In a memo dated 7 December 1941 from the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, he defines the two roles that coast artillery searchlights (C.A.S.L.) fulfil. Each role was provided with a different type of light. These are: Observation lights This type of light was provided to detect hostile vessels. They could have… Read More »Not all coast artillery searchlights are equal
Public knowledge and understanding of Second World War British pillboxes is often incomplete. Constructed in their thousands after the withdrawal from Dunkirk, their effective widespread usefulness endured only for a few months, but 8 decades later they are sometimes all that remains of a vast defensive network. In this first… Read More »A gentle introduction to pillboxes (Video)
An Irishman, employed on the underground fuel-storage tanks at Scapa, was accustomed, when in drink, to express I.R.A. sentiments of considerable violence, and investigations show that the Birmingham Police already suspected him of having organised a bomb outrage. This was alarming, for his work at Scapa gave him access to… Read More »The Irishman
The latter part of 2023 involved two discrete activities; I was doing some research on prefabricated Second World War accommodation structures, and I also spent a week in Cornwall. I was pleasantly surprised when one evening these two events coincided. While wandering the shell of what I identified as an… Read More »Everite Bigsix
Happy New Year! On the face of it, 2023 was an uneventful year, and it seemed to pass in record time. But a review of Flickr and YouTube reminds me just how much I was lucky enough to see. In my unguided, directionless quest to tour relics of Empire and… Read More »2023 Review
On 21 July I published a video documenting the current state of the operations site at the old RAF Saxa Vord radar station. Within the first 3 weeks, the video has attracted 24,000 views and gained my channel over 500 new subscribers. What has been most heartening has been the… Read More »Saxa Vord video success!
Deep in a cavern along the Northern Defences in Gibraltar is an unassuming piece of graffiti. Written in pencil, and dated 1968, a soldier named McCULLOUGH left his name and regiment indelibly on the Gibraltar rock. The regiment was the Royal Ulster Rifles. The date is significant, because not long… Read More »A Ranger’s mark in Gibraltar
Those of us with a passing interest in Northern Irish military history might be aware of the anti-landing poles along Murlough Beach, County Down. Now a shadow of their former selves, they would have likely been connected by wire entanglement, and an assortment of other irksome obstacles preventing or hindering… Read More »Anti-landing obstacles at Magilligan
The detention camp at Kokkinotrimithia, 2km west of the Cypriot capitol of Nicosia, was constructed by British Forces in 1955 for the internment of supporters of the armed struggle to liberate the country from British governance. The camp housed both those convicted of fighting for the EOKA (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion… Read More »Cypriot Internment of the 1950s
Situated on a rocky headland, Lenan Head Fort (sometimes spelt Leenan) is a British built coastal artillery battery from the late 19th Century. Standing isolated for over 120 years, the Victorian site was only in use for less than 40 years, but stood proudly on the cusp of the Atlantic… Read More »Lenan Head Fort