"IN MAY 1940 the British Cabinet made the fateful decision to fight on against Nazi Germany, rather than negotiate a peace that would leave Hitler with a free hand in Europe. [SIZE=1.091em]After the fall of Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and France between April and June 1940, all the countries directly east of the [/SIZE]NorthSea[SIZE=1.091em] were in enemy hands. Britain crucially misunderstood German military thinking, believing that all German military operations were planned in great detail, far in advance. Therefore it seemed certain that, after the Low Countries and France, the next step would be an invasion of Britain, for which all the plans had already been made. The well-named “May Panic” saw hurried preparations begin across Britain to fight off an imminent invasion. The physical remains of these preparations can still be seen throughout Britain’s landscape today.[/SIZE] We now know that Hitler probably intended only to put pressure on Britain to negotiate, but in 1940 that was not how things seemed. Invasion seemed inevitable. It was also expected that the Germans would mount major diversionary attacks on Scotland, especially to neutralise the key naval bases at Scapa Flow and Rosyth, and to draw parts of the RAF northwards, away from the intended main invasion site in south-east England. In the summer of May 1940, therefore, Britain was expecting an assault that had long been planned by a force that had smashed the armies of six countries in the previous nine months, using airborne troops and new forms of high-speed tank warfare with close support from the air. One month later, the shattered remnants of Britain’s army returned from France leaving behind them their tanks, artillery, anti-tank guns and motor transport. As a consequence, the forces available to defend the island in the summer of 1940 had few heavy weapons with which to oppose a landing, and precious little transport to move to where the enemy might land. This largely immobile, lightly-armed force had to rely on the construction of fixed defences to try to stop the Germans overwhelming them using their speed and mobility. From June 1940 until the spring of the following year a major campaign of construction radically transformed the appearance of Britain’s landscape. What survives today is the tip of the iceberg – mostly structures too difficult to remove after the war." http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/dr-gordon-barclay-on-the-nazi-threat-in-if-hitler-comes-preparing-for-invasion-scotland-1940-1-2911415
Good reading, Gordon. Have you been to visit any of these facilities (presuming anything still remains)?
Lou..Lots remain dotted all over the country...I only have to walk out the front door,,,,figuratively speaking to walk into ww2...And of course other remains and history.
Seen the defences in the Lothians and Fife, Lou. Still lots I want to find time to visit. Stuff tends to be better preserved the further away you go from population centres.
