Thameshaven Bombed

 I get a lot of pleasure in my sad old age of doing a 'then-and-now' matching old aerial photos to modern coverage. This photo, from Pen & Sword's Images of War Series [The Few]) shows the Thames estuaries tank farms ablaze in 1940. What  caught my eye is not the attack, but the number of adjacent fields quartered and sixthed to deny them to the enemy. Just how many troop carrying Ju52's and gliders did they think the Luftwaffe had? I wonder if there is any trace at ground level today?   

Bah! I'll try again.

ibb.co/N1pbwF9

Ossie, are you referring to the land visible in the bottom left of the image seen as pale colour crosses?
All the riverside land in the estuary area is floodplain divided by myriad natural drainage water channels presenting obstacle to enemy gliders.
 

Culled pretty much from random from Aerial Photo Explorer. Dated 03/04/45 and near to Stanford Le Hope, RAF/106G/LA/205/FS/2086 If it was for drainage, surely the ends would link to the existing creeks and drains. Also, would the spoil be piled up in such a regular matter?

I can see me losing all weekend over this. It is somewhere in the vicinity of Oak Farm, south of Corringham around TQ706825. I se a pillbox too. I'm going to back off, before I go mad. Over to you guys.

My current eye problem limits contrast on black and white and greyscale images so I am not able to see many details in your second image which is oriented EAST to the top.
The Extended Defence of Britain Database does record the Pillbox and states 'destroyed'
From StreetView much of the area is under cereal indicating the land is well drained. It certainly would have presented a viable landing area for the enemy,

This map shows salient features alveit post war:
maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/print/#zoom=17.6...45216&layers=170&b=7
 

The NLS site also has Lidar coverage of the area.