GHQ British World War II Defensive Line

This Pillbox being on raised ground would have had a superb view of any approaching Panzers. The dried up canal was the Berks and Wilts Canal. From here on its way to Swindon and beyond the canal has raised banks, the most expensive to build and to maintain. In 1940 the canal had been unused for 40 years or more.

Obviously the ditch could not be dig right up to the river bank and generally where ditches were impracticable dragon's teeth pyramid shaped blocks or just square concrete blocks were used. Here at the River Ock a phalanx 5 lines each containing 6 "teeth" were used. There may be more but the nettles were thick! The Teeth don't go right up to the bank but may be the Ock has been recut

Only a menace to careless cyclists

This Pillbox is disappearing under ivy, bracken, scrub trees and well defended by nettles, best come to see it in winter

Unusually free from Vegetation this Pillbox is about a mile down Cow Lane Marcham with a fine view to Abingdon. This is the second of three pillboxes on Cowlane

Defending Denham Place?

This area around "Marcham" as you might guess very marshy these blocks were meant to obstruct an ancient passage through the marshes. Absolutely massive also signs of a concrete base for them.

Marcham was very well defended perhaps because there was an important military office in Marcham (I guess I am not giving away military secrets away)

Nearly missed this one as it's behind a High Oxford Stone wall. Walk through the churchyard follow the path between the two stone walls, bear right when you reach fields

The Air Ministry requisitioned the house when the war began in 1939. Would this have been the centre of Defence?

Whether any Gun was ever installed is unknown. The concrete base an fixtures seem in good condition. Somebody told me this was built to hold an old Navy Gun

These were designed to contain a massive gun. Pillboxes are often in pairs to cover each other and to sweep a wider area.

I walked right by the first!

Between Fyfield and Newbridge is just agricultural land

You get some idea of their loneliness

The farmer has also maintained a short section of the Anti-Tank Ditch

This is near the Pillbox toppling into the Newbridge

This is in line with pillboxes in cow lane. I found it using Google maps in satellite mode.

This Pillbox is gradually toppling into the Windrush as this river gradually washes away the bank. There are warning signs saying do not enter pillbox, but I reckoned that even though I'm not skinny I contributed 0.0001% to the weight of the structure. One day however it will slide in an then become a job for a specialist demolition crew.

On GoogleMaps and Multimap this ditch wends its way to Marcham. I surmise that even if it is a natural ditch that it was dug out wider as an anti-tank ditch. This is just guess work please post a comment if you know anything.

Very solid thick concrete walls, but no loopholes, what was its function?

loose earth marks the Gun Slot of Pillbox one. The Pillboxes where demolished in 1945 as the bridge is a historic monument

The Gun Slot still had the original wood shuttering (see photo) so I guess that no gun was ever mounted.

Why were the gun steady slots never concreted in when the pillboxes were removed? Is it possible that the pillboxes just sat on the concrete bases, so when they were demolished it was not necessary to make good the concrete bases?

Grass rectangle shows the steady slot for the Cannon, appears to face Abingdon

The bricks were used to cast the concrete. The pillbox curiously does not face the river

Also brick covered

Was this destroyed in a D-Day exercise? (supposition only, what is true is that the pillbox was not in anybody's way.

Unfortunately the photo doesn't give an impression of how deep and steep the anti-tank ditch is. Murray Maclean the local farmer had had a short section ditch of excavated near the two pillboxes on his land. He said that the pillboxes were situated at each change of direction of the ditch, the idea being that the pillboxes could fire on the tanks while they vulnerable as they tried to negotiate the ditch.

I'd been informed of its location but this pillbox was almost impossible to locate using Google Maps Earth or Satellite however and even when I walked along the path I could just see an entrance of a pillbox otherwise covered by ivy and a brushwood. At the price of getting badly stung I managed to get this photo, it is a type 22 bren gun only pillbox with inner y-shaped anti ricochet wall.

This is either the type of gun intended for use in the type 28A Pillboxes or is very similar, in any case gives you an idea.

At the end of a long farm lane. I think I've spotted its twin on Google Maps will have to go back though. The approach to the farm is blocked (or would have been) by four huge concrete blocks which can be seen covered in vegetation in the verges. These are about 100m from the pillbox. See their photo below

I was amazed to see these huge blocks nearly hidden by vegetation at the roadside. Obviously they were intended to be moved into the road but how?

The positioning of these blocks indicates the end of the Anti-tank ditch which stretches from Abingdon. A length of the ditch seems to remain unless they used a natural waterway.

The pillbox is marked Private but I don't think that would have hindered Guderian!

This pillbox is on an island formed by branches of the Thames. The location is beautiful and appears to have camping.
There is a great pub the Swan Hotel and walks in every direction.

This pillbox also appears to used for storage

This pillbox is not part of the GHQ line and appears to have been a "home-made" one by presumably the Faringdon Home-Guard. The wall are concrete-lined bricks and are not anywhere as thick as those in the official GHQ line pillboxes

This pillbox is situated to defend both the canal and the railway line.The pillboxes on the Oxford Stop Line seem more modest than those on the East - West Red Stop Line

This was surprisingly close to the two pillboxes at Radcot

This pillbox is directly opposite its twin which is expectedly on the Thames Bank. Its position seems quite odd but a military mind would probably explain that it was to increase the field of fire. It could easily have been camouflaged.

There seem to be more pillboxes per mile here than lower down the Thames. Is it because the Thames is narrower thus less defendable?

Only spotted this recently was it covered up before?

These blocks are practically hidden by undergrowth, one remains clear and when I noticed it (it's the typical size of a Road block Stone) it is then that I noticed the pillbox on the opposite bank. I don't know what mechanisms were available to drag the blocks into position in the event of evasion, I mean they built to be practically unmovable.

This pillbox located in sharp loop appears to have been shelled, I would guess it was used a practice target later in the war, when the pillboxes had lost their function. Apart from the blow-up pillboxes at Netherton I have not seen any signs of decay and in general are in very good condition. Is this because of the quality of construction?