Anti-Tank Cubes on the Sea-Wall of the River Medway at Tq7926371678

Anti-tank cubes on the sea-wall of the River Medway at Hoo St Werburgh

A line of anti-tank cubes located on the sea-wall and foreshore on the north bank of the Medway estuary. The cubes are built of concrete using formers, with the lines of the formers clearly visible. Each cube is approximately 1.5 metres in dimension. Seven cubes are visible, with a possible eighth buried at the junction of the sea wall and foreshore. The cubes are deployed corner to corner, and traces of red paint remain on some examples.

The cubes were constructed in 1940 as part of the Hoo Stop-line, a defensive anti-invasion line stretching approximately eight miles between the River Thames near Cliffe and the River Medway to the south-east of Hoo St Werburgh. Defence works to protect against German invasion began in June 1940, following the defeat of British forces in Europe and the return of troops from Dunkirk.

Stop-lines were anti-tank obstacles intended to check the advance of fast-moving columns of armoured troops and to serve as prepared battlefields for the Field Army in the event of invasion. The Hoo Stop-line formed part of the principal GHQ (General Headquarters) Line, which ran from the North Somerset Coast to the east of London and then parallel with the east coast to Yorkshire. Across the Hoo Peninsula, the GHQ line took the form of an artificial anti-tank ditch dug to join the Medway and Thames rivers, supported by pillboxes, anti-tank rails and roadblocks.

The War Office plan indicates a total of sixty infantry and eighteen anti-tank pillboxes enclosing the higher ground containing the Lodge Hill and Chattenden Ordnance Depots. Each individual component would have been encircled in barbed wire for extra protection, as would the defended localities. Other earthworks, such as slit trenches, probably existed in support but are now lost.

The Hoo Peninsula was heavily militarised during the Second World War. Hoo itself was designated a Defended Village in 1941 with a garrison of sixty-three men armed with anti-tank rifles and Bren guns. Kingshill Camp, to the west of Bell Lane, was a designated Defended Locality with a further one hundred troops from the 347th Searchlight Battery, Royal Artillery. High Halstow village to the north was another Defended Locality, and the Royal Navy Ammunition Store at Lodge Hill had a garrison of three hundred men. The local Home Guard Unit would have been responsible for keeping the pillboxes supplied and assisting in the manning of roadblocks.

As the topography is very low-lying with relatively easy access from the coast, the stop-line was intended to provide a man-made defence against invasion, specifically by tanks. Subtle changes in gradient and hedge lines were used to site the various defensive components to best advantage in protecting the higher ground and ordnance depots.