World War II Gun Turret
The Skegness Video Team encountered what looked like another pillbox at the Gibraltar Point nature reserve, about three miles from Skegness, plotted as a turquoise dot on Map C Skegness
On closer inspection this one seemed to be different.
Roan Curtis surveyed the evidence.
Jumping up on top of the structure, he pointed out three iron ‘prongs’, one at the front of the structure’s roof and two at the rear, constituting a triangle.
There was also a hole about eight inches in diameter in the centre of the roof. These together suggests that something was mounted on top of the building. A gun turret?
In contrast to the other pillboxes, the top of the structure was rough instead of smooth concrete. Also the whole roof seemed to have been placed on like a lid. This was apparent by the seam encircling it.
The windows were very different, too. Instead of the usual angled slits, the windows in this building were more square, had wooden latts to the top of the holes and evidence for similar latts at the base of the holes. The front (eastern) window appeared to be larger but this transpired to be due to vandalism. The photo to the above shows the concrete (towards the base) being angled inwards. The northern and southern aspects have a similar angled appearance. It could be conjected that these angles would deflect bullets, minimizing damage to the surface of the building. If this were a gun turret, it would attract more attention from the enemy, thereby requiring additional modes of defense.
The rear of the structure, facing westward (inland), had an entrance straight into the chamber. No angled tunnels like the other pillboxes. This would have facilitated quick and easy entrances and exits – for the soldiers? for ammunition?
This is more evidence for this building being a gun turret in World War 2.
Roan Curtis is the presenter in this film. He appraises the relics completely unrehearsed and without cues or script. When discussing the gun turret, he inadvertently said it wouldn’t have been manned by civilians instead of soldiers. I trust you will forgive this indiscretion.
World War 2 Relic Trail
Skegness Video
21 min 37 sec – Jan 21, 2006
www.skegnessvideo.com
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