Decaying but still potent, these ruins are a landscape's legacy of war
Firth of Forth, Scotland, 2012. Marc Wilson: “An anti-submarine barrier, known as ‘the dragon’s teeth’, was built along the causeway between the village of Cramond and Cramond Island. Arranged in a long row, these pyramid-shaped concrete pylons – up to three metres high and spaced at 1.5 metre intervals – have vertical grooves in their sides into which were slotted reinforced concrete panels. On top of the blocks were fixing rings for large-diameter steel wire and anti-submarine nets.”
Lyness, Hoy, 2013. Marc Wilson: “Hoy is one of the islands encircling Scapa Flow, which was the Royal Navy’s chief anchorage during both world wars. On the hillside above Lyness stands the Wee Fea Naval Communications and Operational Centre. From 1943, this base controlled naval operations in Scapa. Lyness Naval Base was also the site of the operation to salvage the German Fleet scuttled in 1919 during its internment at Scapa Flow at the end of WW1. It took eight years to raise 45 of the 52 scuttled ships.”
Studland Bay, Dorset, 2011. Marc Wilson: “In April 1944, after months of intensive planning and practice, a full-scale D-Day rehearsal for the Normandy landings was held in Studland Bay. ‘Exercise Smash’, in which live ammunition was used, was watched from Fort Henry, a reinforced concrete observation bunker close to where this photograph was taken, by King George VI, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces General Dwight D Eisenhower.”
Bamburgh, Northumberland, 2013. Marc Wilson: “RAF Bamburgh was a Chain Home Low radar station, which gave early warning of enemy raids approaching the north of England. A tidal surge in December 2013 at Bamburgh uncovered a pillbox in the sand dunes. It was constructed from hessian sandbags filled with concrete and was part of a long chain of coastal defensive sites including pillboxes, gun emplacements, anti-tank blocks and a radar station. I do not know when they were covered over, but a long time ago I am sure. I rushed up there as soon as I heard about it – but when I got to the location at first light the next morning, there were some human and dog footprints in the area already so I was not the first to see them.”
Portland, Dorset, 2011. Marc Wilson: “The Verne Battery was built in 1892 in a disused stone quarry on the Isle of Portland in Dorset as part of Britain’s coastal defences. Decommissioned in 1906, it was used after WW1 for storing field guns brought over from France, and during WW2 to house ammunition in preparation for the D-Day landings. It also became an AA (anti-aircraft artillery) battery. Thousands of gravestones were hewn from Portland Stone for the fallen Allied soldiers who died in both World Wars. It was also used to build the Cenotaph in Whitehall.”
St Michael's Mount, Cornwall, 2012: Marc Wilson: “At low tide, St Michael's Mount is joined to Marazion on the south coast of Cornwall by a granite causeway. Its Benedictine priory, dedicated to the Archangel St Michael, was turned into a fortress by Henry VIII. He prepared defences against invasion threatened by France and Spain. The very first beacon warning of the arrival of the Spanish Armada in 1588, during the reign of Elizabeth I, was lit on the Mount, which remained a fortified island until the end of the Napoleonic era. In 1940, it was again garrisoned and fortified with a light anti-aircraft battery and three pillboxes. One of them, made to blend with its surroundings, was built of concrete blocks and located in a cleft in the rocks.”
Hayling Island, Hampshire, 2013. Marc Wilson: “During an air raid in April 1941, Sinah Common, a decoy site on Hayling Island, attracted more than 200 German bombs and parachute mines intended for Portsmouth. Then, in late 1943 and early 1944, Hayling Island-based survey teams, trained as frogmen and canoeists, were taken by mini-submarines and dropped off in two-man collapsible canoes off the coast of Normandy. They recorded every detail of possible landing sites and assault areas, and information about the German enemy defences. A geological assessment of the beach was also vital, including the gradient of the underwater approaches. Core samples of the sand and gravel were taken to find out whether heavy armed vehicles and tanks would be able to negotiate the terrain. These commandos returned on D-Day, when they guided the Allied ships to the landing beaches.”
