Defending Norfolk: Defending Norfolk: The Military Landscape from Prehistory to the Present - Softcover

Michael Osborne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781554994 ISBN 13: 9781781554999

Publisher: Fonthill, 2015

Synopsis

Norfolk's status, in mediaeval times, as one of England's wealthiest and most populous counties, is reflected in the variety of defensible structures crowding its landscape. Vulnerable to invasion across the North Sea, by Romans and Vikings, the Spanish Armada and Napoleon, and in more recent times, Norfolk has always defended its coastline. Features in Norfolk of two world wars, were renewed anti-invasion defences, the evolution of military flight, the Navy's safeguarding of shipping, air-defence measures, the training of troops and airmen, and the provision of a platform for retaliatory bombing. Through its defensive screen of radar and anti-aircraft missiles, and elements of Britain's nuclear deterrent, Norfolk was placed in the front line of the Cold War. Norfolk's landscape is littered with evidence of all this military activity: Iron-age and Roman forts; mediaeval castles, fortified manors and abbeys; moats and town-walls; pillboxes, anti-tank obstacles, coast artillery batteries and trench systems; airfields and radar sites; Cold War bunkers and missile sites. This book describes the whole range of these monuments, placing them within their social, historical, political and military contexts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fonthill
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1781554994
• ISBN 13: 9781781554999
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208