This model is provided for reference to demonstrate the scale of the range of known Anti-Tank BlocksĪnti-Tank Buoys are round bottomed cones with a flat truncated top. There are further localised types that are still awaiting identification through documentary research and as such don’t have an official or historically accurate site type.įor the purpose of recording, the site types mentioned below conform to those available within both the documentary record and those used within the current FISH Thesaurus of Monument Types used by Historic Environment Records and other organisations across the country.īe aware that variations in the quoted dimensions are likely to be encountered in the field. 30 that ‘No obstacles can be relied upon to do more than delay a tank for a brief period during which the tank must be attacked by the defenders with the weapons at their disposal’.īelow you will find examples of the known anti-tank block types which have been identified through primary sources.
#ROADBLOCK SYNONYM MANUAL#
However, the War Office in October 1940 made it clear in their manual Field Engineering (All Arms): Military Training Pamphlet No.
They were frequently deployed in concentrated single or double rows covering a wide area. INVASION DEFENCES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (H 1945) A car negotiates a barricade comprising concrete blocks, on the road between Warnham and Horsham, Surrey, 26 June 1940. They were used across the UK within the anti-invasion defences of the early 1940s. You will often encounter anti-tank blocks located above the high-water mark on beaches, on the flanks of approaches to bridges and also flanking the sites of roadblocks. One of the first rules of defence is that an obstacle isn’t an obstacle, unless it is covered by effective fire.
‘ Anti-Tank Block’ is the broad term used to describe the individual elements that make up an Anti-Tank Obstacle.Īnti-tank blocks were intended to be covered by effective fire from a supporting position in the form of a pillbox or slit trench. Despite this common nickname, there were a wide range of official anti-tank block types, each with their own specific name. However, ‘Dragon’s Teeth’, sometimes simply ‘Teeth’, does sometimes appear in use in period documents, reports or on painted range markings within pillboxes. The different types of anti-tank blocks were often used to funnel enemy vehicles into pre-prepared killing zones or obstruct their movement completely.Īlthough frequently called ‘dragon’s teeth’, this isn’t a term used officially by the British and Commonwealth armies during the Second World War. Anti-Tank Blocks an OverviewĪnti-tank blocks are specific obstacles used to obstruct and/or halt the movement of armoured vehicles, though they would also hinder the movement of non-armoured vehicles just as well. This site type guide will highlight the most common types of anti-tank block and provide a methodology for their recording to archaeological standards. Today these blocks still survive in many coastal and inland areas, though their function and landscape context still remains to be adequately recorded, interpreted and analysed as an integral part of the defensive landscape of the anti-invasion defences of early 1940. Anti-tank defences were key to the stop line defensive strategy employed by General Edmund Ironside’s (Commander in Chief Home Forces from 25 May to 19 July 1940) and General Alan Brooke’s (Commander in Chief Home Forces 19 July 1940 to December 1941) nodal point focussed strategy.ĭeployed carefully, anti-tank blocks could impede and halt the movement of the tanks employed by the Wehrmacht during the invasion threat of 1940-42, leaving them vulnerable to attack from the flanks and holding up the push inland. Anti-tank defences were a key component of the anti-invasion defences constructed during the Second World War (World War Two), with anti-tank obstacles and road and rail blocks springing up across the UK between 19 to halt and hinder the advance of enemy armoured vehicles.
0 kommentar(er)
