Product Description

The pillbox is the iconic defence structure of the Second World War. Surprisingly however there has never been a history and systematic description of pillboxes and related structures. After covering renaissance caponiers, Martello Towers, Boer War blockhouses and the pillboxes of the First World War, Mike Osborne describes the development of defence structures in the Second World War and analyses the different pillbox types: hexagonal, square, rectangular, trapezoidal, circular, rounded, pentagonal, octagonal and other polygonal types. Also comprehensively covered are: section posts, Seagull trenches and concrete trenches; gun-houses and turrets; EXDO posts; battle Headquarters; spigot-mortar emplacements; converted buildings; Home Guard explosives, and inflammable stores.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #195529 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Mike Osborne was the Regional Co-ordinator for the eastern counties Defence of Britain Project. He has also worked on publications covering twentieth-century defences more specifically in the East Midlands and Cambridgeshire.

Customer Reviews

Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland - Short review
The book provides a first class record of pillbox military structures.
Chapters 1 to 4 provide an overview of the origins, development and role of pillboxes.
Chapter 5, Pillbox Typology, is the principal chapter and is a highly detailed record of the numerous different types of pillbox.
Chapter 6,Typology of Defensible Structures, provides details of small hardened defences including turrets, airfield battle headquarters, seagull trenches, spigot mortars and post WW2 guard posts.
The final chapter is an overview of the tactical use of hardened defences.
Within the 317 pages are numerous photographs and drawings providing a superb record of pillbox structures.
The book is a must for all pillbox enthusiasts and will also appeal to people interested in twentieth century fortifications. It should become a classic and is a fine companion to Mike Osborne's previous book published with Tempus, "Defending Britain Twentieth-Century Military Structures in the Landscape".
Stephen Carvell

Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland??
This is an excellent typology of pillbox and defence structures in Britain but contains next to nothing of use regarding the pillboxes in Ireland. There is some mention of the sites found in the Republic of Ireland but no examination is made of the extensive stop-line, beach and airfield defences in Northern Ireland where substantial remains are still extant. A failure to note that many structures survive adjacent to the pillbox pictured at Magilligan Point, p. 275, Co. L'Derry (not Donegal)suggests that the author did not undertake any fieldwork in Ireland in creating this fine, though not quite as advertised book.

Pillboxes of Ireland and Britain
Excellent purchase which will be read enjoyed and returned too for many many years.Clear,informative and highly interesting.
Title is a puzzle possibly would have been better marketed as Pillboxes of the British Isles, A study of Design and Construction?.