Thursday 14 October 2021

Lion-Eyes


From this fortified bunker overlooking Studland Bay in Dorset, England, Winston Churchill, King George the Sixth, Field-Marshall Viscount Montgomery and General Eisenhower oversaw the practice for D-Day in 1943. What a shambles.


This was the viewing area on the inside..


... and this was the panorama they saw. I took these photos today.


Imagine their surprise to see a British Lion staring back at them.

I have been on holiday to this place this week. I will talk more about it later if you want.

20 comments:

  1. Hope they weren't iterested in what the aircraft were doing.

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    1. The aircraft were busy bombing heathland behind them.

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  2. Interesting and typically British I think. Love Tasker's comment above too. I am always interested in what you write Tom - you are one of the ones who keep my brain in working order. Hope you have enjoyed Studland Bay - lovely area - years since I was down that way Hope you had reasonable weather.

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  3. You're back. I look forward to hearing about what a lovely time you had and all that peace and quiet.

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  4. I hope you had a great holiday.

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  5. Was the entrance and exit more commodious? What did it smell like? Kept clean or too many pees? Does the salt air change the atmosphere?

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    1. The entrance and exits were very tight to diminish bomb blasts. The air inside was fine. No smells, maybe because it is constantly refreshed with sea air.

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  6. Joining my eloquent previous speakers: Please talk more about it!

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  7. I live fairly close to Dover, with its castle and the vast system of WWII tunnels, operational throughout the war and where, too, Churchill et al watched the passage of the war.. The D-Day landings were a success in spite of that shambolic practice in Studland Bay you mention (They did it there to convince the Germans that we would be invading from further down the coast.

    It was all overseen by Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsey who also was in charge of the Dunkirk evacuations. A great man and planner who is often overlooked, but his statue stands in the Castle, overlooking the channel, with these words beneath it, by A.P. Herbert:

    I ploughed a passage through the foam,
    Dunkirk and Deal - Dieppe and Dover,
    I brought the flower of Britain home
    And took the fruit of freedom over

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    1. I like the huge listening devices on the South Coast.

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  8. Good to have a change of scenery … hope you had a great break away. I think you showed us where you were going to stay ….. was it a nice hotel ? XXXX

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  9. White Cliffs of Dover - very beautiful.

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    1. Not Dover, though you can see the white cliffs of the Isle of Wight from here.

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  10. Great to have a holiday you will both be refreshed. Those lookout posts are dotted all over Britain, they lay on the landscape like a terrible scar reminding us of long ago wars.

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