The pillboxes were part of an integrated defence system which included tank traps, waterways and ditches, and minefields. Usually the pillboxes are the only visible surviving parts of the system, so they are often derided on the basis that German invaders would just have gone round them, or even that they 'faced the wrong way'. But as Matt points out, their main function was as observation posts, and they would have spotted targets for indirect artillery or mortar fire. We will never know how effective they would have been against a full-scale invasion, but it is worth noting that with a few apocryphal exceptions the Germans never attempted coastal or airborne commando raids on mainland Britain.
Britain has a long and proud tradition of feeling very paranoid about an invasion from the continent. Every era had its scares be it a French, Spanish or even a German invasion. That's why you can still find forts, castles, Martello towers, artillery towers, coastal batteries, bunkers, flak towers and a bunch of long forgotten, but never rescinded local acts to set up militia and provide troops to guard the coast during such invasion scares.
Is it really paranoia if you have historical examples of invasion of foreigners and usurpers backed by foreigners? Yeah we can look back with historical hindsight and say that Napoleon was probably the last credible threat of invasion, at least before Trafalgar. But they didn't know that, and all those defensive structures are what made invasion less likely as time went by.
There is a very good documentary series by Dan Cruikshank that highlights this strange fear/fascination the British have had of a foreign invasion and the many scares they had over the years, and even some successful invasions like the Spanish in Cornwall, Barbary pirates in Ireland, the Dutch raid on the Medway, the Glorious Revolution etc ...
the whole Britain Islands have long history of invasions, so i wouldn't call the british that much paranoid yes the Germans, the French and the Spanish failed, but not the Normans, the Danish, the Vikings, the Anglosaxon and the Romans
For Matt's upcoming series "how to make Lindybeige green with envy". Tune in next week when he does a Lindy Hop on the main gun of a Vickers MBT while drinking a nice cup of tea.
Just saw a video where Skallagrim made some "butt" puns, and now Matt Easton just did some WW2 history. I expect that Lindy's next video will be scrutinizing the practicality of fantasy weapons to complete the cycle.
I suspect it is something to do with profligate number and quite unnecessary use of roundabouts. Or, we wanted to protect our future cultural heritage of the Wote St Willy from being taken as a war treasure.
Reminds me of a funny story. Close to my home in Belgium (Antwerp area) they were going to construct some flats so they needed to destroy a communications bunkers at the site. So they contacted a firm with some heavy machinery, they tried to use some heavy drills mounted on a crane-like structure. And well they went through the concrete for some decimeters, didn't really achieve something, they mostly achieved in destroying their own drills. If I remember correctly, some 5 drills were broken trying to drill through the concrete! Appearantly the construction workers had to stop drilling because cracks started to appear in neighbouring houses... Nice example of German gründlichkeit if you ask me! (Article in the papers about it: www.hln.be/regio/wommelgem/duitse-bunker-onverwoestbaar~a99aa354/ it's in Dutch though)
After World War 2 the city goverment of Hamburg in Germany tried to demolish the Hochbunker at the Heiligengeistfeld in St. Pauli. It was determined that the amount of explosives needed to bring down the bunker would do massive damage to the surrounding areas, so the demolition was cancelled. Nowadays the bunker houses clubs, music studios and offices.
Absolutely. The German submarine pens at St. Nazaire still exist for that very reason. The French wanted to demolish them after the war, but they're so sturdily constructed that it would cost a fortune to tear them down...
My dad helped setup the first fish cannery on the kamchatka peninsula(russia) back in the late 1990s. During one of his days off he was shown around by some officials and went to the beach and they had a lot of pillboxes all up and down the beach( on the heights overlooking them). He took a bunch of pictures of that and all sorts of other things but his cameras were confiscated and the film stripped out before he came home. He said the guide told him that they were built to help repel an american invasion force coming from alaska or japan.
When I was in the US Army 1988, I lived in a concrete bunker on the border with East Germany. Crash doors, kick out panels and I rode the bulletproof towers! Set and watched a lot of big ass rabbits chase each other!
I visited the Netherlands in the early 80's. My father's family has roots there. One of the things that disappointed my 12 or 13 year old self was that I never got to visit one of the many bunkers that I saw in the distance as I traveled. I grew up in a house where WWII was still a very real presence. I knew about spitfires, hurricanes and bf 109's from my uncles, who though young and in Canada took a great interest in the war. These bunkers were places of that held an exciting, solemn, mournful, even terrible mystery that excited my curiosity. They represented something important that I really wanted to understand. And I still do. Thanks to Matt, Lloyd, Indy, Ian, Nicholas and many, many others (including UA-cam) I have been able to do that in ways I never could have as a 13 year old. I'm really grateful for that.
Spikey DaPikey: Me Too in Edenbridge, Kent. One each side of the river Eden and one built into the wall of the Grange in the Village. The one in the Grange had it's door bricked up but you could see boxes and stuff through the slits. My mate and I spent over a week removing enough bricks (this was in the 1950s) to get inside, we were able to open some of the boxes and found lots of good stuff. Binoculars, the pair I nicked and still have dated 1943. Loads of .303 ammo which allowed my friends and family to shoot free of charge for many years, I've still got quite a lot of that too, though I brought it with me when I moved to Vancouver in the 70s. And, very oddly for a pill box, several crates of 20mm cannon shells. I only kept a few of those, shells not boxes, and have them still. I was only a kid and didn't get to see everything but have treasured the memory for many years. Cheers.
Pretty cool Matt. Being from the States I had no idea that pillboxes were littered about the English country side. However I shouldn’t be surprised. The war was very close.
