Product Description

Between June 1940 and the spring of 1941 Britain - particularly south-east England - was covered by a vast system of anti-invasion defences. The legacy of these defences can still be seen across the landscape - anti-tank gun emplacements, pillboxes, spigot mortars, coastal gun batteries, anti-tank blocks and anti-tank ditches. During his fieldwork for a two-year English Heritage/Council for British Archaeology project, the author made 20 journeys throughout the south-east, central south and east of England. This book is a personal record of his discoveries, which will not only inform and entertain the reader but contains a great deal of information on how to make similar discoveries on ones own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #646932 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

About the Author
Tim Darvill is Professor of Archaeology in the School of Conservation Sciences, University of Bournemouth. He is the author of over a dozen books, including Prehistoric Britain (Batsford 1987, Routledge 1998) and Long Barrows of the Cotswolds (Tempus 2004).

Customer Reviews

Poor history
The author has totally failed to live up to his aims in this book. If you are looking for a serious study of 20th Century Battlefields then forget this book.

If you want a travel guide then it may be worth borrowing it from a library but do not waste your money on purchasing it.

There are far better books on the market.

Battlefields that Nearly Were?
At first a promising book which starts to dissapoint the further you get into it.
Written seemingly as if the author is giving a very brief tour of the areas, lacks in any real constructive detail and is continiously repetative in many areas. The few colour plates of pillboxes are a poor choice and could have been much better researched and chosen. Ok for beginners on this theme who want a guide book for an afternoons exploring with the family and kids. The authors first published chunky book was best(even though it had mistakes and ommisions)

English Defences 1940
This is a strange book that falls between two stools. It is not systematic or detailed enough for the specialist and yet is probably too focused for the general reader. The style is also idiosyncratic, almost whimsical. That alone will probably irritate many readers. And yet it does have some points in its favour. This is a comparatively neglected field of study and yet anyone who lives in southern or eastern England is bound to have come across defence works from the 1940 period. It is interesting to learn something of the defense system they formed part of and what remains to-day. It is sad that comparatively little has been done to preserve some of the more important centres of defence. Their limited size and haste of construction mean they will mostly fade away in years to come unlike say the huge fortresses of the Maginot Line or the Atlantic Wall which have occasioned far more interest.This is a flawed book but worth alook for someone interested in any of the areas it covers or who wants a schematic impression of the defences erected in 1940.