The Department for Communities (DfC) Historic Environment Division (HED) recently published their report from the four-year project to carry out a “systematic survey of 20th century Army, Navy and Air Force defence facilities in Northern Ireland”. The report was commissioned by the HED in 2020 and the contract was awarded… Read More »NI Defence Heritage Record Survey Report 2020-2024
Tucked away in a forest on the southern coast of the Moray Firth, is the remains of 80-year-old pillbox camouflage; possibly the only example of this type left in Great Britain. The pillbox has been draped with fine galvanised wire netting, onto which camouflage materials would have been laid or… Read More »Wire netting on camouflaged pillboxes
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 »Coast Artillery – Searchlight Types
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)
The legacies left behind following any conflict can be far-reaching. While we may not always have been on the conventional frontline, events in ‘our wee country’ have had a considerable impact on the landscape and our lives. Through my research, I hope to reveal the wide variety of defensive structures… Read More »What is Frontline Ulster?
In 1945, the Allies had narrowly won the Second World War but soon realised that a new and potentially dangerous world power was emerging. In what was to become the Cold War, Great Britain, weakened after the virtual collapse of the Empire, aligned with the United States in a war… Read More »Visit report – RAF Saxa Vord
Pillbox characterisation is nuanced. The adopted naming convention often refers to these hardened field defences from the Second World War to the drawing number issued by the War Office (WO) Directorate for Fortifications and Works (DFW); for example Type 22 or Type 26. The DFW branch responsible for defence design… Read More »A prefabricated anti-tank pillbox – worthy of its own name?
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
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