Pillboxes

[Arcade Al]

Someone posted an image today on Facebook of an asbestos cement "anti-flamethrower shutter" on the embrasure of a pillbox in the uk.
It's the only one I have ever seen that is still extant - I wonder how many of them were installed at the time?

[SimonGee]

Apparently not very many. However,there are a few examples of WW1 pbs with steel dropdown shutters activated by means of a chain through a metal tube built into the concrete during construction. The WW2 minefield control station on Languard Point in Suffolk has folding steelshutters as well as bars on its loopholes; very odd - ! Using asbestos was very academic as obviously it wasn't bulletproof and the likely demise of said pbs occupants would have been through suffocation rather than burn injuries.

[Arcade Al]

The shutter pictured is about 2 or more inches thick and would presumably have strengthening inside as well - but yes still hardly bullet resistant, and fairly pointless in the event of a flamethrower getting within range...