There are a lot of structures from WW2 in my country because 5 major armies fought here. My county is filled with dug in pillboxes, underground artillery stations, stone walls with firing openings, AA stations on higher hills, submarine and ship dug in bunkers, observation posts... Everything is abandoned but still operable.
An additional note on the historical importance of these places: in the days before the internet, they were, for generations of teenage boys, a reliable source of discarded mucky books, if you could brave the smell of piss to go inside and recover them.
My great grandfather was in the WW2 in fighting in Germany, he was in war during d-day, he also had to cross a river with pillboxes and other things.He was the 28th Division in WW2.
The pillbox in this video is located here :) www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.1063148,-1.7742322,3a,75y,1.65h,70.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sfzYkePYmcpIuVKlnwE3haQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
There is a very similar WWII concrete bunker to that near where I live. I am reliably informed that [the bunker near me] was constructed for locally sited elements of the Royal Observer Corps and was part of a country-wide network of observation sites that provided early warning of enemy bombers during the period that radar was getting up and running, or possibly kept on as a 'fall back' option if RADAR ever became ineffective.
There are a couple at Box Hill in Surrey which I used to 'play soldiers' in as a child. There used to be some dragons teeth in the river there as well but it looks like they were removed when we last visited.
Cool that you show the whole range of "fortifications"! This brings me to the quation: What are your thoughts about hand to hand combat in the trenches of WWI?
Interesting video and location. The vast majority of pillboxes were built in 1940 and were intended to be fought from in the event of invasion. I totally agree with your point that they are archeology and it was good that you did what most people fail to do and placed it in its geographical/topographical and military context. The door is nearly always at the rear so we can deduce the anticipated direction of attack. Goethe or someone said architecture is frozen music and I always hear the following words when I see a pillbox. "we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender"
I have always had a fascination for Pill boxes. There are a great many in Essex and some of them you are able to access. I always think they bring home what the real imminent threat of invasion people lived with.
Lots of places here ( south east Scotland) from Home guard Auxiliary unit and regular army and air force defences. Been to some further north as well and down in Sommerset.
Hi Matt, as you're just up the road. I recommend taking a stroll a long the Basingstoke or Kennet and Avon canals. You'll see a number of pill boxes as well as anti tank dragons teeth, but also a number of fortified houses and two storey pill boxes. The best one to see is on the Kennet and Avon canal near Reading, about 200m from the Cunning Man Pub. I believe it can be googled as Burghfield Fortified building, it was part of the General Head Quarters(GHQ) Line - Blue.
There are still some old coastal artillery emplacements still around here and there in the US, nothing like pillboxes in Britain but we have them. Most of them are not preserved and/or off limits but I think that there are a few that can still be visited safely. There's also some places where you can still see the remnants of these artillery emplacements, there's a beach in Southern California where the rings of concrete that the guns actually stood on still remain, even if there's little else remaining of the gun emplacements that were there. Still, it's kind of cool to see and adds extra interest when walking along the trail overlooking the ocean.
I love coming across random WW2 pillboxes - sometimes on beaches (eg the one at the east end of Sandend on the north Scottish coast) where they might have been some use against German invaders. But tons of them are on small roads in the middle of nowhere. There appears to be the remains of one beside my local Virgin Active.
Feeling more comfortable when being able to see long distances is very natural. The reason is exactly the one you mention, being able to see threats a long way off is a huge advantage, and one that has probably been selected for. The guy who liked to relax in the bushes and couldn't see the lion coming was probably.... snacked out of the gene pool...
Hatman39 It probably is selected for if you are a leader, or in power. Raiders would be more inclined to prefer hiding spots I imagine. Perhaps a case of socially driven evolution.
Until a few years ago there was a pillbox hidden in the middle of Brighton beach. Sadly this was demolished to make way for a giant towering eyesore for tourists to ride called the i360, courtesy of British Airways.
You raise a good point by referring to them as "observation posts". My opinion has always been that they would be short lived in an invasion. Even sustained machine gun fire would likely have chipped big holes in the brickwork/concrete. I am also often puzzled by their isolated locations, apparently not protected by other positions. I have read that most were practically abandoned after the Battle of Britain was won. Many of those built in 1939/1940 were abandoned earlier as they were built under the outdated WW1 concept of creating "stop lines". After the German army walked around France's greatest stop line the British concentrated on "hedgehog defences"around air fields and strategic points. At most these pill boxes would have slowed the enemy down and provided some information regarding enemy strength and movements for the mobile troops to counter attack. However, I conclude that any last stand in a pill box would have been exactly that; a last stand! They may also have had some morale value to the locals. Maybe I am being cynical so I would love to hear your comments....
There's a few where I live, plus machine gun emplacements on the sea wall. My grandfather was in home guard and patrolled the promenade etc. Good upload. Thanks
you should visit western Czech republic (especialy former Sudetenland), there were a lot of bunkers built there to stop the Germans. Obviously they weren't of any use after Munich agreement, but they are still standing
I love this kind of thing! I find history fascinating. Coming from Texas we have our own history, but it's nothing compared to things like this. I wish the Wallace Collection was just a short drive away!
Not a lot left as far as I know, but we do have remnants of coastal artillery batteries. One of these days I've been meaning to go see some of the old batteries around San Francisco. There's also a preserved Nike surface to air missile base across the Golden Gate with inert missiles and such on display. www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm
Actually there are a few left. USA never build much because defending the American coast is quite a different story... They mainly used mobile observation/ patrol teams sometimes on horses (Must be a f*cking awesome job, riding up and down the coast on a horse, M1903 springfield on the saddle.) On some very tempting (for the Japanese mostly) invasion points or oil refineries close to shore they build permanent, concrete observation points and some concrete shelters. Coastal gun installations were used, but the USA mostly (and wisely) relied on air cover for protection against amphibious attacks. More inland were the bases, from which heavier units could be deployed if needed.
