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Gloucestershire's strategic location straddling the Severn is
reinforced by Bristol's importance as a port. The Forest of Dean
and the Cotswolds are densely populated by prehistoric hillforts
and Gloucester, Cirencester and Winchcombe were important
throughout the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. The Normans built
substantial castles at Bristol, Gloucester and Berkeley, scene of
Edward II's murder, with many more of earth and timber. Many
figured in the conflicts between rival factions culminating in the
Battle of Tewkesbury. In the Civil War, Bristol underwent two
sieges and Gloucester another and one of the last battles, at Stow,
followed continuous skirmishing. The next centuries saw volunteer
forces established, formalised by the State by the end of
Victoria's reign, to counter threats external and internal. A
nascent aircraft industry would develop into aircraft factories and
airfields in the First World War with further development of
training and aircraft storage facilities for the newly formed RAF
during the inter-War period. Anti-invasion defences were
constructed in the Second World War, but the primary effort was in
logistics: bases for arriving US troops; RAF and USAAF training
airfields and depots; and communications facilities. This last
aspect, along with intelligence gathering, continued into the Cold
War and beyond.
The Second World War was the cause of more civilian casualties,
many of them young people, than of military. In Britain, young
people were on the front line, facing the threat of enemy invasion
and the fragmentation of daily life. Their education was disrupted
as their schools were taken over by government, the military and
ARP; as pupils were evacuated and staff conscripted; curriculum was
diluted and part-time schooling instituted; and concerns over food
and accommodation increased. Along with the physical dangers of
bombing and the increased disease caused by deprivation and social
dislocation, youngsters endured psychological and emotional
pressure from anxieties over home and family. Young people worked
in industry and agriculture; served in the Home Guard and ARP;
carried out voluntary activities in health and welfare; and
prepared for military service as cadets and in uniformed
organisations. School buildings aided the war effort as military
HQs, training centres, research centres for weapons development
and, central to ARP, especially in the cities, were often at the
forefront of the bombing. This book attempts an overview of the
circumstances under which youngsters grew up between 1939 and 1945
on the Home Front, with particular emphasis on the 14-18 age group.
Over the centuries, proximity to major routes---the Great North
Road, the Icknield Way, and Watling Street---has made Bedfordshire
strategically important. Iron Age hillforts occupied significant
locations, and castles consolidated Norman control after 1066. In
later medieval times, two major events occurred: in 1224, the siege
of Bedford Castle marked Henry III's attempt to reimpose royal
authority after the chaos of John's reign; and the Second Battle of
St Albans in 1461 was a major defeat for the Yorkists. During the
wars of the twentieth century, the county's industrial base
supported the armies fighting overseas. In the First World War, the
county contributed significantly to the birth of the RAF as well as
provided the base for the Home Defence armies. In the Second World
War, its airfields despatched RAF and USAAF bombers over the
continent, but the major activity was the secret war largely
associated with the Bedford Triangle. After 1945, aeronautical
research continued at RAF Thurleigh/Twinwood Farm and electronic
intelligence-gathering was developed at Chicksands. 'Defending
Bedfordshire' seeks to explain the significance of this dense
concentration of military sites to be found in a relatively small
county.
Leicestershire and Rutland, occupying the area between the Great
North Road and Watling Street have seen the movement of armies from
Roman times to the Civil War, with the decisive battles of Bosworth
and Naseby fought within or close to their borders. The Victorian
era saw the development of both the regular and volunteer forces
that would later fight in two world wars, while the development of
military flight in both defensive and offensive roles was a
twentieth-century theme. Leicestershire and Rutland witnessed
defence against the Zeppelins in the First World War; jet engines
and US airborne forces in the Second World War; and elements of
Britain's nuclear deterrent during the Cold War. The eavesdroppers
of the 'Y' Service at Beaumanor Hall provided much of the raw
material for Bletchley Park's code-breakers during the Second World
War. Evidence of this military activity is visible in the
landscape: castles of earthwork, stone or brick; barracks and
volunteer drill halls; airfields, missile sites and munitions
factories; pillboxes, observer corps posts and bunkers. This book
places sites into their social, political, historical and military
contexts, as well as figures such as William the Conqueror, Richard
III, and Oliver Cromwell.
