Seventy years ago a vicious air war was taking place in the skies over Britain.

And on the ground a battle against time was taking place with picks and shovels. Today in our leafy villages it is hard to imagine that if the threatened Nazi invasion over-ran the defences at Great Somerford the whole country would have been lost.

On May 10,1940 the German Army attacked France and the Low Countries. On the same day General William Ironside, the Commander-in-Chief Home Forces, responsible for anti-invasion defences and for commanding the Army in the event of German landings.was tasked with stopping any invasion of our shores. Ironside knew that he would not only have to fight off attacks on the beaches but also in our fields against Falschirmjagers – paratroopers – known as “Green Devils.”

Ironside was aware that after the fall of France, if the Luftwaffe gained mastery of the air over Britain the Germans could airlift up to 10,000 troops in one flight into southern England – and had the capacity for up to three flights a day.

It was believed that 70,000 enemy troops landing in England was the tipping point, and once this was established they could consolidate their grip on Britain.

Ironside’s concern was that there could be a two-pronged attack on the coast and inland, allowing the enemy forces to move towards each other.

RAF airfields were ideal for German airborne and glider landings and, though some had 2,000 personnel stationed on them, they did not have the equipment to defend their perimeters or themselves.

He countered the threat to Britain by drawing up defences known as “stop lines” also designated by colours.

There were three stop lines in southern England. As the main invasion was expected from France the first stop line stretched along the south coast from Dover to Brighton.

The second went from around the Thames Estuary to Portsmouth, and the third from Watford to Swindon.

The Great Somerford to Tilehurst stop line – known as Red, was 68 miles long and had 186 shell-proof pillboxes, 11 anti-tank emplacements and 17 miles of anti tank ditches to ensure vehicles were funnelled towards the strong points.

The pillbox in Dauntsey Road, Great Somerford, near Malmesbury, which still exists, was the end of the Red stop line.

Two more pillboxes are still standing in Lydiard Millicent, near Swindon.

The National Monuments Records in Swindon holds many papers and photographs documenting 20,000 military defence sites from the 20th century But it is still incredible that Lydiard Millicent, Brinkworth, Little Somerford, Great Somerford and Malmesbury could have been the site of a “last stand” bitter and bloody hand-to-hand combat to the death.