Yes, they dot the south shore of Long Island from the city all the way to Montauk. You can still stand on the remnants on the beaches of the far Rockaways, near Floyd Bennet Field. They are a lot smaller than the artillery bunker facility at Camp Hero in Montauk, and by all appearances, look very similar to these pill boxes. (When we were kids we didn't have the nerve to even try to peek inside the remains, they looked very crypt-like and you know, rats). Didn't stop the Nazis from landing via u boat out here in the Hamptons tho! Damn those Nazis!
Thanks for sharing! I kind of wish someone would get permission from the owner to show us the inside. In any case, I remember getting to see the fortifications at Pointe du Hoc, and it was an amazing experience. If you come across other such things in your travels, I would love to see more content like this.
Nice to see you do something on recent history. In the U.S. we still have some remaining on our west coast built in fear of a Japanese invasion. Thanks. Very interesting.
If you like plains, you should visit the Prairies in Canada. Some parts have rolling hills but some are so flat you can see for miles. USA also has the same thing but called the Great Plains. If you have ever seen the film Dances With Wolves, it looks like the landscapes from that.
Whenever I drive over a WWII antitank barrier hidden in the streets (there's one between here and the next village, steel posts under lids in the street) I think about history.
Jake Norman In the USA Jersey is the best place to view a Guido. You can usually track them by looking for 1980s Camaro's or any store that sells gold chains.
I liked your reference to Lindybeige. When I first saw the thumbnail and the title, I thought that I was clicking on one of his videos. I wonder whether people ever stood on top of the pillboxes to keep watch. On a nice day, the top would be more pleasant than inside, and standing on top would give one a slightly better view. The structure looked strong enough that one could even put a step ladder on the top and get that much higher to see the countryside and look for something that wasn't right. As long as the shooting hadn't started, being on top wouldn't be dangerous.
It appears that that particular pill box may have been intended for use as part of a traffic control point in addition to more general observation of the area. Barriers would have been placed in the road to slow or stop traffic so the vehicles and their occupants could be inspected as they pass. This can help counter the threat of small numbers of infiltrating military forces or spies. It would only be a minor obstacle for a large military force but better than nothing.
Did the video get demonetized yet for showing us how to build terrorist cell headquarter entrenchments, to spread terror onto the local populus? Basically supporting terrorism, guns bombs and all other stuff?
"I just love Salisbury Plain" there speaks a man who has never had to dig a bloody slit trench on the place! I love pillboxes though, in fact any fortification. We have a unique design built by the Royal Marines just down the road, although why the bootnecks thought they needed to build a small pillbox right next to a socking great brick and earth "bombproof" Victorian artillery fort is beyond me!
I've noticed the editing and its a welcome addition, and I don't mean to give offense, but the audio can be jarring at times. Try leaving just a little bit of audio from the 1st clip and cut a bit of audio from the 2nd when stitching your cuts. I'm no expert, on either swords or editing, but i seem to really enjoy watching you tangle with both. Cheers!
Jesus. This video sent me on such a wild tangent. I was like "Huh. Gee I wonder what the last mainland invasion of my country was." *spends next 30 minutes learning about Aleutian islands campaign, Canadian invasion strategy, German Empire's proposed plan of attacking West Virginia, and the Zimmerman Telegram. It's hard to think of places like the UK and US being invaded but the prospect (ignoring how horrific it would be) is pretty fascinating.
Do a trip to the Suffolk coast near Aldeburgh - WWII fortifications, Napoleonic Martello towers (you can stay in one apparently) and one of the places where radar was developed (Orford Ness)... And very flat, bleak countryside. With a moor nature reserve thing. And a nice shingle beach, with a beach-launched fishing fleet. Also the area is littered with other historical buildings, Aldeburgh has a 16th century moot hall, there's Framlingham castle and a ruined abbey at Leiston. Plus a large number of interesting churches.
The other day my friends and I "found" a pillbox in one hill near our cty. I bet people from the area know its there, but when you go walking cross-country, decide to take a shorcut through the forest and find a pillbox... well it was really interesting. A few months before this we did a small trip following the old road, we knew there were 3 pillboxes on the side of the road and I bet the area has more pillboxes. But one thing is going there looking for them and other is finding one randomly
I am not going to enter into politics, but I am going to point out 2 things -Several regions are more pro-independece than others, and it is not new, it was like it since the 1700s or 1800s. Catalonia is one of them. I personally dont care that much about politics. -Everyone is using the shitstorm of the independence of catalonia to cover their own business. Several big trials about corruption for example. Several political parties are now guilty but the news is only catalonia and sports. Funny how judges are bought. A lot of rich/powerful politicians and businessmen are not going to jail. :(
I don't know enough about Spanish politics to get into it. My English Grandparents used to winter there (thirty years ago now) and I have been there on vacation myself. I'd hate to see it go through what it went through in the thirties is my only concern.
There's a sequence of them near me along the old Cambridge road , I don't know if Matt visits the auction rooms at Stansted Mountfitchet but there's one right by there and more along the road by the Chesterfords and a particularly incongruous one stuck on the Lawn/cricket pitch at Audley End Stately home (which was the HQ of the Polish section of the SOE during the War).
