The Taunton Stop Line was a defensive work built in the second half of 1940 to contain a possible German invasion of the south-west peninsula of Britain. The line ran across the ‘waist of the South West’ from the mouth of the river Parrett (in Somerset) to the mouth of the River Axe at Seaton (in Devon). This was a massive feat of construction involving both military and civilian personnel working under the threat of an imminent German invasion. Recently, some fifty contemporary sketches have come to light that were used to show the builders how to camouflage the individual pillboxes and emplacements. Discovering that many of these drawings were by well-known artists has led to an investigation of their role, an evaluation of their contribution to the camouflage, its effectiveness and limitations, and how this influenced subsequent army camouflage doctrine. They are believed to be the only such set of drawings to have survived.