On the night of 20 November 1914, everything pointed to the
likelihood of invasion by a German army, whisked across the North
Sea on a fleet of fast transports. The Royal Navy's Grand Fleet
prepared to sail south from remote bases in Scotland;
shallow-draught monitors were moored in the Wash; and 300,000
troops stood by to repel the enemy on the beaches. Fortunately, the
night passed without incident. For thirty years prior to the First
World War, writers, with a variety of motivations, had been
forecasting such an invasion. Britain regarded the army as an
imperial police force and, despite the experience gained in
military exercises involving simulated invasions, the Royal Navy
was still expected to fulfil its traditional role of intercepting
and destroying enemy forces. However, as the technology of warfare
developed, with the proliferation of ever more powerful warships,
submarines, mines, and torpedoes, alongside the added promise of
aerial assault, it became obvious that these long-established
notions of the Navy's invincibility might no longer be realistic.
The perceived threat of invasion, whether justified or not,
persisted throughout the First World War, and this book describes
the measures taken to protect Britain against enemy attack by land,
sea, or air.
Settled by successive waves of incomers, Northamptonshire is a
typical English shire county with prehistoric camps, Roman towns,
Saxon burhs, castles and fortified houses, representing
fortification over the centuries, a process punctuated by momentous
events including the birth of Richard III and the execution of
Mary, Queen of Scots, both at Fotheringhay Castle; King John's
sieges at Northampton, Rockingham and Fotheringhay; the Battle of
Northampton placing Edward IV on the throne; and the decisive
defeat of Charles I at Naseby. The great ordnance depot at Weedon
was (allegedly) chosen as a bolt-hole for George III in the place
furthest from Napoleon's likely invasion. The Victorian period saw
the army reorganized and the Volunteer Force develop. Both world
wars mobilized the population and the county filled up with army
camps, airfields and munitions plants. In the Cold War, nuclear
missiles were pointed towards Russia. Many signs of all these
events are still visible: Northampton's militia armoury in the
guise of a mediaeval castle; the genuine castles of Barnwell and
Rockingham: the launch-pads of Harrington's THOR missiles; the
Ordnance Stores at Weedon Bec; and the banks and ditches of
Hunsbury Camp or Little Houghton. This book illustrates and
explains these sites.
Nottinghamshire's position at the very heart of England has given
it important strategic significance throughout two millennia,
underlined by the number of roads, waterways, and later railways,
criss-crossing the county. An endless succession of armies have
used the Great North Road: the Romans, the Vikings, the Normans,
the Lancastrians and the Jacobites. Strategic river crossings and
road junctions have been guarded by Roman camps, Viking and Saxon
burhs, medieval castles, Parliamentarian and Royalist forts, and
the anti-invasion defences of the Second World War. The area has
traditionally provided a rallying point for armies to be gathered,
from Richard III's in 1485 to Kitchener's in 1914. Building on the
experience of the great training camps of Clipstone and the
Dukeries and the extensive munitions works of Chilwell and
Nottingham, in the Second World War the county expanded such
provision, becoming home to a concentration of flying training
centres, key components of the army's and the RAF's logistical
support networks and further munitions plants. Much of this
military activity has left its mark on the landscape, some of it
relatively untouched, and some adapted to meet the demands of
change. Some monuments are of enormous national importance;
Newark-on-Trent, as well as retaining its unspoilt medieval castle
ruins, boasts the best single concentration of Civil War-period
fortifications anywhere in Britain.
Throughout history, Cambridgeshire (including Huntingdon and
Peterborough) has figured in many of the conflicts which have
shaped our nation. Doomed Roman legionaries marched from Longthorpe
to defeat by Boudicca's Iceni; Saxons and Danes fought over the
edges of the Danelaw; the Normans came this way to crush Hereward's
Fenland resistance; in the Civil War it provided the defended
frontier between Parliamentarian and Royalist; in Napoleonic times
French prisoners of war were incarcerated here; and in the
twentieth century its flat expanses were home to numerous airfields
and missile bases. This book describes the function and purpose of
these defensive structures and reveals the evidence which many of
these major events left on the ground: the earthworks of hill
forts, medieval castles and moats; the masonry of later forts and
strong-houses; drill halls and militia barracks; and the lines of
anti-invasion defences from 1940.
