Pillbox By The Sea

I was visiting some WW2 related sites a couple of days ago and photographed these Pillboxes on and near the coast.

It must be about 30 that I have now visited and photographed - More details and pictures on my website http://www.ww2ni.webs.com

 

There is a family photo (1950's) of people sitting on a large flat piece of concrete partly imbeded in the sand of Cushendun beach. Over the years it gradually disappeared - it was not removed. I was always told that it was related to ww2 defences.

 

The Structure on the firing Range looks like an observation point.
The upper openings appear a bit high to fire a weapon maybe part of the range control.
Was/Is the range used for artillery?

 

While these pillboxes and bunkers are too expensive to destroy,they can be subject to continual pounding of the sea leading to the ground where they are sited becoming eroded by advancing seas......have seen photographs of such bunkers on the west coast of Jutland lying tilted as the earth was eroded away by advancing sea.

There is also evidence of this effect on such coastal defences down the Atlantic coast of France.

 

Interesting thread ..........

While we are on it, could some kind soul who lives in the Whitby area let me know if the pillbox I refer to below is still there ?

Thanks

Ron


WHITBY, Yorkshire, 1942

In December '42 I was stationed at Whitby being trained as a Driver/Wireless Operator in the Royal Artillery.

Most nights, after a hectic day's training, we would find ourselves on guard and manning pill boxes strategically placed on the cliff tops of nearby Robin Hood's Bay.
Two men to a pill box, armed with Lee Enfield rifles and 5 rounds of ammo each.

The pill box had no creature comforts whatsoever, just the bare bleak concrete walls, the only light coming through the weapon slit facing seaward. Toilet arrangements non existent, ditto for seating, and food was what you had been issued with if the cooks were in a good mood.

However many layers of clothing we donned before going on guard we froze and by the end of our shift we were comatose having exhausted whatever conversation we used to keep ourselves awake.

 

Several pillboxes that were built in the dunes on Mersea Island (Essex) are now in pieces on the beach and covered at high tide .
Quite interesting as you can see how they were constructed thickness of concrete and re-inforcing, and kids love scrabbling about on them .

 

There are pillboxes at Chappell near Colchester that were part of the General defence line, they have been taken over by a Nature Conservation Group and now occupied by bats ,the pillboxes seem to be the ideal habitat for their survival.

 

Redtop
This structure sits on a drumlin on the perimeter of Ballykinlar Camp which incorporates Abercorn Barracks and a number of Ranges.
I believe all the artillery was simply fired into areas of the Mourne and Sperrin Mountains however there were Anti-Tank and grenade ranges at Ballykinlar.

The Ranges have been used since 1900 and are still in use.

Andy

 

Thanks Andy
I imagine these pillboxes would have looked quite different in war time with sand/soil heaped around them and natural growing foliage.

 

Ron
Last time I walked that strech of coast there were still pillboxes on the cliffs edge, next time I am that way I will take photo's

 

Oldman

Many thanks

Ron

 

Here's one at Byth that has slid down the dune:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/23279394
There were several like this, we used to play in them in the 1940s.

 

Redtop,

Indeed.
Some others I have visited have been camouflaged by using the local stone.

Click here and scroll down http://www.ww2ni.webs.com/countylondonderrypt1.htm to see what I refer to as well as another well concealed one covering the River Bann Estuary.

Andy

 

Amazingly the pillbox has recently been uncovered during recent storms.

 

Please excuse a slight swerve in the direction of post ( Inland), It is amazing how what was common place can suddenly become important ,in this area of North Essex and up into Suffolk is a great line of pillboxes of all shapes and sizes all part of the (I think) General Defence Line.
​For years I drove past these with hardly a thought.
Then reading the war Diaries Of 5 RHA of whom my Father was a member I find that these pillboxes were manned by his regiment in 1940/41.There is even a list of grid references of those occupied by 5 RHA .
Now every time I see one ( By chance I past by one that is new to me one in Borley Essex today) I think I wonder if Dad was ever in that one..

 

Dear Ron,

Your recollection of Robin Hood’s Bay struck a chord with me – my late father was there on anti-invasion duties in the winter of 1941 with 7th Battalion, The Loyal Regiment. It’s possible he shivered in the same pill box as you!

The 7th was based at Ravenscar and its patrol area covered the stretch of coast including Robin Hood’s Bay, Cloughton, Hayburn Wyke, Whitby, Runswick Bay, Skinningrove, Upgang, Sandsend and Staithes.

In Whitby, the soldiers were billeted at Larpool Hall, an old house overlooking the estuary of the River Esk. Today it is a hotel and restaurant.

An anti-submarine boom had been stretched across Whitby Harbour and the soldiers had the daily task of raising it – by hand – to allow the fishing fleet in and out.

The 7th was on this stretch of coast from February to July 1941 and it was a hard winter. The battalion’s Major Peter Crane wrote: ‘There was deep snow and frost and in it the men had to dig trenches, dugouts and shelters, in which they lived entirely. The men were thrown entirely on their own initiative and for weeks on end knew no pleasures or entertainment of any sort.

‘There were a few casualties from mines and several from exposure. It would be difficult to imagine a harder or more exacting life. The whole front was patrolled continuously every night and sections had to dig into the cliffs, which rise to 600ft in places.’

In November 1941, 7th Loyals was converted to the 92nd (Loyals) LAA Regiment RA. The 92nd served in North West Europe from D-Day onwards.

 

Hi Ron
Not many about now who actually manned the pillboxes, could you patrol from one box to another to try to keep warm?
At this time were you expecting the Germans to turn up at any time in that area or was the duty just a pain?
One thing I have often thought about pill boxes is that even though the had interlocking fire not a great deal of thought was given to getting out under fire ,were plans in place for a possible withdrawal or was it to be a last stand?

 

One of the regular veterans on here, who left us last year, was posted to one of the Essex pillboxes atone time during the war.(if my memory still works.) He was Scottish. ? Joe Brown?
Some elderly people we met when living in southend told us they had been evacuated as children because of the imminent threat of invasion.

 

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