Passive Air Defence Sites

02 Oct 2008 19:50 #1 by Vestanpants
Passive Air Defence Sites was created by Vestanpants
Hi,

I have copies of 3rd Battalion Carmarthen Home Guard documents stating that they formed Passive Air Defence sections for RAF Pembrey. English Heritage defines a Passive Air Defence Site as 'Sites, buildings or structures involved in passive air defence, usually by forcing hostile aircraft to fly high or drop their bombs on the wrong targets'. Does that mean barrage balloon sites and decoy sites became known as passive defence sites? Grateful for any clarification.

Cheers,

VP

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

02 Oct 2008 20:01 #2 by Paul Francis
Replied by Paul Francis on topic Passive Air Defence Sites
Passive Defence can mean any form of non-combatant defence, from buildings being planned and built that in plan view take on several different directions (like a barrack block with an 'H'-shaped plan-form) or huts aligned along headgrows for concealment, to various forms of camoulflage such as hedge painting to disguise runways, or shadow generators forming roofs of buildings to create a shadow of a tree canopy etc. The list is endless.

Edit

Barrage balloon sites are not passive, as the balloon cables were designed to bring down enemy aircraft (hardly passive), where as a decoy site is passive as it diverted an enemy aircraft away from its intended target and created the illusion that the bomb aimer and pilot had found their target. If however there was a Bofors gun in the field opposite to bring the enemy aircraft down then that is not passive.

Dare I also say that after 1942 and generally speaking (so not in all instances) a lot pillboxes took on a more passive role as they were abandoned as fixed defences and were replaced with more mobile defences and defence localities. The pillbox being used as a dummy pillbox.

You can tell a builder from an archaeologist by the size of his trowel. Mine is a small one!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

02 Oct 2008 20:03 #3 by Paul Francis
Replied by Paul Francis on topic Passive Air Defence Sites
The EH definition is a bit nieve

You can tell a builder from an archaeologist by the size of his trowel. Mine is a small one!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

03 Oct 2008 20:09 #4 by Vestanpants
Replied by Vestanpants on topic Passive Air Defence Sites
Naive?! (Sorry, been proof-reading today...)

OK, so what would the Home Guard folk be up to on the airfield in their 'passive defence' role? I agree that the pillboxes were largely abandoned as defensive structures by this time.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

03 Oct 2008 22:08 #5 by Paul Francis
Replied by Paul Francis on topic Passive Air Defence Sites
Camo duties I guess but I dont really know.

You can tell a builder from an archaeologist by the size of his trowel. Mine is a small one!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.055 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum

We use cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it. Cookies used for the essential operation of this site have already been set. By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to this. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, see our privacy policy.

  
EU Cookie Directive Module Information