Hartlepool Heritage Project To Protect WWII Pill Boxes And Bunkers - 24 Hour Museum - official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage
Air Raid Shelter Kyt in my part of the World we still have an Air Raid Shelter surviving. Google Earth - 53 09.30.60 N. -- 1 08.51.60 W. Obviously only the concrete roof is showing.Must check to see if there is a preservation order. There are still a few concrete machine gun positions surviving just back from the Lincolnshire Coast.
That's a great project. These sites are most definitely deserve to have their stories told. We have a rich heritage of WWII and pre-war fortifications here in Australia as well, but it has only been the last 20 years or so that people have ever made any effort to protect them. One good example is the Mt St John AAA Battery site in Townsville adjacent to the Garbutt Airport. It is one of the most accessible AAA sites in the country. Unfortunately, the site has been heavily disrupted. The Command and Plotting room bunkers are still extant and in good condition, as are the underground ammunition shelters (although these are now uncovered due to 10m of topsoil being removed off the hill in the 1970s). The gun pads are not in such good condition, having been busted up and pushed to one side with heavy earthmoving equipment. The site has now been heritage listed and protected from any further disruption. ABMM are working to have this site restored to its wartime configuration, complete with dummy AA guns. The hopeful endstate will be an interpretative walk around the hill for school groups and other visitors. Another Townsville example is the strange little bunker on the side of Castle Hill. Peter Dunn's Oz@War website (Peter Dunn) pegs this as an ammunition shelter. Research by our team has determined that the site in question is actually a US command post for Anti Aircraft Artillery positions in the vicinity. We are pushing to have this site heritage listed and eventually restored.
Good stuff, ABMM. Have you checked out our little Coastal Artillery thread? http://ww2chat.com/forums/weapons-technology-equipment/1895-coastal-artillery-thread.html