That area is littered with them probably in part due to the number of airfields that the RAF operated from. I live in Saffron Walden spent my childhood exploring them
When I clicked, I thought I was getting a Lloyd video (obviously I wasn't paying close attention), was pleasantly surprised I got a Matt instead (nothing against Lloyd, whom I also like)
I think I read that c90% of WW2 pillboxes have been demolished, mostly shortly after the war. In my area, despite being on the coast, even those designed for Vickers machine guns were equipped only with Bren guns due to shortages 1940-41. Later in the war we decided they weren't such a good idea as they tended to draw attention become death traps, reasoning that trenches & dug outs were better.
Very cool video, I didn't know about these pillbox thingies in the UK. Being from Germany, well there's some kind of WW bunker or structure around almost every corner ;), anyway, love these 'different' kind of videos of late. Cheers!
And people says England is rainy... So if you cross Matt yielding a sword in a forest or in a hill, don't be afraid, only his way to feel safe. Didn't know about this structures in UK while I grew up near quite a few blockhaüser though we are the only ones around to call bunkers by a German word that have absolutely no link to the original one.
I agree with you Matt, here in America anyway anything abandoned or dug up that is at least 50 years old is considered archaeology, wonder what that makes my 69 year old dad? Lol anyway awesome video can you do more of these travel videos. I love the English countryside it holds my attention long even with my ADD. Show more castles and such anyway never have been to England, my fiancé has family in London so I might get my chance. Good video keep making more traveling videos these are really fun and it beats watching the discovery channel.
Still not as old as Old England. It's a sobering thought to realize that the "ruins" we see in the new world are at most some 500 years old, but for most of Europe digging deep to do some landscaping could turn up a little piece of Rome.
Speaking of tresspassing: A) My mother was in a car with her father and the car broke down in the middle of nowhere. Since there were no mobile phones back then, they were walking to the next barn and there the old farmer came out with a shotgun shouting F-off or I will kill you! and readied it... that was not in the USA, but Austria Europe! B) a teacher of mine got lost in Israel and found a settlement unfortunately for him it turned out to be an illegal settlement of radical Jews and they were pointing their guns at him, even without noticing that he's German... his wife and the wife of the leader somehow managed to negotiate.
"Wiltshire I am in you!" oo errr young man!
The pillboxes were part of an integrated defence system which included tank traps, waterways and ditches, and minefields. Usually the pillboxes are the only visible surviving parts of the system, so they are often derided on the basis that German invaders would just have gone round them, or even that they 'faced the wrong way'. But as Matt points out, their main function was as observation posts, and they would have spotted targets for indirect artillery or mortar fire. We will never know how effective they would have been against a full-scale invasion, but it is worth noting that with a few apocryphal exceptions the Germans never attempted coastal or airborne commando raids on mainland Britain.
Good point.
Mr Matt, why are you late for the work again?
Well, umm... I saw that one pillpox near the road...
I heard that pillboxes could at times be very neat inside, with seperate compartments for each day of the week.
Britain has a long and proud tradition of feeling very paranoid about an invasion from the continent. Every era had its scares be it a French, Spanish or even a German invasion. That's why you can still find forts, castles, Martello towers, artillery towers, coastal batteries, bunkers, flak towers and a bunch of long forgotten, but never rescinded local acts to set up militia and provide troops to guard the coast during such invasion scares.
Is it really paranoia if you have historical examples of invasion of foreigners and usurpers backed by foreigners? Yeah we can look back with historical hindsight and say that Napoleon was probably the last credible threat of invasion, at least before Trafalgar. But they didn't know that, and all those defensive structures are what made invasion less likely as time went by.
There is a very good documentary series by Dan Cruikshank that highlights this strange fear/fascination the British have had of a foreign invasion and the many scares they had over the years, and even some successful invasions like the Spanish in Cornwall, Barbary pirates in Ireland, the Dutch raid on the Medway, the Glorious Revolution etc ...
the whole Britain Islands have long history of invasions, so i wouldn't call the british that much paranoid
yes the Germans, the French and the Spanish failed, but not the Normans, the Danish, the Vikings, the Anglosaxon and the Romans
Fabio Varrà To be fair, most of Western Europe had been invaded and occupied by the Romans at one point in their history or another.
What can we say. The '15 and the '45 cast a long shadow.
scholalindybeigeatoria
Forgotten skallascholametalindybeigeatrontoriagrim bloke 45
Matt is like Lindy without all the speculation and bullshit.
For Matt's upcoming series "how to make Lindybeige green with envy".
Tune in next week when he does a Lindy Hop on the main gun of a Vickers MBT while drinking a nice cup of tea.
it is important to be prepared for war and try our best to avoid it.
Just saw a video where Skallagrim made some "butt" puns, and now Matt Easton just did some WW2 history. I expect that Lindy's next video will be scrutinizing the practicality of fantasy weapons to complete the cycle.
"can you guess what i found?" well yea you put it in the vid name after all.
It could be one on many different types.
Basingstoke has concrete tank traps. Why zee Germans would want to send tanks to Basingstoke is not really known.
It's on the road from Southampton to London and probably an obvious area to hold up the enemy.
Are you sure that wasn't an attempt to keep the people of Basingstoke from escaping?
Strafbataillone?
I suspect it is something to do with profligate number and quite unnecessary use of roundabouts. Or, we wanted to protect our future cultural heritage of the Wote St Willy from being taken as a war treasure.
... AND the great viewing public gently insist that should any UA-cam celebrity be on Salisbury Plain in the future we want a video of Woodhenge!!!
I can guess from the title, Matt.
