# @rspb on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck5UHT-MPv3
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34270000-rspb-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/b52220490c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-11-13T09:08:11.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** RSPB (@rspb) — https://gondola.cc/rspb

## Caption

On Remembrance Sunday, we wanted to explore the wartime history of RSPB Minsmere. 

The low-lying Suffolk coast was a likely target for invasion during World War II. Various measures were put in place to defend the vulnerable coastline and some of these archaeological features are still visible if you visit Minsmere today. 

At the start of the visitor trail, concrete foundations for Nissan huts are still on display. There were accommodations for the personnel of a battery of anti-aircraft guns, installed to shoot down V1 bombs. A pillbox was even constructed in the ruins of a medieval chapel in an attempt to hide defences from aerial surveillance.

Minsmere was important during preparations during the 1940/41 invasion scare too. Exercise Kruschen, one of the first exercises undertaken to devise a drill to overcome concrete defences on Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, took place on the heath, and remains of the mock defences can still be seen.

If you visit the shoreline at low tide, the remains of “Dragon’s Teeth” can be spotted. These were a defence line of sharp, metal spikes and rolled barbed wire, designed to rip the bottoms out of German barges to prevent them from landing. Further inland are the “tank traps”, a line of concrete blocks to stop tanks from advancing. Eagle-eyed visitors can find the “Wimpey Defence Line 1940” inscription carved into it.

By the 20th century, the Minsmere levels had been drained for agricultural use but were re-flooded during WWII as another method of defence. This flooding was instrumental in the formation of the reserve we have today, and was the first step in restoring biodiversity at Minsmere. In this same year, after being extinct in the UK for 100 years, avocets successfully bred. You can see the avocets, a conservation success story, on the RSPB logo today and at reserves across the UK. 

📷 David Tipling

#Nature #RemembranceSunday #UKNature #LoveMinsmere

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## Tags

nature, uknature, remembrancesunday, loveminsmere

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