The Pillbox affair, also known as the Pillbox incident was a military and political episode which occurred in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 between November and December 1939. The British War Minister

Secretary of State for War

The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...

, Leslie Hore-Belisha

Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha

Isaac Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha PC was a British Liberal, then National Liberal Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. He later joined the Conservative Party...

, visited France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and the positions of the British Expeditionary Force

British Expeditionary Force (World War II)

The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....

 in mid-November. Hore-Belisha and the commander of the BEF, Field Marshal

Field Marshal

Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...

 John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort

John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort

Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, VC, GCB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, MVO, MC , was a British and Anglo-Irish soldier. As a young officer in World War I he won the Victoria Cross at the Battle of the Canal du Nord. During the 1930s he served as Chief of the...

, did not get along well together; Gort disliked Hore-Belisha for his colourful personality and unorthodox manner of conducting matters relating to the Army, and the Minister rapidly came to recognize this. When Hore-Belisha visited the BEF in November, he oversaw the placement of the troops of the BEF, but not the defences being constructed, and as such when he returned to Britain he complained to the War Cabinet and the Army Council that too few pillbox defences

British hardened field defences of World War II

British hardened field defences of World War II were small fortified structures constructed as a part of British anti-invasion preparations. They were popularly known as pillboxes by reference to their shape.-Design and development:...

were being built for the BEF. Gort and colleagues friendly to him were greatly angered by what they saw as this unjust and ill-founded criticism, and began a campaign against Hore-Belisha, which culminated in January 1940 in his being dismissed from the post of War Minister.