Glad it's not just me who got vexed by that one. ;-)
I couldn't really title a video "Mystery surprise video" could I? ;-)
Reminds me of a funny story. Close to my home in Belgium (Antwerp area) they were going to construct some flats so they needed to destroy a communications bunkers at the site. So they contacted a firm with some heavy machinery, they tried to use some heavy drills mounted on a crane-like structure. And well they went through the concrete for some decimeters, didn't really achieve something, they mostly achieved in destroying their own drills. If I remember correctly, some 5 drills were broken trying to drill through the concrete! Appearantly the construction workers had to stop drilling because cracks started to appear in neighbouring houses... Nice example of German gründlichkeit if you ask me! (Article in the papers about it: www.hln.be/regio/wommelgem/duitse-bunker-onverwoestbaar~a99aa354/ it's in Dutch though)
After World War 2 the city goverment of Hamburg in Germany tried to demolish the Hochbunker at the Heiligengeistfeld in St. Pauli. It was determined that the amount of explosives needed to bring down the bunker would do massive damage to the surrounding areas, so the demolition was cancelled. Nowadays the bunker houses clubs, music studios and offices.
Absolutely. The German submarine pens at St. Nazaire still exist for that very reason. The French wanted to demolish them after the war, but they're so sturdily constructed that it would cost a fortune to tear them down...
Pieter Vaneynde Best idea gonna be, use that bunker as new flat's basement...
I believe the French use them themselves now...
+Ruben de Jong - I believe they do, yes.
"Anyway, I won't ramble..."
**rambles for another minute**
XD
Rambling intensifies.
You were rambling while rambling. And I'm sure I could hear a brambling.
My dad helped setup the first fish cannery on the kamchatka peninsula(russia) back in the late 1990s. During one of his days off he was shown around by some officials and went to the beach and they had a lot of pillboxes all up and down the beach( on the heights overlooking them). He took a bunch of pictures of that and all sorts of other things but his cameras were confiscated and the film stripped out before he came home.
He said the guide told him that they were built to help repel an american invasion force coming from alaska or japan.
"I am in you"- Matt Easton 2017
When I was in the US Army 1988, I lived in a concrete bunker on the border with East Germany. Crash doors, kick out panels and I rode the bulletproof towers! Set and watched a lot of big ass rabbits chase each other!
I visited the Netherlands in the early 80's. My father's family has roots there. One of the things that disappointed my 12 or 13 year old self was that I never got to visit one of the many bunkers that I saw in the distance as I traveled. I grew up in a house where WWII was still a very real presence. I knew about spitfires, hurricanes and bf 109's from my uncles, who though young and in Canada took a great interest in the war. These bunkers were places of that held an exciting, solemn, mournful, even terrible mystery that excited my curiosity. They represented something important that I really wanted to understand. And I still do. Thanks to Matt, Lloyd, Indy, Ian, Nicholas and many, many others (including UA-cam) I have been able to do that in ways I never could have as a 13 year old. I'm really grateful for that.
I used to play in an old pill box along side the Coventry canal when I was a kid.
Spikey DaPikey: Me Too in Edenbridge, Kent. One each side of the river Eden and one built into the wall of the Grange in the Village. The one in the Grange had it's door bricked up but you could see boxes and stuff through the slits. My mate and I spent over a week removing enough bricks (this was in the 1950s) to get inside, we were able to open some of the boxes and found lots of good stuff. Binoculars, the pair I nicked and still have dated 1943. Loads of .303 ammo which allowed my friends and family to shoot free of charge for many years, I've still got quite a lot of that too, though I brought it with me when I moved to Vancouver in the 70s. And, very oddly for a pill box, several crates of 20mm cannon shells. I only kept a few of those, shells not boxes, and have them still. I was only a kid and didn't get to see everything but have treasured the memory for many years. Cheers.
Pretty cool Matt. Being from the States I had no idea that pillboxes were littered about the English country side. However I shouldn’t be surprised. The war was very close.
they are often found around ww1 and ww2 airfields smelling like toilets with ancient newspapers in them
look up the TIME TEAM episode on SHooters hill for camoflaged emplacements in London
Not just England, we have them all along the east coast, as well as inland, in Scotland as well. I don't know about other parts of Britain, though.
Many of these are here in Czech Republic. Especially around borders.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_border_fortifications
There are a lot of structures from WW2 in my country because 5 major armies fought here. My county is filled with dug in pillboxes, underground artillery stations, stone walls with firing openings, AA stations on higher hills, submarine and ship dug in bunkers, observation posts... Everything is abandoned but still operable.
An additional note on the historical importance of these places: in the days before the internet, they were, for generations of teenage boys, a reliable source of discarded mucky books, if you could brave the smell of piss to go inside and recover them.
My great grandfather was in the WW2 in fighting in Germany, he was in war during d-day, he also had to cross a river with pillboxes and other things.He was the 28th Division in WW2.
The pillbox in this video is located here :) www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.1063148,-1.7742322,3a,75y,1.65h,70.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sfzYkePYmcpIuVKlnwE3haQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Clever of them to hide it behind that shrubbery.
Is it possible to get an overhead view? I am trying to figure out what overall shape the pillbox is -- rectangular, or maybe 5-sided?
It's hexagonal. You can return to the map and turn on the satellite view.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.1063,-1.7757727,127a,35y,83.08h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3
You doxxed the pillbox!
Pillboxes have such a sad connotation for me as a Czech person :..(
That is the type 22 or 24. I like the type 26 pillbox, second is type 25. The Suffolk square has a blind spot on it's left side. From it's blast wall.
getting out to show us 'history in the field' so to speak is a super awesome idea for future videos
There is a very similar WWII concrete bunker to that near where I live.
