Winston Churchill holding a Tommy Gun at an inspection of the coastal defences of the Heugh battery in my home town of Hartlepool July 1940.
One of a series of many pill boxes designed to slow down the potential German invasion in Hartlepool and the surrounding Teesside area. Many more around the country in potential amphibious assault landings. This one is still standing and was intended for home guard and resistance troops to man and defend to the death, causing nuisance and delay to the advancing forces. Normally placed strategically advantageous points such as the crest of a hill on the main town roads and accompanied by other ambush tools such as oil/fuel barrels that would be spilled down hill and ignited again to inflict damage and delay on the advance.
One of the coastal defence guns (decommissioned) mounted on our town coast as a memorial.
Some of the equipment used at the Huegh battery.