Pill Boxes on the Western Front : A Guide to the Design, Construction and Use of Concrete Pill Boxes, 1914-1918

by Oldham, Peter

• ISBN13: 9781848844391
• ISBN10: 1848844395
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-19
• Publisher: Casemate Pub & Book Dist Llc

Summary

When the First World War froze into a static line of trenches stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss border, the most obvious means of protection against the murderous machine-gun fire which both sides inflicted upon each other was some form of shell-proof shelter which from which fire could be returned in safety, hence the development of the pill box. The idea was certainly not new but the technology required to build them under the prevailing circumstances presented problems hitherto undreamed of. In this remarkably absorbing study of what at first seems a somewhat arcane study of what at first seems a somewhat arcane subject, Peter Oldham, himself a concrete technologist, examines the problems of the design and construction of the pill boxes of the Western Front. He describes how the innumerable difficulties involved in what might to the untrained eye seem to be a fairly simple structure, were gradually overcome. Containing as it does, a gazetteer of the remaining pill boxes and bunkers still to be found in Flanders and Picardy, this book will prove an invaluable guide to the members of many clubs and societies which annually make pilgrimages to the battlefields of the First World War and certainly add a new dimension and interest to their visits to the Western Front.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 6
Acknowledgements	p. 8
Development
The evolution of cement and the military use of concrete; the ability of fortifications to withstand heavy shell fire	p. 9
Solid Defences
Germans begin constructing permanent defences on the Western Front; British relationships with The Netherlands; geological services and materials supplies for both sides	p. 14
British Findings
Information gained following the Battle of the Somme; information gained for later attacks; studies and reports on German use of concrete defences in France and Belgium	p. 27
Difficult Conditions
German use of pre-cast block systems; British Army's development of beam/block pill boxes; Moir and Hobbs designs	p. 43
External and Internal
Camouflage of new constructions inside and outside; comfort inside; change when taken and turned around	p. 68
Defence Lines
Siegfried Stellung (Hindenburg Line); Dutch border defence line; British defence lines in 1918 (GHQ Line)	p. 83
Coastal Defences
Concrete defences on British coast; anti-submarine forts; German defences on the Belgian coast	p. 115
Gazetteer
A guide to pill boxes and bunkers still in existence on the British section of the Western Front	p. 119
Glossary	p. 169
Appendices	p. 171
Index	p. 203
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