cptpies
Tourist
Reged: 08/03/05
Posts: 195
Loc: Crawley ,UK
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This is a set of placemarks for those of you interested in the WWII military landscape of Great Britain.
The Defence of Britain project was run by the The Council for British Archaeology and The Archaeology Data Service and I have been given permission by them to convert The Defence of Britain database into a GE placemark set and this is the result.
The set contains 15,456 placemarks marking the locations of all the known Pillboxes, Gun Emplacements, Artillery Batteries, Anti-Tank Obstacles and so on, that were built during the early years of the war against the threat of German invasion. A few of the better preserved ones were the subject of a TV documentary last year. With yesterdays imagery update you can now see most of the larger artifacts such as pillboxes in GE.
The positions of the placemarks have been directly converted from the UK National Grid References provided by the volunteers that undertook the project and visited many of the artifacts. Therefore they can be inaccurate, in some cases by several hundred meters. I have already checked and corrected many of the placemarks where artifacts can easily be seen but most still need correcting. If anybody would like to help in this mammoth task by checking the placemarks for artifacts in their local area please PM me or mail defenceofbritain@hotmail.co.uk I would also encourage anybody that has information about artifacts missed by the survey or corrected positions and descriptions to forward this information to their local council for inclusion in the Historical Environment Record (HER) which is now the repository for all the information originally collected by the Defence of Britain project and from which any future analysis will be done.
I will post updates as the work progresses
By default the placemarks are all turned off and I have split the various artifacts into folders so subsets can be turned on and off to avoid slowing down your PC's
Enjoy
Steve
Edited by cptpies (06/30/08 02:23 AM)
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philverney
Master Policeman
Reged: 11/29/04
Posts: 5603
Loc: Leek, UK
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"Explore, Search and Discover" is the tagline on the Google Earth homepage.
In the few minutes I have spent viewing this file, I have explored the network of defence systems, searched the large variety of different installations (many of which I had not heard of) and I have discovered much about Britain's historial wartime efforts.
Thank you for giving me a greater geographical understanding of where I came from.
Great file!
Thanks,
Phil
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"Google Earth is probably the best geographer's tool since the invention of compasses" - Wilma_Sweden
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hotwellian
World Explorer
Reged: 02/06/06
Posts: 1437
Loc: Bristol, UK
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Excellent poat, I will check those local to me (Bristol) and post any findings!
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Jezza, Boatman, Author and Administrator, Hotwells
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mic55
First Post
Reged: 06/05/07
Posts: 1
Loc: Salisbury Plain U.K.
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Fantastic project - and as you say - a mammoth task ! Just had a look at my area (Salisbury Plain) and can certainly add a fair few WW11 installations that your survey has missed (several pillboxes and a few interesting airfields) . Will check your placemark accuracy on others and PM my findings to you . In the meantime I'll try and find the time to look at these huge files in more detail.
Mic.
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JosieNorden
Collection Editor
Reged: 03/03/07
Posts: 1776
Loc: UK
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Wonderfull post , I could spend days pouring over all the placemarks! i'm of to look at my local area 
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Before I looked up and imagined emptiness now I look up and Imagine people staring down at me with little yellow pushpins!
~Josie~ 
The Hawker Hunter Collection. The Hawker Sea Hawk Collection. The Blackburn Buccaneer Collection.
Model aircraft in flight. Red Arrows at Blackpool. WW2 film scene. Wreckage of Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
Fave GE Screenshots.Decoys at Spadeadam.The Brave Little Martello Tower Tupolev Tu-144
Edited by JosieNorden (11/27/07 02:39 PM)
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cptpies
Tourist
Reged: 08/03/05
Posts: 195
Loc: Crawley ,UK
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Glad you like it chaps.
A lot of these artefacts have been located on hearsay evidence from interviews with locals and historical documentation, this makes for some interesting descriptions. Check out Pillbox S0001441 on the west bank of the estuary at Hayle in Cornwall. It's quite amazing!
All help with position checking will be gratefully accepted.
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cptpies
Tourist
Reged: 08/03/05
Posts: 195
Loc: Crawley ,UK
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First major update.
I have now completed the QC of the placemarks and correctly positioned them where the artefact can be clearly seen or its location can be plotted from the accompanying description. I have left locations alone where the descriptions are inadequate or ambiguous. I have also added dates to the descriptions to give some context.
Next update should included the source of the descriptions eg Field visit or cited in a book to add further context.
Cheers
Steve
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PETERTHEEATER
Tourist
Reged: 09/27/06
Posts: 56
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Hooton Park airfield (site of) is 1.2 miles east of the placemanrk shown.
Now Vauxhall Motor works
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Frank_McVey
Master Guide
Reged: 07/22/05
Posts: 5319
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This is the site of a spigot mortar emplacement outside the village of Twyford, Leicestershire. These - and many other types of defensive position - were built all over the country following the evacuation at Dunkirk in May 1940, to resist an expected invasion of Britain.
Since most of the Army's heavy weapons had been abandoned in the retreat to Dunkirk, a hastily-designed spigot mortar, the Blacker Bombard, was issued to units of the Home Guard (comprised of men and boys too old or too young to fight in the regular army, and men in reserved occupations, such as miners and farm-workers) for use in such a contingency. They would have been used in emplacements such as this.
This emplacement was discovered and notified by Roberts1279 - welcome to GE
Cheers
Frank
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RogueViper101
First Post
Reged: 11/27/07
Posts: 1
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How do you add these military defensive pointers on Google Earth so that everyone else can enjoy seeing them?
There are a number of AA gun batterys, armour bunkers and trenches near where I live in Bristol. Here is the location:
51 28 08 14 N - 2 33 39 94 W
Directly North East of Pur Down BT Tower, Bristol.
They were originally used to protect Bristol from German bombers during WW2. Also Filton airport and Rolls Royce located NNW 2.14 miles from the bunkers, this would have been a primary targets for German bombers.
Replied by PM - N.
Edited by Noisette (11/28/07 03:52 AM)
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