Some Welsh Pillboxes

These are some of the pillboxes I have come across while in Wales.  I had not gone out intentionally to find them but for the fact I kept a caravan in Built Wells so thought I'd see what was round there defence wise. What I found surprised me. I checked out the Defence of Britain site and saw there were some defences left.

 This one an Allen Williams Turret can be found by the War memorial though it's not it's original position and and I doubt was from the area it was restored by the local cadet force .

Outside town and over near the golf course you can see this pillbox.

 Looking at the embrasures which are larger that the ones I have normally  seen

Entrance is down the steps

Inside you find tree tables which show it was a Vickers Machine Gun Position.

The view out of an embrasure















and a shot of it from the outside looking in

Not something that is easy to spot and does flood a times. Not sure who to ask now as it is a small holding but is worth visiting

 This pillbox I came across while looking at an old dismantled railway on GE. It would have over looked a railway bridge at Natmel

 Entrance was beside the railway line.

Going inside this corrugated iron shuttering is coming away and nearly took my scalp off.














The ricochet wall was odd in that it was raised.

This is not something I have seen before

Some relics still remain like the wood shelf in front of the embrasure.

 Looking from the top of the pillbox towards the River Wye   where the railway used to cross on the left of the photo.

The last one is overlooking a bridge on the Elan Reservoir. The area looks to have been cleared at the time and I took the photo from the opposite side of the bridge. I have never been in this one as it was not that accessible to get to. There are more pillboxes to be found it Wales and I will post more when I come across them.

Yūshūkan Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine Tokyo

Back in the late 1980's I was fortunate enough to have to go to Japan a couple of times for work. on one occasion I was there for nearly four weeks and when I was left one weekend I wandered off around Tokyo and ended up at Daini Tori where after looking around I found the Yūshūkan (遊就館^?) is a Japanese military and war museum located within Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo. I noticed some WWII exhibits on show so went to look around the museum as well, these are some of the photos I took there,

 Part of the musium the frist time I visited

One of the items on show outside was this Type 96-15 Howitzer
I read this one was found in a cave and had some serious gouges on it from  the battle it was in

Going inside I spotted this  MXY7 Ohka. Reading the information board beside it told me that the ship being uses to transport these to one of the battles was sunk, thus depriving the Japanese Navy  of most of their planes

Not far away was this one manned Torpedo  Called Kaiten  
It was on loan from Perl Harbour Marine Corps

 First time I visited it was outside

This was a Yokosuka D4Y Bomber that was recovered from Yap Island

 Same plane looking down on it

Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium Tank recovered from Yap Island as well

 Origionaly it was outside along with some torpedos and an

This is A 14-cm 3rd Year Type naval gun from the Battleship Mutsu

 

Class 56 Setam locomotive from the Burma Railway number C56-31 which is on display beside the Type 89 15 cm Cannon

 This was taken of the train the first visit, th ecanon can be see a little furher behind the trees

The information plate on the C56-31 Locomotive at  Yūshūkan. Those were my photos from my visit to the museum It was the second time I had visited and the time I took my camera with me. I came away from the place with mixed views and felt it was a museum dedicated to those who gave their lives in defence of their country. The museum had only been open a short time and the exhibits you see outside in my photos are now inside and I'm glad they are looked after better now. I felt humbled to have visited the shrine and museum especially after going round the Mementos of deceased Japanese soldiers and airmen. Reading some of the letters they wrote and the ones from their loved ones brought home how they felt for their country and Emperor. If you are in Tokyo then visit if you can 

10th Febuary 1943

This story started when I came across this bit of Tracery from St  Lawrence church in Reading.

 On a stone plaque at the base is written

 "This tracery formed part of what was the West Window of St  Lawrence's Church. It was dislodged during an enemy action on February 10th 1943."

I'd passed this hundreds of times on my way to school at St James down the road and it was only now I found out there had been an air raid on Reading. I looked into it to find out more.

 On that fateful day a German Bomber flew in over Reading dropping bombs and firing a machine gun at people on the ground. Four bombs fell in a line

.

 The tracery above can just be seen on the right of the photo.

 The attack left its mark on Reading and during the raid 41 people lost their lives,

 The same area today where the damage was done I will try for a better photo when Thames Water have finished work near the church

 most of them in a restaurant called the Peoples Pantry 150 people were also injured. The death toll would have been higher but for one thing, it was half day closing so the place was relatively empty. The restaurant was manned by the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service WRVS .