For two thousand years London has been at the heart of Britain's
development as a nation, providing a focus for its political life.
The military element is now usually visible only through the
pageantry which attends royal occasions, but this masks a more
serious underlying intent. Frequently the target for both foreign
invaders and domestic factions, it has been required to defend
itself against everything from seaborne raiders to aerial
bombardment and the threat of nuclear war. At the same time, the
direction of military affairs has been centred on London, along
with the military infrastructure of barracks, depots, magazines,
dockyards and munitions factories. The evidence for much of this
can be seen in the landscape, from the mediaeval Tower of London
and the underground nuclear citadels in the urban centre, to the
royal palaces, moated sites, airfields and anti-invasion defences
in the suburbs and the green belt. This book describes the various
elements of London's military heritage, and places them in their
historical and social context. From the castles and strong-houses
of the mediaeval and Tudor monarchs and statesmen, to the
pseudo-fortresses of the Victorian militia and rifle volunteers;
the airfields of the anti-Zeppelin fighters of the Royal Flying
Corps, and the Battle of Britain bases of the RAF, to the pillboxes
of the defences against invasion in 1940, and the anti-nuclear
defences of the Cold War and beyond.
This story shows children how important it is to believe and follow
their dreams. It uses fun rhyming text and creative illustrations
that any child would enjoy! "May all your dreams come TRUE!"
In August 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War, there was
enormous pressure on men to enlist in Kitchener's New Armies,
supplementing the tiny regular army and Territorial Force. This
pressure was intense, and posters, the entreaties of local
worthies, and an apparently indiscriminate scattering of white
feathers, all exacerbated masculine sensitivity. We are all
familiar, if only through BBC TV's 'Dad's Army', with the Home
Guard of the Second World War. Far less is known of their First
World War equivalent: the Volunteer Training Corps (VTC). Like
their counter-parts in WW2, the VTC comprised those who were too
old, too young, too unfit or too indispensable to serve in the
regular forces. They fought for the right to be armed, uniformed
and trained; to be employed on meaningful duties; and at first, to
exist at all. This book explores the origins, development and
structure of the VTC, along with those who belonged to the many
supporting medical, transport, police and youth organisations who
kept the home fires burning or, in some cases, tried to put them
out. The VTC arose from the need of those men who were forced to
stay at home to be seen to be doing their bit. They saw the removal
of the bulk of both the regular army and the Territorial Force to
the Western Front as their opportunity to prepare to resist the
expected German invasion of Britain, and as a way of countering
accusations of shirking, or even cowardice.
The pillboxes of Britain and Ireland are among the most important
military structures employed in the history of the defence of these
islands. This work presents the first thorough study and
classification of pillboxes and related structures, including
selection posts, Seagull and concrete trenches, gun-houses and
turrets, battle headquarters and spigot-mortar emplacements. The
author traces the use of small, free-standing defence structures
from ancient times to the present, placing the pillbox within a
historical continuum and identifying its course of development. The
work also presents a typology of British and Irish pillboxes
through a catalogue of known types and individual examples, and
examines their tactical employment in the landscape.
For 2000 years, Hampshire has been at the heart of the nation's
defences against foreign invasion, as well as being heavily
involved in civil conflict. Through Roman forts, medieval castles,
fortified manors and moats, Victorian drill halls, military
airfields, anti-invasion defences, radar sites, bunkers and nuclear
attack monitoring posts, this book describes the structures put in
place to defend Hampshire's inhabitants against enemies from both
home and abroad.
Following work recently brought into sharper focus by the Defence
of Britain Project, this is the first extensive overview of the
military structures of the twentieth century, combining both
documentary and fieldwork research. The book presents details of
all those elements of the landscape, both urban and rural, which
have resulted from the need to defend against conflict - actual or
threatened. Defending Britain explains both the form and purpose of
structures such as anti-invasion defences, airfields, naval
installations and barracks, munitions dumps and firing ranges, Cold
War bunkers and radar sites, factories and stores, all of which are
well illustrated. The final section provides the reader with a
comprehensive gazetteer of surviving examples to visit throughout
Britain.
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