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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blockhouse | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockhouse | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T14:29:45.634426+00:00 | kb-cron |
A circular design developed by Major Rice in February 1901 had good all round visibility, and the lack of corners did away with the need for a substructure. Failure due to wood rot and splintering when hit by bullets or shrapnel were eliminated. The steel door to the blockhouse was sheltered by another piece of corrugated iron. The Major Rice blockhouse could be erected in six hours by six trained men. With the change from square gabled roofs to a circular design, they were given the nickname "Pepperpot blockhouse". With mass production the cost to build a blockhouse dropped down to £16, compared to several hundred pounds for masonry ones. These blockhouses played a vital role in the protection of the railway lines and bridges that were key to the British military supply lines.
== Concrete blockhouses == During World War I and World War II, many types of blockhouses were built, when time allowed usually constructed of reinforced concrete. The major difference between a modern blockhouse and a bunker is that a bunker is constructed mostly below ground level while a blockhouse is constructed mostly above ground level.
Some blockhouses like those constructed in England in 1940 were built in anticipation of a German invasion; they were often hexagonal in shape and were called "pillboxes". About 28,000 pillboxes and other hardened field fortifications were constructed, of which about 6,500 still survive.
The Admiralty Citadel in London is one of the sturdiest above-ground structures built during World War II. It was constructed in 1940–1941 as a bomb-proof operations centre for the Admiralty, with foundations nine metres deep and a concrete roof six metres thick. It too was intended to serve as a strongpoint in defending against the feared invasion. In Berlin and other cities during World War II some massive blockhouses were built as air-raid shelters and anti-aircraft artillery platforms. They were called Hochbunker (literally, "high bunkers"; better translated as "above ground bunkers", to distinguish them from underground air raid shelters) and those that functioned as anti-aircraft artillery platforms were also called Flak towers. Some were over six stories high; several survive because of the high cost of demolition. The Hochbunker Pallasstraße in Berlin-Schöneberg has a post-war block of flats built over it. During the Cold War the shelter was in use as a NATO foodstore. In the guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War (1922–1923), a network of blockhouses was constructed to protect the railways from guerrilla attacks. Blockhouses and coordinated road systems were used in the encirclement campaigns of Chiang Kai-shek against the Chinese Communist Party.
== See also == Battery tower Blockhouse No. 1, New York City Block House (Delaware) British hardened field defences of World War II - Pillbox Caponier Casemate Chartaque Chardak Fort King George in Darien, Georgia Fort Pitt Block House in Point State Park in Pittsburgh Martello tower Ostrog (fortress) Sangar (fortification)
== Notes ==
== References == BACM Research (2009), Vietnam War After Action Reports, BACM Research, pp. 263 Davis, Tracy C. (2007), Stages of emergency: Cold War nuclear civil defense (illustrated ed.), Duke University Press, p. 290, ISBN 978-0-8223-3970-0 Schneider, Richard Harold; Kitchen, Ted (2002), Planning for crime prevention: a transatlantic perspective, RTPI library series, vol. 3 (illustrated ed.), Routledge, p. 87, ISBN 978-0-415-24136-6
== External links ==
Pillbox Study Group Royal Engineers Museum: Blockhouses during the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) Berlin Air-raid Shelters, Flak Towers and Bunkers Pillboxes British World War 2 Fortifications The Fortress Study Group