The problem with not having a single platform that best collates the information and photographs I have collected over the years is trying to establish a solution that best shares this information in a user-friendly manner. The map below has been populated with the albums I currently have on Flickr… Read More »Flickr Album Locations
For those of you who are familiar with the beach at Murlough Bay nature reserve, you may have noticed a rather unassuming pile of rubble. Without interpretation you may have thought this had been dumped some decades ago, but it provides a convenient sitting place or playground for adventurous children.… Read More »A study of the pillbox at Murlough Beach
25 unskilled labourers, 6 carpenters, 4 steel fixers, 2 concrete workers, 1 mixer driver, 1 superintending officer One of the privileges of collecting contemporary military manuals (see the full list of publications in my library here), is that every now and again I stumble across a snippet of information that… Read More »How long did it take to build a pillbox?
The use of radio technology transformed the air war during the Second World War. In a short space of time RADAR was born and fine tuned to detect and track approaching enemy aircraft, radio direct finding (RDF) was used to detect illicit communications, ships and submarines as well as tracking… Read More »Downhill Radio Navigation Site
The ability to construct quick but effective fortifications in the field has historically fallen to the soldiers of the Royal Engineers. This dirty and backbreaking work may not be precise, but it is based very soundly on experience and scientific experimentation. During the 19th and 20th centuries, as weaponry and… Read More »Field Fortifications: How thick was thick enough?
The British Isles and Ireland are island nations dependant on their domination of the coastline and waters surrounding them. With estimates of upwards of 11,000 miles and 1,700 miles respectively, the task of providing protection for and communication around these vast coastlines is a problem that has been attempted numerous… Read More »Guarding the Coast
One rainy afternoon in lockdown, I thought I would do some research on finding evidence for the WW2 radar sites that were once dotted around Northern Ireland. Finding photographic evidence of what were once secret installations is still quite tricky almost 80 years on! I have been fortunate enough to… Read More »Radar in Northern Ireland 1939 – 1945
A site visit and photographic report on the history and current condition of Kilroot Battery, a 1910 coastal artillery battery on the western coast of Belfast Lough. The fort was in use until 1956 when the coastal artillery units were disbanded, and during the Second World War, it saw expansion… Read More »Kilroot Coastal Artillery Battery
The start of the twentieth century was a post-industrial technological arms race, and the traces left behind are like a timeline of pioneering developments in an attempt to outsmart our adversaries. Two of those boundary-breaking technologies were wireless telegraphy and aviation. The story of Radio Direction Finding, or RDF, joins… Read More »Second World War Aircraft Direction Finding Part I – Background
In the second part of this article, I will pull together information and images from several sources in an attempt to interpret some of the cryptic remains from what I believe to be direction-finding sites across the country. Update 2024: Prompted to reevaluate my interpretation of these sites by author… Read More »Second World War Aircraft Direction Finding Part II – Interpreting the Remains