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This #RemembranceSunday 
, we're taking a look back at the wartime history of one of our reserves - @RSPBMinsmere 
#Thread #LoveMinsmere
, we're taking a look back at the wartime history of one of our reserves - @RSPBMinsmere #Thread #LoveMinsmere
Before we acquired Minsmere in 1947, the Suffolk coast was seen as a likely target for invasion and measures were put in place to defend it. Some are still visible & represent important archaeological features, while others helped to shape Minsmere's journey as an RSPB reserve.
At the start of the visitor trail, concrete foundations for Nissan huts are visible. These were accommodations for the personnel of a battery of 3.7 inch heavy anti-aircraft guns, installed to shoot down V1 flying bombs as part of the so-called Operation Diver.
In a ruse to hide defences from aerial observation, a pillbox was even constructed within the ruins of a medieval chapel - an important feature in its own right!
Minsmere was prominent in preparations during the 1940/41 invasion scare, too. Exercise Kruschen - an early exercise undertaken to devise a drill to overcome concrete defences on Hitler’s Atlantic Wall - took place in early 1943 on the heaths.
Close to the shore, to be seen at low tide, are the remains of the "Dragon's Teeth", a defence line comprising of long, sharp metal spikes & rolled barbed wire, designed to rip the bottoms out of German barges, preventing them from landing.
Further inland is the most obvious wartime archaeology at Minsmere - the "tank traps". This line of concrete blocks were cast in situ to prevent tanks from coming ashore; one bears an inscription, carved into the concrete - "Wimpey Defence Line 1940."
By the 20th Century the levels had been drained for agriculture, but were re-flooded during WWII for defence. This flooding was the 1st step in restoring biodiversity, & that ultimately led to the RSPB managing the site - in the same year avocets first bred at Minsmere.
