Wartime relic

I glanced down as we navigated the undercliff of Mupe Bay and spotted a 1945 type guilded metal clad steel .303 cal. projectile.  You can tell it's 1945, or after, by the position of the crimp; pre-1945 the crimp would have been lower down the projectile. The bullet was unmarked, I suppose it could've hit something soft, though I think it was more likely a dropped round later set off in a bush fire on the coastal grassland above. I saw lots of examples of that on Godlingston Heath, another wartime training ground, projectile and case often laying less than a meter apart.

Eric 44

Discovered this wartime graffiti at Steamer Point this morning, just in time I reckon, the bark's become powdery and is beginning to disintegrate, it wont be long before Eric 44 disappears from the record. I wonder who Eric was? During World War Two there were coastal batteries here, there were pillboxes along the foreshore, the USAAF were stationed nearby, and it was also the site of a secret radar and communications research facility, maybe that's how Eric found himself here, or maybe he was a passing soldier on his way to Europe?  

Writing this, 'Eric 44' seemed familiar, and on checking past posts I found I'd recorded and posted about 'Eric 44' at Steamer Point back in 2015. Now, here's a thing, it wasn't this graffiti, it was another 'Eric 44'. Looking closely though the style and form do suggest that it -could- be the same scribe for both pieces of graffiti. I thought, it could indicate that Eric was indeed stationed here, and maybe graffiti was his way of alleviating the boredom. As always with graffiti and my imagination, there's a lot of shifting assumption. My mission now is check all the suitable trees on the site to see if I can identify any more. You never know.

Sunken sentinel exposed

I can remember a time when you could crouch inside the remains of this sunken World War Two sentinel half buried in the intertidal below the Barton slides, you could still just see through it's embrasures too. That was many years ago now though. The sands regularly reveal and obscure this old pillbox on a whim, though never to extent I'm talking about. Thinking about it, that was probably 30 years plus ago now. We headed out for our walk earlier this morning to avoid the potential of a gathering herd, getting to the beach by 0730, our objective was realized. It was a good move, only a handful of dog walkers and trio of horse riders, and they were all at the bunny end of the beach, so beyond the sunken sentinel the sands were ours alone. Happy days.

Studland

What with it looking like the best day of the week, and after our glorious walk on Sunday, we were once again over Studland this morning...and it was lovely. Walking amongst the dunes reminded me of the hours I'd spent criss crossing this sandy landscape searching for Second World War features and finds; during the war the area saw anti invasion and coastal defences, later in the war the area was used for weapon experiments and D-Day preparation training. It reminded me too, that one of my many character flaws is a tendency not to finish things. Between 2002 and 2010 I spent thousands of hours on research, desktop surveys, field walking, plotting, photographing and recording. I'd identified and recorded hundreds of features from the monumental concrete features like pillboxes and Gun Batteries to the more ephemeral features such as trenches, weapons pits and other earthworks, as well as hundreds of small finds, all in all I’d written around 60,000 words, well, I am quite verbose. It, along with far too many other projects and countless drawings and paintings, must be added to my expansive  'to do' list...if I get round to finishing that! Another thing that struck me today, a weekday in early spring, was as with the forest, just how much busier Studland was, far busier than it would have been 15 years ago.

GI's on the beach

Serendipity; yesterday we passed the slighted remains of Second World War fortifications, and today, a short way along the beach, we encountered three World War Two American GI's amongst the dunes. At first I put our meeting down to us stumbling through a fissure in time and space back into the 1940's, although such notions were soon dispelled by the nearby film crew. Shame, I wouldn't have minded a bit of space time travel. Turned out it was Channel 5 were making a documentary about a particular African American GI in World War Two, I think I heard the name Walter Williams? If that's right, Walter Henry Williams Jr. is an American artist who served in France During World War Two. It got me thinking, you rarely see wartime footage depicting African American servicemen, even though there were some million black men who fought in American forces both European and Pacific theatres. Sign of the bias of the times? I think so. I'm not singling out the US, if you look at commonly played British footage of the period coloured faces are rare, although huge numbers of commonwealth soldiers saw action (10 million from across the Empire), if shown at all it's usually white commonwealth soldiers depicted. Recently you had the minor media furore when a Sikh shown in the film '1917', with calls that it was wrong and 'PC' gone mad, although historians pointed out it was historically correct. The whitewashing of history gives people a very skewed impression, underplays the importance and role of non white servicemen/women, which perpetuates and fuels the ignorance and hateful division indicative of current nationalism. An example of this ignorance, though on a very different tangent, was the propaganda of the far right in Britain of the early 2000's which was directed at Polish migrants, and used the image of a Spitfire as an iconically British symbol, though the Spitfire shown was clearly from one belonging to one of the 16 Polish squadrons who fought heroically through the Battle of Britain and throughout the war....pure ignorance, born of media depictions of the war, limited historical understanding and plain old bigotry.  Add colour to that cultural bigotry and the 'other' disappears almost completely from the history of World War Two; I suppose it made it easier for us to continue the segregation and abuse of minority communities, post war. I hope the documentary is well done, recognition and depiction of the coloured faces of World War Two has been too long coming, and essential if you are to understand history and it's webs of interconnection.

