Wartime defences of East Lothian
During World War II, invasion of Britain, particularly from the east and south, was seen as a distinct possibility, with Norway remaining a favoured option with regard to Scotland.
Many defences were installed, from simple trenches, through barbed wire, concrete blocks, Dragon’s Teeth, pillboxes and observation posts all being used to impede approach from the sea, and the setting of posts into concrete bases on any wide, flat beaches, to thwart landing by glider.
Although there doesn’t seem to have been a formal organisation in the form of an organised Stop Line, a chance discovery of one photograph of the remains of a World War II road block that would have hindered access to the nearby beach, led to the discovery of at least another 21 related defences, and these have been listed, together with a few convenient photographs on a new page covering these East Lothian Beach Defences, covering the coast roughly between North Berwick and Dunbar.
There are one or two interesting features that have come to light nearby, found while searching for these defences, and these will be added as further new pages.
Since Stop Lines have been mentioned, it may be worth adding that their name is slightly misleading, in that their purpose was not actually to stop the invader, but to delay his progress by any means possible, even if that involved an initial heavy loss of life, which would almost have been inevitable when coming up against attacking forces, at their freshest and most highly motivated peak. Local defenders would have manned the Stop Line, and giving their lives to delay the invader, force him to consume potentially limited resources, and allow time for mass troops to be transported to the enemy landing area, and mount a formal attack to repel, contain, cut-off (from their supply lines), and defeat them.