I am reliably informed that [the bunker near me] was constructed for locally sited elements of the Royal Observer Corps and was part of a country-wide network of observation sites that provided early warning of enemy bombers during the period that radar was getting up and running, or possibly kept on as a 'fall back' option if RADAR ever became ineffective.
There are a couple at Box Hill in Surrey which I used to 'play soldiers' in as a child. There used to be some dragons teeth in the river there as well but it looks like they were removed when we last visited.
Cool that you show the whole range of "fortifications"!
This brings me to the quation:
What are your thoughts about hand to hand combat in the trenches of WWI?
Julian Fitz don't use a bayonet
Interesting video and location. The vast majority of pillboxes were built in 1940 and were intended to be fought from in the event of invasion. I totally agree with your point that they are archeology and it was good that you did what most people fail to do and placed it in its geographical/topographical and military context. The door is nearly always at the rear so we can deduce the anticipated direction of attack. Goethe or someone said architecture is frozen music and I always hear the following words when I see a pillbox.
"we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender"
There are a fair few pillboxes sat on beaches in the North East, as well as concrete tank traps.
When I read the Title I first thought it was one of Lindybeighs Videos
Same!
I have always had a fascination for Pill boxes. There are a great many in Essex and some of them you are able to access. I always think they bring home what the real imminent threat of invasion people lived with.
Just a comment.
You didn't mention the brick anti-blast wall, designed so near misses from bombs or shells didn't blow the doors off.
Lots of places here ( south east Scotland) from Home guard Auxiliary unit and regular army and air force defences. Been to some further north as well and down in Sommerset.
Matt Easton always likes to see people coming, especially from a long way off.
Hi Matt, as you're just up the road. I recommend taking a stroll a long the Basingstoke or Kennet and Avon canals. You'll see a number of pill boxes as well as anti tank dragons teeth, but also a number of fortified houses and two storey pill boxes. The best one to see is on the Kennet and Avon canal near Reading, about 200m from the Cunning Man Pub. I believe it can be googled as Burghfield Fortified building, it was part of the General Head Quarters(GHQ) Line - Blue.
There are still some old coastal artillery emplacements still around here and there in the US, nothing like pillboxes in Britain but we have them. Most of them are not preserved and/or off limits but I think that there are a few that can still be visited safely. There's also some places where you can still see the remnants of these artillery emplacements, there's a beach in Southern California where the rings of concrete that the guns actually stood on still remain, even if there's little else remaining of the gun emplacements that were there. Still, it's kind of cool to see and adds extra interest when walking along the trail overlooking the ocean.
I love coming across random WW2 pillboxes - sometimes on beaches (eg the one at the east end of Sandend on the north Scottish coast) where they might have been some use against German invaders. But tons of them are on small roads in the middle of nowhere. There appears to be the remains of one beside my local Virgin Active.
Feeling more comfortable when being able to see long distances is very natural. The reason is exactly the one you mention, being able to see threats a long way off is a huge advantage, and one that has probably been selected for. The guy who liked to relax in the bushes and couldn't see the lion coming was probably.... snacked out of the gene pool...
Hatman39 It probably is selected for if you are a leader, or in power. Raiders would be more inclined to prefer hiding spots I imagine. Perhaps a case of socially driven evolution.
It's more what you're used to. People who grow up living in mountainous regions or areas that are heavily forested don't like plains, and vice versa.
Until a few years ago there was a pillbox hidden in the middle of Brighton beach. Sadly this was demolished to make way for a giant towering eyesore for tourists to ride called the i360, courtesy of British Airways.
You raise a good point by referring to them as "observation posts".
My opinion has always been that they would be short lived in an invasion. Even sustained machine gun fire would likely have chipped big holes in the brickwork/concrete. I am also often puzzled by their isolated locations, apparently not protected by other positions.
I have read that most were practically abandoned after the Battle of Britain was won. Many of those built in 1939/1940 were abandoned earlier as they were built under the outdated WW1 concept of creating "stop lines". After the German army walked around France's greatest stop line the British concentrated on "hedgehog defences"around air fields and strategic points.
At most these pill boxes would have slowed the enemy down and provided some information regarding enemy strength and movements for the mobile troops to counter attack. However, I conclude that any last stand in a pill box would have been exactly that; a last stand!
They may also have had some morale value to the locals.
Maybe I am being cynical so I would love to hear your comments....
Love you Matt, always creating great content.
It is rather awesome you have stuff like that just lying around.
There's a few where I live, plus machine gun emplacements on the sea wall. My grandfather was in home guard and patrolled the promenade etc. Good upload. Thanks
you should visit western Czech republic (especialy former Sudetenland), there were a lot of bunkers built there to stop the Germans. Obviously they weren't of any use after Munich agreement, but they are still standing
those things cost more money to destroy then to build... They will stay with us for a long time.
Areas without terrain that can be used for cover or concealment make me feel more vulnerable. I guess I like woods and towns.
I love this kind of thing! I find history fascinating. Coming from Texas we have our own history, but it's nothing compared to things like this. I wish the Wallace Collection was just a short drive away!
