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Friday 1 July 2011

Type 23 Pillbox


In its standard form the FW3 Type 23 pillbox is rectangular in plan and essentially comprises two squares, one roofed the other open topped. The roofed section normally has three loopholes in its outer facing walls suitable for rifle or light machine guns. The open half of the pillbox was designed to hold a light anti-aircraft defence such as a Bren or Lewis gun on a post mounting. Usually this type of pillbox has no ground level entrance. To gain entrance one had to climb over the wall into the open section of the pillbox. Often steel rungs were cast into the outer wall to facilitate an easier entrance although some examples are known to have an open entrance in the left wall of the anti-aircraft position. Once in the interior of the pillbox access to the adjacent covered chamber was via a couple of steps down and then through a interconnecting doorway. The wall of this type of pillbox were built to a plan of 2.4 m wide by 4.8 m long and were of a 0.3 m thick bullet proof construction. The Type 23 pillbox was design to hold a compliment of up to four men.






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