Over the centuries, proximity to major routes\-\-\-the Great North Road, the Icknield Way, and Watling Street\-\-\-has made Bedfordshire strategically important. Iron Age hillforts occupied significant locations, and castles consolidated Norman control after 1066. In later medieval times, two major events occurred: in 1224, the siege of Bedford Castle marked Henry III’s attempt to reimpose royal authority after the chaos of John’s reign; and the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461 was a major defeat for the Yorkists. During the wars of the twentieth century, the county’s industrial base supported the armies fighting overseas. In the First World War, the county contributed significantly to the birth of the RAF as well as provided the base for the Home Defence armies. In the Second World War, its airfields despatched RAF and USAAF bombers over the continent, but the major activity was the secret war largely associated with the Bedford Triangle. After 1945, aeronautical research continued at RAF Thurleigh\/Twinwood Farm and electronic intelligence\-gathering was developed at Chicksands. \x27Defending Bedfordshire\x27 seeks to explain the significance of this dense concentration of military sites to be found in a relatively small county.

Two yellowing envelopes in a long-untouched file, unmistakably of U.S. Army origin but addressed to a North Carolina housewife, caught the attention of her son as he sorted her papers after her death. The postmarks, Virginia Beach, VA., and dated in 1942, were puzzling, as was the official return address: 111th Infantry C.T., Mobile Defense Force. While the 111th regimental combat team could be deciphered, the Mobile Defense Force was not a recognizable term. The letters inside instructed her on the duties of a coast watcher, and evoked memories stored since childhood: The sickening thump of torpedoes striking U.S. ships just off the Currituck Outer Banks and the flare of flames, particularly when a tanker was hit, that were clear even to a youngster on his front porch 8 miles inland. Each boom and pillar of fire revealed that more men were dying in the freezing waters off North Carolina's barrier islands that winter. How did the United States get into such straits that its life was threatened as the Axis juggernauts rolled across Western Europe and Asia? What transpired during the crucial years when the outcome of the war could go against the United States as Axis aggression flooded the Atlantic with U-boats striving to cut the stream of ships laden with weapons, troops, and food flowing to the beleaguered British Isles - the last Allied outpost near the Continent? How did the Allies achieve victory first against the U-boats, then the war, for as Napoleon observed: "It is only a step from victory to disaster. "

Throughout history, Cambridgeshire has figured in the conflicts shaping our nation. Doomed Roman legionaries marched from Longthorpe to defeat by Boudicca’s Iceni; Saxons and Danes fought over the edges of the Danelaw; the Normans came this way to crush Hereward’s Fenland resistance; in the Civil War it provided the defended frontier between Parliamentarian and Royalist; in the twentieth century its flat expanses provided airfields for the RFC and later for the bombers of the RAF and USAAF, and in the Cold War, locations for missile bases. Many of these events have left evidence on the ground, and this book describes the function and purpose of these defensive structures and records survivals.

Gloucestershire's strategic location straddling the Severn is reinforced by Bristol's importance as a port. The Forest of Dean and the Cotswolds are densely populated by prehistoric hillforts and Gloucester, Cirencester and Winchcombe were important throughout the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. The Normans built substantial castles at Bristol, Gloucester and Berkeley, scene of Edward II's murder, with many more of earth and timber. Many figured in the conflicts between rival factions culminating in the Battle of Tewkesbury. In the Civil War, Bristol underwent two sieges and Gloucester another and one of the last battles, at Stow, followed continuous skirmishing. The next centuries saw volunteer forces established, formalised by the State by the end of Victoria's reign, to counter threats external and internal. A nascent aircraft industry would develop into aircraft factories and airfields in the First World War with further development of training and aircraft storage facilities for the newly formed RAF during the inter-War period. Anti-invasion defences were constructed in the Second World War, but the primary effort was in logistics: bases for arriving US troops; RAF and USAAF training airfields and depots; and communications facilities. This last aspect, along with intelligence gathering, continued into the Cold War and beyond.

In a brilliantly imaginative blend of military, social and diplomatic history, Norman Longmate retells our island story from the perspective of its defenders, in a narrative which stretches from the Celtic tribes who unsuccessfully fought against Ceasar to the great seabourne defence against the Armada of Philip of Spain. He has gone back to the original sources and investigated the original battlegrounds and weak spots in Britain's defences. But the real strength of his book is its seamless narrative of history, which uncovers the truth behind the legends. A mass of solidly researched fact, not readily found elsewhere, is seasoned with lively, humorous and occassionally gruesome anecdote. The result, providing at once an invaluable sourcebook for the specialist and an enthralling narrative for the general reader, is by far the most comprehensive and accessible history of England versus invasion ever published.

The first book to explore, in depth, the complete range of paranormal phenomena reported throughout Bedfordshire in modern times.