 

Now you would not know anything had happened

 

The area today with a horrible new building replacing the old one which was damaged.

 

This was the peoples pantry the photo I managed to get off the BBC news website

 

 According to the BBC website and from what I can make out the Peoples Pantry stood around here

 

 

 I think this photo is looking towards the Market Place.
 

Think this is about the right place though the building look like they have all been replaced.

Reading seemed to forget that day and no memorial was placed to those who died. Even their last resting place is almost forgotten.

 

They lay buried here in a line though now other graves are mixed in with them. The second and third headstones in the photo are two of the people who died. Looking at the headstone you can see many women who must have been in the WRVS lay buried here. I've written a small blog about two of the girls buried here. killed-by-enemy-action.

Walking round the area it happened you would be forgive in thinking none of it had happened at all but St Lawrence Church tells a different story. The pock marks on the wall here to me look like shrapnel damage.

 

If you look closely in this area there is what I think is either shrapnel in the wall or the remains of a bullet. Another story I have been told is originally the turrets at the four corners of the tower had little spires of the top of them, these survived the bombing but each f them had been rotated about 10 degrees. They stayed that way through the rest of the war but were taken down later.

 

 Shrapnel marks on the church

 

I'm sure this is a bullet lodged in the stonework

 

 

Even Queen Victoria was a casualty, if you look you can see her finger is missing, it's now on show in Reading Museum.

 

On the 10th February a memorial was unveiled to the memory of those who died 70 years to the day after it happened.
 

I have listed the names of those killed who were known, four others were unidentified.
Ernest Barnes, aged 67, from Carey St. Killed in Market St.
Ernest Beswick, 32, from Purley, Peoples Pantry
Violet Brown, 10, from London St, killed in Minster St
Betty Parsons, 11, South St, Minsiter St
Catherine Byland, 47, Oxford Rd Tilehurst, Arcade
Florence Chandler, 64, from Whitley, Peoples Pantry
Jesse Costin, 73, from Gt Knollys St, Peoples Pantry
Dennis Cook, 18, Spring Gardens, Town Hall
Nellie Dixon, 28. No address given, Peoples Pantry
James Doran, 62, Greyfriars Rd, Old Cheddar Cheese, Broad St
Arthur Dowling, 61, Gt Knollys St, Outside the Town Hall
Edward Eaton, a Warden from Southampton, aged 58, killed in Market Place
Henry Godden, 61, Kolybrook Rd, killed in Friar St
Edward Harding, 58, from the same address in Greyfriars Rd as James Doran, Peoples Pantry
William Hickey, 69, Gosbrook Rd, Peoples Pantry
Ernest Hobbs, 69, Argyle St, Peoples Pantry
William Hooban, 61, Salcombe Drive, Arcade
Edward Humphrys, 33, Bracknell, Peoples Pantry
PC Rex Jupp, 24, Ennerdale Rd, Market Place
REginald Kersley, 58, Stanhope Rd, Peoples Pantry
George Langford, 10, Slacombe Rd, Peoples Pantry
Aristide Macrini, 63, London St, Market Place
Arthur Merchant, 56, from Sherman Place. Peoples Pantry
Julia Miles, 69, Wokingham, Peoples Pantry
Edith Osbourne, 49, Southampton St, Peoples Pantry
Emily Parker, 25, neighbour of Edith Osbourne, Peoples Pantry
Dorothy Pateman, 36, WVS volunteer in Peoples Pantry
Mildred Pike, 29, Tilehurst Rd, Market Place
Arthur Sayer, 65, Baker St, Peoples Pantry
Frank Seymour, 49, Hamilton Rd, killed in Blandy and Blandy's
Ellen Simmonds, 75, St Giles Buildings, Peoples Pantry
Wiliam Temple, 58, KIngs Rd Caversham, Outside Town Hall
Margaret Thackeray, 29, Emmer Green, on duty in Town Hall
Ellen Thompson, 51, Linden Rd, Peoples Pantry
Lily Weinstein, 46, Baker St, Peoples Pantry
John Wilmott, 72, Silver St, Peoples Pantry.

Killed by Enemy Action 10th February 1943

RIP