Casemate 77

Beaches, fields, streets and hills:

by William Foot. PB, 658pp. Lavishly illustrated with b/w photos, drawings, diagrams and detailed colour maps. ISBN 1.902771.53.2. £25. 2006. Published by the Council for British Archaeology (Research Report 144).

In 1985, Henry Wills published his ground-breaking book Pillboxes, stimulating interest in the surviving defence structures of 1940-41 and leading to the Defence of Britain (DoB) Project which ran from 1995 to 2002. In turn, this led to the Defence Areas Project (DAP) (2002 to 2004) which looked at landscapes while the DoB had concentrated on structures and sites (some 20,000 recorded). This book is a record of how it was accomplished.

Whilst the DoB covered the British Isles, the DAP covers only England. It is a scholarly study of the very features of the landscape of England so memorably listed in Winston Churchill's defiant speech of 4 June 1940 when the Wehrmacht stood at the gates.

William Foot, who managed the DoB Project, and undertook the DAP, has selected sixty-seven defence sites across the country for detailed study, applying certain criteria deriving from English Heritage and listed on p35. The rationale is to place the surviving structures in their strategic and tactical contexts. The historical background is considered and shows, amongst other things, how some structures have endured, while many others have not.

Remains of a rare Stanton Shelter at Reighton Gap, (N Yorkshire), succumbing to erosion and vandalism. (The Author).

The Introduction describes the strategic aims of the defences built in 1940-41, and the various types of hardened structures used to carry them out. These were always accompanied by earthwork defences, which are not neglected (many generals preferred their soldiers to be in trenches rather than behind concrete).

England is divided into six major areas: the NE (7); NW (3); SE (29); SW (13); the East (12) and the Midlands (3). These areas are further sub-divided into various specific locations as shown in brackets, to total 67.

A series of regional maps shows how the areas relate to the overall strategy of defence, while the individual defence location has a large scale colour map extract, from the appropriate OS map. There is frequently a b/w map (often contemporary) and always 4-5 b/w photographs. The maps carry symbols to identify the different types of pillbox/obstacle or ditch. I found it essential to photocopy the page of symbols and have it to hand when reading the maps, as the nature of the book (a substantial paperback) makes it awkward to return constantly to that page. I had fears for the binding. Each section has the headings: Location Details; Landscape; Defences; Significance; Access; Published Sources and Documentary Sources. The section ends with a list of the Defence Components of the location, specified as to type, and with the NGR and Database Site Reference shown.

'Beaches, fields, streets and hills' ends with a summary containing many illuminating facts concerning the defence areas, and places them in the wider context of the defence strategy. It also enlarges upon the characteristics of the different types of structure or obstacle. In conclusion, the author makes the pertinent point that there is a wealth of information still awaiting discovery in unit War Diaries. There is much still to be done in '..identifying, categorising and interpreting the material remains of the Second World War.' He ends with the plea that these landscapes should be maintained to help understand the strategic (and tactical) significance that lay behind their choice.

Two appendices complete the book. One is a Place Name index to 1940-41 Defence Schemes and Operation Instructions, giving the relevant WO166 piece number in the National Archives, and the second is a bibliography of general works devoted to the subject.

This is a most impressive and learned study of England's anti-invasion defences of 1940-41 and this review is intended only to whet the reader's appetite. A longer and more comprehensive review by an eminent authority will appear in FORT.

Gil Dowdall-Brown.