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.
Links Wood Pillbox
Park at the end of Lime Tree Walk at N 56.01.199 W 002.35.960. The marked parking spaces are often more than filled and parking spreads down the verge on the south side of the road. This is also the parking recommended for St Baldred’s Cradle and Links Wood Road Block. The caches can be combined in a circular walk.
Follow the path along the margins of wood and shore from the road block site. The pillbox is built into the bank of the shore-line at N 56°01.164, W 002°35.163. Although the inside has partially filled, you can still enter and get a view through the firing slit of the field of fire it commanded across the bay. You can also get a very acute sense of what – had it come to it - the conditions inside the pillbox would have been like after only a few minutes firing.
If you make the circular walk, there is a platform of another pillbox covering Bathan’s Strand, with the roof and front wall lying on the rocks below around N 56°01.369, W002°35.181. The steps down to the position are overgrown but still discernible. Standing on the platform gives a good sense of the enfilade fire that could have brought on any invasion force landing on the beach here. There are also the remains of another road block at N 56°01.369, W 002°35.421. These have been moved and are being buried in the sand.