Loch Ewe, Scotland, 2012: Marc Wilson: “The Arctic convoys to Russia, called by Churchill ‘the worst journey in the world’ assembled in Loch Ewe before sailing to the ports of Archangel and Murmansk in the northern Soviet Union. These merchant ships, escorted by Allied warships, carried vital supplies and ammunition to Russia, fighting the German army on the Eastern Front in what the Russians called ‘the Great Patriotic War’. More than 3,000 seamen in these convoys lost their lives in the icy waters, fog and storms of the Arctic – their ships attacked by German submarines and aircraft from bases in occupied Norway.”
Houvig, Midtjylland, Denmark, 2014. Marc Wilson: “The Houvig stronghold, on the west coast of Jutland, had 50 bunkers and another 50 concrete defence structures. Around the fortifications were large minefields and barbed wire entanglements. In 2008, 63 years after the end of the war, an intact bunker (including the personal effects of its crew), which had been entombed under the sands in Kryle, was uncovered following violent storms. One of the former German soldiers who had been stationed there, Gerhard Saalfeld, had come back to Denmark many times after the end of the war looking for 'his' bunker. When it was discovered, inside he found a shoe brush with his name engraved on it. He had been 17 years old when he had left it.”
Rogaland, Norway, 2014. Marc Wilson: “Haugesund, on the west coast of Norway, was defended by the naval battery Bismarck. It comprised four 15-centimetre guns, which could each fire a one tonne shell per minute up to a distance of 17 kilometres. The Kriegsmarine (German navy) and Luftwaffe used their bases in Norway to attack the Allied Arctic convoys bound for Russia. In 1943, Allied commandos took part in a raid – Operation Checkmate – on German shipping near Haugesund. They used canoes and kayaks and attached limpet mines to the hulls of the ships. During that raid, a German minesweeper was sunk. While waiting to be picked up by a Royal Navy motor torpedo boat, the commandos were captured, taken to concentration camps in Germany and executed.”
Widemouth Bay, Cornwall, 2011. Marc Wilson: “In 1944, the 2nd US Ranger Battalion, under the command of Lt Col James Earl Rudder, carried out training exercises near Widemouth Bay in north Cornwall, including climbing nearby steep sandstone cliffs. Their D-Day mission was to launch an attack to destroy the German battery above the sheer cliff of Pointe du Hoc in Normandy. This battery could direct its fire on both Utah and Omaha, the two D-Day beaches on which the Americans were to land, so needed to be disabled.”
Wissant, Nord-Pas-De-Calais, France. 2012. Marc Wilson: “Wissant means ‘white sand’ in Dutch (wit-zand). During WW2, the Germans believed the Allies would regard Wissant, the closest point on mainland Europe to the English coast, as an ideal beach for an invasion. Situated between Cap Gris Nez and Cap Blanc Nez, it was heavily fortified with enormous bunkers, blockhouses, minefields, an anti-tank wall and long-range guns that could reach the English coast. In 2013, these German defences were removed by the local authorities.”
Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, Upper Normandy, France, 2012: Marc WIlson: “On 19 August 1942, on the beach of Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, a group from No 4 Commando under the command of Lord Lovat, landed with a mission to assault and destroy the German Hess battery above Varengeville, which could fire on the beach of Dieppe. They were successful, but the Dieppe raid ended in disaster for the Canadian and British troops. After the raid, the German coastal defences were strengthened. The monolith on the shingle beach was part of a blockhouse that originally stood on the cliff.”
Arromanche-les-Bains, Normandy, 2014. Marc Wilson: “At dawn on 6 June 1944, the Allied forces breached the Atlantic Wall. Around 156,000 invading troops landed on the beaches, supported by nearly 12,000 aircraft, and a vast number of naval forces: 6,939 vessels including combat ships, landing craft and merchant vessels. The majority of troops were from the United States, Britain and Canada, with others from Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland. The Allied landings took place at five separate beaches on a 50-mile stretch of the coast of Normandy. Each was given a code name. In the west, the Americans would land on ‘Utah’ and ‘Omaha’; in the middle, the British on ‘Gold’ and the Canadians on ‘Juno’; and in the east, the British on ‘Sword’.”
A photographic book of The Last Stand by Marc Wilson is available now.
You might also like
