General Background
In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Following the
withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force from continental
Europe with the evacuation from Dunkirk and the fall of France at
the end of May 1940, Britain was effectively surrounded by occupied
territory. The Nazi-Soviet Pact which partitioned Poland meant that
Germany could concentrate forces in the west. The threat of an
invasion of the British Isles was high.
We now know that the German plan for invasion (Operation
Seelowe – “Sea Lion”) involved the short sea crossing at the
eastern end of the Channel. But at the time, it was believed that
the threat of invasion by air or sea could materialise almost
anywhere. Certainly the possibility of forces crossing from Norway
and Denmark could not be discounted; and eastern Scotland was
fortified against this eventuality.
Defences took two main forms. Around the shore the so-called
“Coastal Crust” was formed. Using fixed defences such as
pill-boxes, trench-lines, concertina wire, minefields and anti-tank
blocks, the areas of the coast judged vulnerable to invasion were
hardened. Areas where glider-borne forces could land were also
interdicted using networks of large upright poles. These fixed
defences tell only part of the story. Until recently it was not
generally known that the British authorities were also committed to
using chemical weapons to defend against invasion. Airfields near
coastal areas held stores of mustard gas and air units based there
were secretly tasked with delivering the gas in aerosol form over
the beaches if the invasion threat materialised. One of the
airfields and units so charged was No 614 Squadron at
RAF Macmerry
Inland, lines of fixed defences, usually arranged along natural
obstacles such as rivers or canals, were set up as “Stop Lines” to
hold and slow invading forces once ashore. East Lothian had no
designated Stop Lines. However, McKryton has set up a series of
caches in Fife to mark elements of the Fife Stop Line which gives
an excellent picture of how defences would be managed to slow and
destroy invading forces. A Bookmark list of these caches is
here.
There are two related websites which deal with the Second World
War in East Lothian. One is run by the
East Lothian Museums Service. The other relates to a two-volume
book “East Lothian at
War” (Volume One is now out of print.)
This article in Wikipaedia gives a helpful summary of British
anti-invasion defences.
Hedderwick Bunker
Park around N 56°00.009 W 2°33.651 in the large parking
area for the John Muir Country Park. You will already have noticed
that you can combine this cache with several others in the
area!
It is difficult to picture the defensive system on this part of
the coast, given that the trees would not have been present in the
1940s and the dunes would have been much less extensive; and I am
not entirely clear about the original purpose of this building.
There is a long concrete wall with a substantial earth berm behind
it, an enclosed space at one end with provision for a strong door
and a formed end to the concrete wall. There are many structures in
what is now the Hedderwick Woods. This is the only concrete
structure; others are brick built. It is close to the trench line
that defended the coast here (the line of the old posts running
along one side of the path gives the approximate line of the
trenches). It may have been a command post or hard point for weapon
emplacement in the trench line.