WW2 debris

Hengistbury Head was a hive of activities during the Second World War, there was a Chain Home Low radar station, gun battery, pillboxes, anti tank obstacles, mines, trenches and entanglements, the whole WW2 set.  After the war these features were broken up buried or removed.  Just before the head rises there's a jumbled mass of concrete and bar protruding from the cliff face. It's been visible for years. Recently, and most likely due the elements, several large pieces of concrete have slid from their resting place near the cliff top towards and onto the pebbles below. On one of the pieces you can clearly see a firing embrasure with what looks like a steep angle of downward fire, suggesting it was once a cliff top pillbox.  It's a real shame how we've been so careless with, our World War Two heritage. 

Sunken Sentinel

Sunken Sentinel on a stormy shore.

Kimmeridge

Although the sky was a clear blue and the young sun shone brightly over Kimmeridge Bay, still on the surrounding hillsides and in the valley and hollows beyond, snow clung on. It was a great day for walking, the air was crisp and clean, and there were few people about. I was expecting to walk out around the Kimmeridge bowl to Townley Shenton's seat, though I found the range gates locked when they shouldn't have been. I don't know what that was about. So, anyway, instead I took the cliff top east towards the base of Swyre Head. Man, the cliff top path along here feels sketchy walking at best, it's very narrow, and slightly slopes towards a high sheer drop, add mud and ice and it was terrifying at times.  Some way along the path, over the fence in a field, is an abandoned military observation post, which at one time clearly had other features associated with it, now long gone, with only mounts and rubble remaining. I stopped for a while, the views through the posts small embrasures along the coast in both directions were fantastic. It must have been a nice posting in the summer, though I'd imagine bleak and foreboding in bad weather, or the depths of winter. Back on the scary cliff top the path rose and fell, with several little foot bridges crossing narrow gullies through which water raced before cascading off the cliff. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, my route turned inland, away from the frightening cliff path and I could relax. I don't know why take routes that scare me so, maybe it's a to challenge my fears, or maybe I'm just a fool. I walked back through the valley below the snow capped ridge which makes up the eastern length of the Kimmeridge bowl, before climbing back up to quarry overlooking Kimmeridge. As you can imagine, if the snow endured on all the sunny southern faces of the Purbeck Hills, the predominantly north facing slopes of the Purbeck Ridge remained firmly under winters snowy embrace. The roads over the ridge at Grange Hill and Cocknowle were both glazed and treacherous driving, as I found out descending from Cocknowle, I thought I'd be through the fence at one point.  Another memorable day at the coast.

Danger marker

Studland is an oasis of tranquillity, especially through the winter when the beach and dunes are bereft of sun worshippers. It's difficult to imagine that the area was so contaminated with ordinance of ever calibre ofter World War 2, that it took nearly two decades for the beach to be opened again to the public, and even then there were areas that were deemed unsafe. It was Ukrainians who cleared the dunes of rockets and shells, rather that than return and face Uncle Joe. The interior which was still thought unsafe was marked by concrete markers. Over the years several have disappeared under the shifting dune, others though remain visible, spaced about 5m apart, some still even display the remnants of red paint. I don't know whether the whole things were painted red or a red band was painted around them, or whether the word 'Danger' was painted on them, I know it's in my head, I've come here all my life and I remember them, I just can't access that particular memory.  A few years back, whilst surveying and searching for Second World War remains, I had call to contact Bomb Disposal after discovering the tail fins of a bombardment rocket sticking out from the dunes at 45 degrees.

