Beaches, fields, streets and hills

CBA Research Report 144

The anti-invasion landscapes of England, 1940

William Foot

Year of Publication: 2006

This volume of over 600 pages details the findings of the Defence Areas Project, looking at 67 localities specially selected on account of the surviving defences within them and the supporting documentary evidence.

Written by the former manager of the Defence of Britain Project, the result is an amazing work containing detailed descriptions of each area, including photographs, maps and aerial photographs. Each area is classified according to whether it is an example of Coastal Defence, Stop Line Defence or Area Defence.

Foot also includes a Place Name Index to 1940/41 Defence Schemes and Operation Instructions, linking them with their associated TNA reference. I cannot overstate how important this index is, as it provides a quick way to find documents that have hitherto been hidden amongst the numerous pages of unit war diaries with no form of indexing or reference.

The Place Name Index alone shows the staggering level of research that has gone into this book, and it is easily worth the £25 cover price.