The West Country's Last Line of Defence

Uncovers the remains of nearly 400 Home Guard emplacements scattered across Somerset, Dorset and Devon.

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As Hitler’s Germany spread her wings across Europe in the late 1930s, nations across the continent began preparing their own defences. The threat of invasion on home soil seemed unlikely at first, but as the relentless Nazi war machine steamrollered country after country, by June 1940 a series of ‘stop lines’ were created across Britain in an effort to delay any Nazi invasion.

This book looks at the role and locations of the Taunton stop line, a 50-mile defensive ‘wall’ spanning Somerset, Devon and Dorset, and its lasting legacy that can still be seen today across the idyllic rolling countryside of the South West.