Slip sliding away

The cliffs at Hordle are moving so fast that you can almost hear them moving, in fact frequently you can actually hear and see them moving, as randomly a section of the upper gravels cascade towards the sea, like pennies falling from the 'push the penny' arcade game.  Whilst the cliff base bulges as the viscus layers of ancient marine clays slump into the waves under the weight above them. They've had to move the fence line back a few meters for a new path, as the path has disappeared in some sections. I reckon up to 1.5m to 2m has gone down in the last couple of years. I've seen whole archaeological features disappear in my time walking this path, just beyond this point only one of the many gun platforms which made up a gunnery school range remains in situ, and that only tentatively. The majority of the platforms a strewn across the cliff side or disappearing into the sea. A little way further again there was a line of World War 2 ATO's, Anti Tank Obstacles blocking Taddford Gap, a short valley which accesses the beach, have, all but for a couple displaced in the intertidal, gone. There's nothing to be done. Back a ways major coastal protection works have succumbed to natures desire for change, and even as they're replaced, you know it's an exercise in desperate Cnutism. You wont win again nature, and that's humanities biggest mistake, trying to flout nature rather than working with her. 

Hengistbury Head

Out of sight, out of mind, maybe. Though nature and time ensure that burying our past doesn't mean it's gone for good. Along the seaward face of Hengistbury Head, structures of our Second World War past continue to erode into the present. The Hengistbury headland was heavily utilized and fortified during the war years, and of course post war many of the associated feature were removed, or as I allude to, buried, whilst others, notably infrastructure elements such as the concrete and brick conduits which carried communication and power cables, already invisible underground, remained where they were. Many of the sturdier structures, Anti Tank Obstacles (ATO's), Pillboxes and Gun Emplacements were broken up and buried or used as hardcore. In the cliff face, just as the headland rises, some elements of those broken and buried structures are being exposed by erosion. The photo shows what I believe to be a destroyed Artillery Pillbox with some heavily corroded and concreted ironwork, whether associated with the pillbox or not, I'm not sure. I say an Artillery Pillbox as the embrasure (the aperture to fire through) is too substantial for small arms, offering a broad arc of fire; such a large embrasure would have left men inside with just rifles or light machine guns too exposed. It amazes me how clean and well preserved (except for the intentional damage) these structures can be, just look at the concrete, it looks recent, not 70 odd years old; and these structures were thrown up in haste too, with often not the best materials. As the cliff erodes I'll see if any more diagnostic features emerge. I also had a look at the surrounding fill for any smaller artefacts, though none revealed themselves. A walk that stimulates the mind as well as the body is twice the walk. Nice.

War torn or just forlorn

Slighted, though for the most part not in war; much of the World War Two archaeology on Goldlingston Heath and the Studland peninsula were just left forlorn, and have fallen to the ravages of time, a different battle in an endless war. A lot of the areas wartime sites were war torn, it's true, though not by an enemy, but by the allies; the Studland peninsula was an off limits secret training and weapons testing area. The beaches saw rolling artillery and rocket barrages from landing craft, the development and testing of 'Hobarts Funnies', and all manner of other preparations for defence and the D-Day invasion, culminating in live fire exercises watched by massed allied commanders. From the invasion fears period of 1940, right through to the end of the war, Studland saw military activity, in fact, it was so heavily used that it wasn't until the 1960's that areas of the beaches and dunes were cleared of ordinance and re-opened to the public. Some years back I had to call the rangers to contact Bomb Disposal after discovering a live wartime rocket protruding at 45 degrees amongst the dunes. The above sites; the remaining section of a line of Anti Tank Obstacles (ATO's)  at Bramble Bush Bay and a Type 25 Pillbox beneath Redend Point survived the war years intact, and haven't done too badly since, though the rigours of time are beginning to show, and the cracks are beginning to appear. I first saw these sites in the 70's and have witnessed their decline first hand. Over the years the ATO's have become undercut and are toppling, and as for the Pillbox, I remember when it was still well up the cliff side, rather than in the intertidal.  I suppose it's quite a wonder that they endure at all, after all most of the Studland peninsulas wartime sites, as with military buildings throughout the country at the time, were constructed in haste and with diminishing resources. 15 years ago I spent a lot of time recording the wartime sites on Goldlingston Heath and the Studland peninsula, I feel it may be time for a review of them.