We've even got them in the US on the coast
Not a lot left as far as I know, but we do have remnants of coastal artillery batteries. One of these days I've been meaning to go see some of the old batteries around San Francisco. There's also a preserved Nike surface to air missile base across the Golden Gate with inert missiles and such on display.
www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm
Actually there are a few left. USA never build much because defending the American coast is quite a different story... They mainly used mobile observation/ patrol teams sometimes on horses (Must be a f*cking awesome job, riding up and down the coast on a horse, M1903 springfield on the saddle.) On some very tempting (for the Japanese mostly) invasion points or oil refineries close to shore they build permanent, concrete observation points and some concrete shelters. Coastal gun installations were used, but the USA mostly (and wisely) relied on air cover for protection against amphibious attacks. More inland were the bases, from which heavier units could be deployed if needed.
www.urbanghostsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/battery-harris-fort-tilden.jpg looks like freaking Thunderbirds stuff. Fort Tilden, USA.
There is also of course Castle William all the way from 1807 meant to stop the British Navy from raiding New York.
Yes, they dot the south shore of Long Island from the city all the way to Montauk. You can still stand on the remnants on the beaches of the far Rockaways, near Floyd Bennet Field. They are a lot smaller than the artillery bunker facility at Camp Hero in Montauk, and by all appearances, look very similar to these pill boxes. (When we were kids we didn't have the nerve to even try to peek inside the remains, they looked very crypt-like and you know, rats). Didn't stop the Nazis from landing via u boat out here in the Hamptons tho! Damn those Nazis!
Being next to the road like that makes it a perfect hobo shelter, it's no wonder he put tree in the doorway - much good may it do.
Thanks for sharing! I kind of wish someone would get permission from the owner to show us the inside. In any case, I remember getting to see the fortifications at Pointe du Hoc, and it was an amazing experience. If you come across other such things in your travels, I would love to see more content like this.
It's cool to see youtubers visit my local area
Nice to see you do something on recent history. In the U.S. we still have some remaining on our west coast built in fear of a Japanese invasion. Thanks. Very interesting.
Check out the coast along the Seven Sisters, found many pillboxes ten years ago.
If you like plains, you should visit the Prairies in Canada. Some parts have rolling hills but some are so flat you can see for miles. USA also has the same thing but called the Great Plains. If you have ever seen the film Dances With Wolves, it looks like the landscapes from that.
They're all over the place in East Anglia; about one every mile in each cardinal direction.
Whenever I drive over a WWII antitank barrier hidden in the streets (there's one between here and the next village, steel posts under lids in the street) I think about history.
Jersey is the best place in the British Isles to view WW2 fortifications, but these were built by the occupying Nazis.
Don't forget Guernsey too! ;)
Interestingly the Cromarty Firth up in Scotland is overlooked by half a dozen. It was an ideal location for a navy base.
Well, built by POWs the occupying Nazis brought over and forced to build them, under poor conditions.
Total war kinda sucks...
Jake Norman In the USA Jersey is the best place to view a Guido. You can usually track them by looking for 1980s Camaro's or any store that sells gold chains.
I liked your reference to Lindybeige. When I first saw the thumbnail and the title, I thought that I was clicking on one of his videos.
I wonder whether people ever stood on top of the pillboxes to keep watch. On a nice day, the top would be more pleasant than inside, and standing on top would give one a slightly better view. The structure looked strong enough that one could even put a step ladder on the top and get that much higher to see the countryside and look for something that wasn't right. As long as the shooting hadn't started, being on top wouldn't be dangerous.
It appears that that particular pill box may have been intended for use as part of a traffic control point in addition to more general observation of the area. Barriers would have been placed in the road to slow or stop traffic so the vehicles and their occupants could be inspected as they pass. This can help counter the threat of small numbers of infiltrating military forces or spies. It would only be a minor obstacle for a large military force but better than nothing.
Did the video get demonetized yet for showing us how to build terrorist cell headquarter entrenchments, to spread terror onto the local populus? Basically supporting terrorism, guns bombs and all other stuff?
He said "Fucking" 1 time. *DEMONITIZED!*
Same idea really.
How can you tell if it's been demonetized.
Only the Uploader (Matt) can. it requires a lot of Penetration of the interface and back end to find out.
These are all over the Netherlands as well, don't know how many I see when I visit my family there.
My dad is a civil engineer too.
Explains a lot
Maybe this is just the first time I’m noticing them, but the glasses look good Matt!
"I just love Salisbury Plain" there speaks a man who has never had to dig a bloody slit trench on the place! I love pillboxes though, in fact any fortification.
We have a unique design built by the Royal Marines just down the road, although why the bootnecks thought they needed to build a small pillbox right next to a socking great brick and earth "bombproof" Victorian artillery fort is beyond me!
Probably because a small target is far less likely to be noticed and attacked when there was a huge Victorian fort next to it
Very cool video. Different from normal content but no less interesting. Looking forward to seeing the antiques u pick up.
I've noticed the editing and its a welcome addition, and I don't mean to give offense, but the audio can be jarring at times. Try leaving just a little bit of audio from the 1st clip and cut a bit of audio from the 2nd when stitching your cuts. I'm no expert, on either swords or editing, but i seem to really enjoy watching you tangle with both. Cheers!
Jesus. This video sent me on such a wild tangent. I was like "Huh. Gee I wonder what the last mainland invasion of my country was." *spends next 30 minutes learning about Aleutian islands campaign, Canadian invasion strategy, German Empire's proposed plan of attacking West Virginia, and the Zimmerman Telegram. It's hard to think of places like the UK and US being invaded but the prospect (ignoring how horrific it would be) is pretty fascinating.
Do a trip to the Suffolk coast near Aldeburgh - WWII fortifications, Napoleonic Martello towers (you can stay in one apparently) and one of the places where radar was developed (Orford Ness)... And very flat, bleak countryside. With a moor nature reserve thing. And a nice shingle beach, with a beach-launched fishing fleet. Also the area is littered with other historical buildings, Aldeburgh has a 16th century moot hall, there's Framlingham castle and a ruined abbey at Leiston. Plus a large number of interesting churches.
