[PDF] Defending Sussex Beaches 1940 42 eBook

Author : John Goodwin
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 48,55 MB
Release : 2016-08-30
Category : History
ISBN : 1473854121

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In the nineteenth century the War Office showed little interest in developing large heavy artillery for its land forces, preferring instead to equip its warships with the biggest guns. Private initiatives to mount a gun on a railway truck pulled by a steam engine were demonstrated before military chiefs in the Southern Counties, but not taken up. However, the development of longer-range guns, weighing up to 250 tons, to smash through the massive armies and trench systems on the Western Front in 1916, led to a rethink. The only way to move these monsters about quickly in countryside thick with mud was to mount them on specially built railway trucks towed by locomotives. The railway guns were to be put on little-used country lines where they could fire on beaches, road junctions and harbors. The locations and cooperation given by the independent railway companies is explained, as are the difficulties of using the same lines for war and civilian traffic. The First World War also saw the emergence of large training camps for railway men. When the war ended most railway guns were dismantled and lost in ordnance depots. The Army Council was uncertain about artillery needs in a future war, so training, and development stopped. This book largely concentrates on the realities of the time, the type of gun, the locomotives, artillery targets, locations, and what it was like when firing took place. It is fully illustrated with pictures, maps and plans covering different aspects of railway guns their locomotives and equipment.

Author : Dale Clarke
Publisher : The History Press
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 11,33 MB
Release : 2016-11-07
Category : History
ISBN : 0750969709

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Known affectionately as ‘Dad’s Army’, the Home Guard was Britain’s very serious attempt to protect our shores from invasion by Nazi Germany in the Second World War. In the ‘Spitfire summer’ of 1940, all that the 1 million unpaid, untrained part-timers of the Local Defence Volunteers (as the organisation was originally called) wanted was a service rifle for each man, but even that was too much for a country threatened by defeat to provide. Britain’s Final Defence is the first book to explore the efforts made to arm the home defence force between 1940 and 1944 and describe the full range of weaponry available for Britain’s last stand against invading Axis forces.

Author : Stuart Hylton
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 41,6 MB
Release : 2004-09-20
Category : History
ISBN : 1844150844

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In June 1940, Britain's front line against the German armies was the coast of Kent and Sussex. Across the Channel, Hitler's forces gathered, preparing for invasion, as the Home Forces struggled desperately to recover from the disaster and miracle of Dunkirk. Occupation of these islands was nearer than for almost nine hundred years. Kent and Sussex 1940, tells the story of the communities that found themselves in the front line, placing their experience within the context of huge historic events.

Author : Andrew Chatterton
Publisher : Casemate
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 42,91 MB
Release : 2024-08-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1636243460

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"Through meticulous research in archives and crumbling ventilation shafts, Chatterton paints a picture of Britain in the Second World War that turns our popular narrative on its head. This is important, shocking, and impressive.” — Dan Snow MBE, historian, broadcaster and television presenter Alone, unprepared and weak. These are generally the words used to describe Britain’s position in 1940, part of a narrative that has been built up ever since the end of World War II. However, the reality is very different. On land, sea and in the air, Britain was prepared. It had the most powerful navy in the world; the RAF was relatively strong, but more importantly, was operating as part of a plan and a joined-up group system that was in reality never in any real danger of being defeated; even the post-Dunkirk British Army was better armed than the post-war narrative tells us. These forces were backed up by the Home Guard, and thousands of men and women in secret roles ready to help fight the invasion of the country. Even if all of this had gone wrong and the Nazis had defeated Britain militarily then a separate, highly secret civilian group were ready to become active only after the occupation had started. One word associated more than any other during this period of the Second World War is ‘Alone’ – Churchill played upon this in his speeches but in 1940, Britain had a hugely powerful empire. Although in many cases this support was thousands of miles away, the Empire and other Allies would have played a huge role had the Germans had invaded, one that has been overlooked in many accounts.

Author : William Foot
Publisher : Council for British Archaeology(GB)
Page : 708 pages
File Size : 45,58 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Architecture
ISBN :

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This text presents the results of a two-year project to examine the 1940/41 anti-invasion landscapes of England. Combining extensive documentary research with fieldwork, 67 defence areas are examined in detail, establishing strategy and coherence of the original defence and analysing this in relation to the surviving structures.

Author : John Grehan
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 35,19 MB
Release : 2012-03-19
Category : History
ISBN : 1783403713

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From its south-eastern tip Sussex is little more than sixty miles from continental Europe and the countys coastline, some seventy-six miles long, occupies a large part of Britains southern frontier. Before the days of Macadam and the Turnpike, water travel could prove more certain than land transportation and the seas that define the borders of our nation aided, rather than deterred, the invader.Though the last successful invasion of Britain took place almost 1,000 years ago, the gently shelving beaches of Sussex have tempted the prospective invader with the promise of both an easy disembarkation and a short and direct route to London the last time being just seven decades ago.As the authors demonstrate, the repeated threat of invasion from the Continent has shaped the very landscape of the county. The rounded tops of the Iron Age hill forts, the sheer walls of the medieval castles, the squat stumps of Martello towers, the moulded Vaubanesque contours of the Palmerstone redoubts and the crouched concrete blocks and bricks of the Second World War pillboxes constitute the visible evidence of Sussexs position on Britains front line.

Author : Mike Osborne
Publisher : Revealing History (Paperback)
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 28,45 MB
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN :

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Following the recent work by the Defense of Britain Project, this is the first extensive guide to the military structures of the 20th century. It explains both the form and purpose of the structures such as anti-invasion defences, airfields, naval installations, and barracks, all of which are well illustrated. The final section provides the reader with a gazetteer of surviving examples to visit throughout Britain.