We'd have fought them on the beaches

Churchill said we'd fight them on the beaches, though would we have stopped them? Would we have won?  On the beaches, no. In the longer campaign, apparently, yes. In the 1970's 'Operation Sea Lion', the 1940 German invasion plan was war-gamed by 30 British and German military experts and was umpired by three military commanders (air, land, sea) from each country. Initially, the Germans broke through the coastal defences and pushed 10 miles inland establishing a beachhead, though the forces that made it ashore became overstretched and lacked supplies, and as the Luftwaffe couldn't dominate the skies, so Royal Navy was able to successfully stop any German re-enforcements or supplies reaching the beleaguered forces. The game started on September 19th 1940 and by the 28th of September 1940 the remaining German forces either escaped back to France or surrendered and were imprisoned, the umpires unanimously declared the German invasion a failure. Like many other beaches, Kimmeridge was hastily defended in 1940, of those defences 2 type 25 pillboxes and 2 lines of 'Dragons Teeth' anti tack obstacles remain. The ATO's and pillbox in the 2nd and 3rd photos have recently been cleared of invasive growth, whereas the other end of that ATO line have almost disappeared under natures blanket.  Even though many of these wartime defences have been removed from the archaeological record, you'd be surprised at how many remain hidden and forgotten, a testament to the extent of the defences thrown up in 1940.  

Compare and contrast

Compare and contrast the condition of these two Second World War coastal gun battery sites at Studland; two of several I'd add, although there is no trace of the others.  The top one is up on Redend Point, in front of Fort Henry, still in very good condition, even sporting evidence its original camouflage. Whereas the second photo is all the remains of an identical (I assume, as the army usually worked from standard Ministry of Works designs, unless tactical or geographical considerations necessitated otherwise) Second World War coastal gun battery situated amongst the back of the dunes beyond Knoll Beach. The former is where on April 18th 1944 military, political and royal dignitaries including Winston Churchill, King George VI and General Dwight D. Eisenhower watched life fire exercise 'Smash' the largest live fire exercise of the whole war. Whereas the later was 'in' the area of the largest life fire exercise of the whole war. Enough said.

Wartime detritus

Following on from Wednesdays post regarding remembering and forgetting, there is of course another dimension to this, and that's, not knowing in the first place. Often, unless curious, people only know the editorialized abridged version of events and times, and that can make events appear distant and impersonal. Take the Second World War, we all know about the Second World War, don't we. Or do we? It's our history, that one we hark on about at times of national insecurity or jingoistic need. Though, on the whole, we really know very little about it especially the local war. As with history in general, we're told about the big events and personalities, but not the myriad of smaller events and masses of people behind them. Take Studland Beach for example. A beautiful dune backed beach stretching west from Poole harbour up to the Purbeck Hills and the beginnings of the Jurassic coast; a haven for wildlife, holiday makers and naturalists, a couple of miles of tranquil sands and a pleasure to walk in any season. Though during the Second World War Studland was a restricted area, heavily defended against invasion, and later a weapons testing and training area;  hosting a life fire exercise as big as, possibly bigger than, the well known one a Slapton Sands in Devon. You'd never know the area saw years of frenetic military action. Well, you will if look a bit harder. Amongst the dunes concrete scatters and crumbling remains indicate pillboxes, gun emplacements and anti tank obstacles; barbed wire pickets and trench-works litter the landscape along with Sommerfeld track and all manner of wartime oddities. Look harder again and you see some areas are covered in small fragments of shell, rocket, barbed wire, or as in the picture .303cal metal jacketed projectiles (other calibers too, I've found .303, 9mm and 45cal cartridges). Studland was the site of vital and unique wartime activities (about I will post more another time), but as I say, to the casual walker it would just appear a beautiful natural landscape. I wonder how many people walking there know any of that; that said, in recent years some info has been put up at Fort Henry overlooking middle beach. Though, I'm sure in years to come Studlands wartime service will be all but forgotten. It is the nature of things I suppose.

Wrack and ruin

One of the buildings at North Egliston in the Tynham valley. Once it must have been a near idyllic place to live, set in the midsts of rural and coastal beauty; now isolated behind the wire and warning signs of the Tynham Ranges. It appears to have been one of the few that was commandeered during the war years, though did not suffer the destruction others did; maybe as it's far up the valley, near the edge of the ranges. I know old pictures don't tell the whole story, they don't show the hardship of rural life or the other tribulations which have always have afflicted folk, but what they do show, I like, or maybe I see as an antidote to the pressures of modernity, or maybe it's just that the grass always appears greener in an old black and white photo.  Whatever. It's sad to see such a lovely building die through lack of occupation and neglect. It looks like 2/3's of the building has sunken over the years by a good 2 foot, the entrance and front door attest to this.  The stress this has put on the building as a whole has caused the internal floors to collapse, weakening and finally leading to a section of the rear wall going over.  Now with wall missing and the interior open to the elements, I shouldn't imagine it will be long before the roof goes and that will be that. Sad. 