Salisbury Plain is the place where our ancestors did some very interesting shit. I'd be feeling the same way.
I like how there's all this suspense but the title spoils it.
The other day my friends and I "found" a pillbox in one hill near our cty. I bet people from the area know its there, but when you go walking cross-country, decide to take a shorcut through the forest and find a pillbox... well it was really interesting.
A few months before this we did a small trip following the old road, we knew there were 3 pillboxes on the side of the road and I bet the area has more pillboxes. But one thing is going there looking for them and other is finding one randomly
What country are you in?
Spain. More specifically Asturias.
I guess those pillboxes are from the spanish civil war
Cool!
It seems to have quieted down now, but don't have another civil war over Catalonia!!
I am not going to enter into politics, but I am going to point out 2 things
-Several regions are more pro-independece than others, and it is not new, it was like it since the 1700s or 1800s. Catalonia is one of them. I personally dont care that much about politics.
-Everyone is using the shitstorm of the independence of catalonia to cover their own business. Several big trials about corruption for example. Several political parties are now guilty but the news is only catalonia and sports. Funny how judges are bought. A lot of rich/powerful politicians and
businessmen are not going to jail. :(
I don't know enough about Spanish politics to get into it. My English Grandparents used to winter there (thirty years ago now) and I have been there on vacation myself. I'd hate to see it go through what it went through in the thirties is my only concern.
There's a sequence of them near me along the old Cambridge road , I don't know if Matt visits the auction rooms at Stansted Mountfitchet but there's one right by there and more along the road by the Chesterfords and a particularly incongruous one stuck on the Lawn/cricket pitch at Audley End Stately home (which was the HQ of the Polish section of the SOE during the War).
That area is littered with them probably in part due to the number of airfields that the RAF operated from. I live in Saffron Walden spent my childhood exploring them
When I clicked, I thought I was getting a Lloyd video (obviously I wasn't paying close attention), was pleasantly surprised I got a Matt instead (nothing against Lloyd, whom I also like)
can you do a topic on extra large shoulder pauldrons as shield subsitute?
I think I read that c90% of WW2 pillboxes have been demolished, mostly shortly after the war. In my area, despite being on the coast, even those designed for Vickers machine guns were equipped only with Bren guns due to shortages 1940-41. Later in the war we decided they weren't such a good idea as they tended to draw attention become death traps, reasoning that trenches & dug outs were better.
Most would be defended with rifles.
Mat Easton is "The History Hunter", new on the Discovery Channel.
Very cool video, I didn't know about these pillbox thingies in the UK. Being from Germany, well there's some kind of WW bunker or structure around almost every corner ;), anyway, love these 'different' kind of videos of late. Cheers!
It's a beautiful place.
To me, that looks like it could absorb a number of tank rounds.
And people says England is rainy... So if you cross Matt yielding a sword in a forest or in a hill, don't be afraid, only his way to feel safe.
Didn't know about this structures in UK while I grew up near quite a few blockhaüser though we are the only ones around to call bunkers by a German word that have absolutely no link to the original one.
It’s called a “ form “ in construction.
A concrete form...... they are also made from aluminum and steel......
Imagine having 303 rounds going off inside the concrete box. You’re hearing wouldn’t last long!
3:47 "(...)there was a chance german paratroopers might arrive." *cuts to picture of a squad of german POW's * :D
Paratrooper POWs thoughy
In my religion in southern Denmark we have them from WW1 WW2 and the cold war. Love to discover them, especially the nazi bunkers.
Are the windows angled as a compromise between protection and angles of fire from inside?
So you're saying on a plain like that you could recognize different types of trees from quite a long way away?
"Can you guess what ive found!" Well you put it in the video title
The pillbox looks like Castle Crashers. With a smaller head.
We have a few round near me in Norfolk we have stanta training area 2 miles a way allways hear guns and aircraft
I agree with you Matt, here in America anyway anything abandoned or dug up that is at least 50 years old is considered archaeology, wonder what that makes my 69 year old dad? Lol anyway awesome video can you do more of these travel videos. I love the English countryside it holds my attention long even with my ADD. Show more castles and such anyway never have been to England, my fiancé has family in London so I might get my chance. Good video keep making more traveling videos these are really fun and it beats watching the discovery channel.
Really you should come to New England where everything is old.
Still not as old as Old England. It's a sobering thought to realize that the "ruins" we see in the new world are at most some 500 years old, but for most of Europe digging deep to do some landscaping could turn up a little piece of Rome.
Charles Schutz I have plenty of family in New England region lol been quite a few times
John La Duke finding old stuff is why I am an archaeology technician
Well it's kinda new when you find it.
Speaking of tresspassing:
A) My mother was in a car with her father and the car broke down in the middle of nowhere. Since there were no mobile phones back then, they were walking to the next barn and there the old farmer came out with a shotgun shouting F-off or I will kill you! and readied it... that was not in the USA, but Austria Europe!
B) a teacher of mine got lost in Israel and found a settlement unfortunately for him it turned out to be an illegal settlement of radical Jews and they were pointing their guns at him, even without noticing that he's German... his wife and the wife of the leader somehow managed to negotiate.
You didn't come up to Old Sarum Castle! Would have loved to have seen you. - Dan
Do you know that the tittle of the video completely spoil the question you ask at the beginning ?
I can´t believe that you didn´t go inside, as if it would cause anyone any harm at all for you to go inside.
Loads of these where I live.
what's the point if you won't go near it?
There are some around New Milton / Lymington