Local historian Ted Gosling discusses World War II in East Devon
The War Years
American solidiers at Honiton C 1943
The Nestles factory at Branscombe Square C 1943
Don't forget the Dunkeswell Memorial Museum, which is dedicated to all the Veterans of United States Fleet Air Wing 7 and RAF personnel who served on the only American Navy air base commissioned on UK soil during World War II.
It's hard to imagine this sort of activity in sleepy old Beer!
Isn't it hard to imagine that just 65+ years ago, we 'could' have been taken over by Germany's evil regime - we all owe an eternal debt of gratitude to those who made the ultimate sacrifice -
O
ne of the first incidents of the Second World War occurred on Sunday, 17th September 1939, just 2 weeks after war had been declared on Germany, when the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous was sunk by a German U-boat (U29) in the Atlantic to the west of Ireland. A total of 519 of her crew perished, many of them Devon men, including Capt. W.T. Makeig-Jones, whose mother and sister lived at Fremington Road in Seaton. This disaster was felt very deeply by the local people of East Devon, to whom the war was very real and not phoney. Warners Holiday Camp at Seaton was requisitioned and reopened in October 1939 as an internment camp for classified aliens. The camp consisted largely of wooden huts situated close to the seafront. These huts were subject to frequent flooding, so Army huts were soon built on the opposite side of Station Road, and a high barbed wire fence
including Italians. They also arranged for the deportation of a large number to Canada, and the pre-war luxury liner, the Andorra Star, sailed from Liverpool with 1,600 internees aboard, some of whom were from the Seaton camp. During the crossing the ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in the Atlantic.
Thank God we haven't had to go back to carrying these about! Very necessary in wartime, the small print makes interesting reading.
erected around the camp complex. Wooden observation towers were also erected at all four corners, manned by armed guards. The camp had a curious mixture of aliens, including Jewish refugees, Germans who had fled from Nazi Germany, other German nationals
and also known Nazis. Forced to live together, they all agreed to an unofficial truce, although fighting did sometimes break out. Later on, when the invasion of England was expected, the British Government decided on the mass internment of all alien subjects,
East Devon Coast & Country
In 1940 the RAF came to the area and no.13 Radar Station was built on Beer Head, with a prominent wooden tower and mast. Early in the war, radar was our secret weapon, and it provided early warning of the approach of hitand-run German raiders who were attempting to destroy the naval gun on Cliff Field, which was disguised as a small house. Unfortunately another house nearby, at the corner of Seahill and Castle Hill, was hit and demolished, resulting in the death of the Cartwright family who were having lunch at the time. Other bombs fell in Highwell Road and
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