Camp UK AWM52, Item 1/13/7 - 3 AIF Reception Camp UK AWM52, Item 1/13/8 - 4 AIF Reception Camp UK AWM52, Item 1/13/9 - 18 Infantry Brigade Group Provost Platoon UK (18 Inf Bde Grp Pro Pl UK) AWM52, Item 1/13/10 - 86 Dental Unit UK AWM52, Item 1/13/11 - AIF Reception Group UK Postal Unit AWM52, Item 1/13/12 - 1 AIF Transit Camp UK Cheers Geoff
