Monument record TQ 77 SE 1530 - Second World War anti tank ditch, Hoo Peninsula

A length of Second World War anti tank ditch centred at TQ 7554 7383, part of a Stop Line constructed in 1940 across the Hoo peninsula from the Medway to the Thames (Monument 1542577), has been mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. The ditch across Hoo was part of the system of GHQ Stop Lines designed to halt or delay the advance of a German invasion force landing in southern and south eastern England. The section described in this record was separate from, and about 225m to the south of, part of the main Stop Line on Rough Shaw (Monument 1542687). It ran for 329.5m between the north west corner of Lodge Hill Ordnance Depot (Monument 1077634) at TQ 7569 7373 to the eastern edge of Berrys Court Wood at TQ 7539 7382, and may have been constructed in order to provide an extra line of defence for the depot, as well as the ammunition stores at Lodge Hill Camp (Monument 1545549) and Chattenden Magazines (Monument 1481790). It may also have been associated with a defended locality (Monument 1546483) centred on the remains of the Lodge Hill First World War anti aircraft battery (Monument 1442424) which is located about 340m to the north east. A number of pillboxes forming part of the Stop Line's in depth defences are located in the immediate vicinity (Monuments 1418707, 1546582, 1418704, 1426721, 1544162).

The anti tank ditch, including the section described here, was in place by November 1940, when it was shown on a German military map based on aerial photographic evidence. The earliest aerial photographs of this part of the ditch available to the Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project were taken in May 1944, by which time this section had been decommissioned and backfilled and appeared only as a very shallow depression at the centre of an area of cleared ground. (1-4)

<1> USAAF?, 1944, NMR US/7GR/LOC348 3062 27-MAY-1944 (Photograph). SKE55978.

<2> RAF, 1947, NMR RAF/CPE/UK/1923 4083-4 16-JAN-1947 (Photograph). SKE59179.

<3> 2011, NMR 26973_006 01-JUN-2011 (Photograph). SKE59187.

<4> Foot W., 2006, Beaches, fields, streets and hills: the anti-invasion landscape of England, 1940 (Bibliographic reference). SKE55976.