Portable Steel Pillbox

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Peter H
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Portable Steel Pillbox

#1

Post by Peter H » 14 Apr 2007, 15:08

Said to have been only encountered at Tarawa,but another source states they were used on the Aleutians as well.
Who devised these pillboxes?A Navy SNLF product?How much did they weigh?

Photo from Bloody Tarawa,Eric Hammel
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Sewer King
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#2

Post by Sewer King » 15 Apr 2007, 06:34

Stan Cohen wrote an extensive series about the Aleutians campaign, The Forgotten War (Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories, 1993):

In Volume Four, page 165 there is a small photo of one of these hexagonal steel pillboxes left behind on Kiska. It was captioned "An armored command post sunk in the tundra." Uncredited in caption, the acknowledgements attributed it to the author's own collection. Other such photos of Japanese defensive remains from Kiska bear original titles in white, but not this one. Since it was not from Army Signal Corps or archival sources, I assume it was never before published.

Cohen has good maps and surveys of the defenses, including lists of the weapons and/or their prepared positions. Unfortunately, there is no mention of how many more of these hex pillboxes were in use at Kiska. The author does go on to describe how much more developed the Japanese bases at Kiska were compared to those at Attu, even to the extent of barracks and plumbed water distribution.

This one pillbox seemed sunken indeed because its firing port was three-fourths below grade. The pillbox's top had been knocked off and turned upside down atop it, but it was unclear whether done by the Japanese or Americans. This at least showed the hexagonal neck that fitted it into the section below.

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You may have seen Gordon L. Rottman's Japanese Pacific Island Defenses 1941-45 (volume 1 in the Osprey Fortress Series, 2003). On page 58 he gives details of the hex pillbox construction, but makes the common assertion that they were seen only at Tarawa. Now we confirm otherwise in at least one case. However, he adds that these pillboxes "may originate from the time of the Russo-Japanese War."

If there is any truth to that, it suggests early Army origin despite naval eminence at Tarawa. I would think any such precedent came about as a field improvisation in the Japanese trenches of 1904, like some of the grenades said to have been used there.

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And of course, the widely-reprinted US War Department TM-E 30-480 Handbook on Japanese Military Forces has two photos of steel pillboxes at Betio. One shows two of six triangular door flaps open to reveal the observer's seat and speaking tube. None of these sources suggest how heavy they are, although Rottman states that they would certainly need a derrick or A-frame to erect them. His diagram shows each trapezoidal face as 8.5ft high and 9ft across at base, with double-wall construction throughout of 1/4 to 1/2in riveted steel plate. With the steel center post (also hexagonal), the observer's top hatch and seat, and the integral machine gun mounts added inside the base, I suppose the pillbox's all-up weight could be estimated.

Where did you see their mention from the Aleutians? I had to dig in my library to find this one photo (unfortunately no scanner yet).


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Peter H
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#3

Post by Peter H » 15 Apr 2007, 06:52

Thanks SK for the thorough and excellent response.

The Aleutians is mentioned by a reviewer of Rottman's book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Pacific- ... 1841764280




Betio again,from: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/I ... -7-10.html

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Regards
Peter

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Sewer King
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#4

Post by Sewer King » 15 Apr 2007, 15:12

I see the review you mean, only now I wonder where he saw that the steel pillboxes were used in the Aleutians, if not from Cohen's book. The latter did not cite any Army or government source publications in its bibliography. Some of Cohen's other personal photos of Japanese remnants at Kiska were taken by him in the modern day, and it surprises me how much survived considering the Alaskan climate.

Unfortunately, there were no latter-day photos of the Kiska steel pillboxes on the small chance that they would have left remnants after all this time. Those of a Japanese motorcycle could still be recognized sinking into the soil.

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Peter H
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#5

Post by Peter H » 15 Apr 2007, 15:38

Photo of another steel pillbox at Betio.From Tarawa on the Web.
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Sewer King
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Re: Portable Steel Pillbox

#6

Post by Sewer King » 12 Jan 2009, 17:51

Here is that undated photo cited earlier from Cohen, of a steel hex pillbox emplaced in the Aleutians -- rather than at Tarawa where they are best known. I wanted the forum to have this obscure but unusual reference to something widely-known, and almost exclusively so, from the Pacific island war.

Image

Although it does look sunk into the tundra since the firing port is down to grade, might it have been deliberately installed lower down, here where there seems to be less vegetative cover? Note the bare horizon in the far left background, emphasized by the man standing against it.

-- Alan

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Re: Portable Steel Pillbox

#7

Post by jopaerya » 12 Jan 2009, 18:49

Hello

Is this also a Japanese panzer turret ??

Photo = Ebay.usa

Regards Jos
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Re: Portable Steel Pillbox

#8

Post by Sewer King » 12 Jan 2009, 20:23

Not a tank turret of any kind, but another one of the hex pillboxes at Tarawa, seen from the rear. This photo shows the doorway with its intact, sandbagged entrance.

Compare it to the blasted-open entrance of another Tarawa pillbox in the first of the photos above. That also shows the depth to which they were emplaced.

The Japanese were known of course to have dug in some of their tanks to serve as pillboxes at various battlefronts. They did so at Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, as well.

-- Alan

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