Sandbag Collection

WWII September 1939 Circular sandbag redoubt
Anti-aircraft post on the East Coast constructed of sandbags, formed in the first week of the Second World War. Date: 1939

View From Canadian Camp
This painting shows a military sandbag bunker being flooded by the sea, with a pair of troops standing inside, painted from a Canadian camp. Date: circa 1918

WW1 - Attack on London - St. Batholomew the Great
circa 1910s

The Two at Pervyse with Shot the dog memorial, Ypres
This memorial is in the garden of the Ariane Hotel in Ypres. The Two is the title given to two extrordinary British laidies, Elsie Knocker and Mairie Chisholm

Air raid preparations at London gas station, September 1939
An extreme example of sandbagging in anticipation of air raids at a garage in North London. The Sphere jokes that " motorists have to look twice before they recognise the petrol pumps"

Civilians filling sandbags for air raid shelters 1939
Civilians, including females in bikini tops and a man in a suit, working together to fill sandbags for use in the construction of public air raid shelters. September 1939

Construction of sandbag air raid shelter, September 1939
Construction of a large public air raid shelter from sandbags in North London, shortly after the outbreak of war. September 1939

Putting up flood barricades, Bermondsey, London
Putting up sandbags as flood barricades in Rotherhithe Street, Bermondsey, London. 1928

River Thames flooding at high tide, London
The River Thames in London, flooding at high tide, washing against sandbags two feet above road level

Hauling Sandbags Date: 1941

Ballooning - A Cruise in the Clouds
Three men ballooning - A Cruise in the Clouds. One man checks an altimeter, another empties sand to lighten the balloon and gain height, and a third releases a pigeon. circa 1900

D-Day Normandy, RN near Courseulles, France, WW2
D-Day Normandy, Royal Navy near Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, June 1944. 1944

Cartoon, Between two attacks, WW1
Cartoon, Between two attacks. French soldiers in a trench relax, eat, drink and play cards in a quiet moment on the Western Front. Date: 1916

The Communication Trench
British soldiers dash past a gap in the sandbag wall of a communication trench, keeping their heads down so as not to attract the attention of snipers. Date: 1915

Indian soldiers on the road to Jerusalem during World War I
Photographs of Indian soldiers under General Allenbys command on the road to Jerusalem during World War I. Clockwise from top-left

Fire alam post, Cooks Road, Vauxhall, WW2
Fire alarm post (FA41) protected by sandbags outside the AFS station in Cooks Road, Vauxhall, with an LFB fire engine on the left, around the start of the Second World War. Date: 1939

Blitz in London -- training exercise, WW2
Blitz in London -- training exercise. Date: 1940s

Auxiliary Ambulance Girl - Wartime London - 1940s. circa 1942

Cartoon, Coiffure in the Trenches, WW1
Cartoon, Coiffure in the Trenches. Keep yer ead still, or I ll ave yer blinkin ear off. By Captain Bruce Bairnsfather, 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment (1888-1959)

Sandbags and barbed wire, India. Date: 1918

WW1 - Cute patriotic British postcard - emulating ancestors
WW1 - Cute patriotic British postcard - a little boy strives to emulate the military feats of our ancestors, or in this case his elders! Date: circa 1916

Armoured Train - Peshawar, NWFP
British Military Armoured Train at Peshawar, North West Frontier Province, during the visit of The Prince of Wales, 1922. Date: 1922

Blitz in London -- religious service with AFS, WW2
A priest conducts a prayer service at a London Fire Brigade sub-station attended by the men and women of the AFS serving there and for their colleagues working further afield

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