St Aldhelm's Head

The tumbled rock and scree below St Aldhelm's Head makes for rugged terrain, add areas of slippage, wet and viscus, and the spikiest of dense thicket, no more that a foot or two high but posing impenetrable obstacles and you have the ingredients for an interesting walk. Though, the views you were afforded by far made up for any inconvenience. I don't know for how long quarrying took at St Aldhelm's, but I know the headland was busy throughout the 19th century and probably into the 20th; rusting steel cables still run from near the cliff top down to the rocky plateau below, cut galleries and scree are all that remain of this industry today. There's other material too amongst the jumble, what looks like ivy covered rock, is on closer inspection brickwork and concrete, what's left of the Second World War radar station which operated on St Aldhelm's Head in the early war years. Nature though is taking back what's hers and year on year there is less human enterprise to be seen, and soon you wouldn't know anything or anybody had been here. I can remember 30 years ago, there was plenty of visible evidence of human activity here, you could see brickwork, drainage pipework, concrete and lots of pieces of rusting metalwork. All gone, all but a few pieces, returned to the elements or camouflaged, consumed by creeping undergrowth.  It's easy to lose a couple of hours exploring, I've visited here many times over the years and still there are parts I've not explored, new things to see and secrets to find. Climbing up, out onto the quarry gallery on the cliff top, I look back, I mustn't leave it too long before returning.

Godlingston Hill

Dug out, hauled to the edge of the field and left abandoned, are these concrete footings and iron mast mountings, all that are left of tall radio masts which stood on top of Godlingston Hill during World War Two.  There were three radio bunkers on Godlingston Hill all with towers, two are filled in now, whilst the third is still used for modern communication equipment. Below the hill is a command bunker and the ephemeral remains of occupation. It had me thinking. This was a unique site which played an important part in important historic events, it's hardly been recorded, for the most part destroyed and all but forgotten; this must have been the fate of so many important historical sites that are missing from the historical/archaeological record. There must be so much we don't know and will never know about the past.

South Egliston

I've looked down on ruins South Egliston, from the ridge of the hills which surround Kimmeridge, for over 20 years and wondered what they might be like; shrouded by trees, even in the winter it's hard to get a clear impression.  Seconded during World War Two as part of the militarys' preparations for D Day, they still remain inside the range boundaries controlled by the army.  Although, it's unlikely being so close to Kimmeridge Village that many rounds were fired in its vicinity; the areas inclusion in the range, I feel, was more for safety in case of overshoot. Today curiosity got the better and a recon mission was undertaken, down the hillside and across the fields we went, towards the woods and buildings of South Egliston; crossing the fields was undertaken at speed, aware that the ranges are off limits. I don't really know what I expected to find, although I wouldn't have been surprised to find similar remains to those of the Tyneham valley; shells of former buildings, nothing more. Some of the outer buildings were indeed mere crumbling shells. Though, what I found in the main buildings was a surprise and had me exited like a child.  As we entered the woodland it was clear that the buildings had not suffered the same damage during or after the war as Tyneham valley.  It looks like the building were evacuated in 1943 and just left, 70 years of abandonment, neglect and the elements have certainly taken their toll and what remains are building with collapsing roofs and floors; no longer inhabitable but not yet mere shells with doors, fireplaces and other fittings still in situ.  If only I had ventured down to South Egliston 20 years ago, what would I have found then? I should imagine then the building would have still have had all their roofs and floors at least.  As this mission was merely for recon purposes I took a quick look about some of the main house and some of the other buildings, but it was only a quick look.  What I gathered was that the main house would have been quiet posh, most of the other buildings I looked at from a distance.  It must have been an idyllic place to live.  There is little to nothing about the site online and so I'll return soon for a deeper, fuller investigation and to create a visual record of what remains before it's all gone.

Sinking sentinel

Silently slipping below the brackish peat stained water this slighted wartime sentinel slowly sinks from view and undoubtedly from memory.