Locations for Enemy Without Cause
Mevagissey Inner Harbour Wall Gun Loops
When Johann arrives on the Myrtle Rose in Mevagissey harbour he is aware of rifles being pointed through the gun loops on the inner harbour wall at the vessel as she ties up on the north pier. These had been created during the invasion scare in the summer of 1940 to allow nine soldiers or members of the Home Guard to fire on any vessels attempting to enter the outer harbour or any enemy forces on the outer harbour walls. The embrasures are 10 inches by 9 inches in a concrete block wall that is 57 inches thick. The soldiers using the loopholes would stand on a firestep. The wall is made of concrete and was created by replacing part of the existing harbour wall and inserting the loopholes in the concrete. Apart from the fishermen’s clutter on the firestep it is still there in good condition for all to see.
Donut Dugout, 70 Fore Street, Bodmin
The American Red Cross provided these facilities in all the Cornish towns with a concentration of US troops. They sold doughnuts and coffee. Originally they were provided free to the troops but as the British soldiers had to buy their refreshments in their NAAFI canteens then the Americans felt it prudent to charge their troops a nominal fee as well. The front of the building is still recognisable from its wartime photograph. It now houses The Tavern – a delightful tapas bar run by a Portuguese family.
Lundy Bay
This small cove is on the north Cornish coast between The Rumps where Lawrence Binyon composed ‘For The Fallen’ in the Great War and Port Quin. In the book it is the scene of the delivery of Hexonite by submarine to Johann who was staying with Frau Margeson who rented one of the cliff top chalets. My late friend Mary Hunkin (nee Chamberlaine) was evacuated to a chalet called Lundy Lodge when her family was bombed out of their home in Wandsworth during the Blitz on London. The Salvation Army put them, the few belongings they were able to salvage, on a lorry and drove them down to Cornwall.
Whitemoor
Whitemoor is a small village in clay country. In 1944 it found itself in the midst of one of the American marshalling camps – sausage camp N-H. The tented camp was erected by black troops who were welcomed by the locals who opened a canteen for them in the Sunday School rooms below the village chapel. The photo is of the one remaining trace of the American presence today – a nissen hut on Cleers Farm. Whitemoor was also the location in the book where Vi Burton got arrested for being a spy when she tried to enter the restricted zone without the necessary paperwork.
Pentewan
Pentewan is a small historic harbour village on the south Cornish coast. In November 1943 the Americans requested the beach and its hinterland as a training area as it replicated the landscape they were due to land on in Normandy. It saw several exercises and also staged the dress rehearsal for casualty evacuation for D-Day – Operation Splint. A large tented field hospital was set up and made to be fully functioning in one of Mr John’s fields at Barton Farm. Two hundred “casualties” were triaged, treated and then transported to the beach for evacuation by landing craft personnel or DUKWs which took them out to Landing Ships Tanks moored out in the bay. The exercise was watched by a large group of both British and American bigwigs including Eisenhower’s deputy in the European theatre, Lt General John C.H. Lee.
Trago Mills
The name is synonymous today with a cut-price retail store which is sited in the original Explosives Mills in the Fowey Valley between Liskeard and Bodmin. The site made explosives for the Cornish mines and quarries but during the World Wars turned its hand to developing experimental forms of explosives. In the Great War the site had overseen the development of special explosives used in Admiralty depth charges and in World War Two the Burrowite Explosives Company had developed the No 75 anti-tank grenade. In the book the site is of interest to both the Major and to Johann but you’ll have to read the book to find out why!
Coldharbour Sports Pitches, Bodmin
Pentargan Hotel, Falmouth
As the DCLI Depot developed between the wars these fields were used for team sports such as football, rugby and hockey. When the Americans arrived in large numbers in 1943 they introduced softball and baseball onto them. In April 1944 a boxing ring was set up by the sloped bank between the two pitches providing a natural amphitheatre for spectators to watch an international boxing contest between the US and British armies. The event was refereed by World Heavyweight Champion boxer Joe Louis who was stationed at Blagdon Woods near Launceston and brought in with his sparring partner George Nicholson for the afternoon’s entertainment.
The air raid alert was given in Falmouth for the 783rd time since July 1940 on the night of 29th/30th May 1944. Twenty five German bombers dropped a large amount of heavy explosives, incendiary bombs and fluorescent flares over the port and the surrounding area. 31 different bomb sites were recorded in Falmouth and many ships in the invasion fleet anchored in the harbour reported near misses as many more fell into the water. The Pentargan Hotel with the Boscawen next door suffered a direct hit from a HE bomb. Although most local history books speak of five casualties there were in fact 17 killed. The other 12 were military casualties but their deaths were hushed up after the loss of life at Exercise Tiger in April 1944 the authorities fearing an impact on the morale of the troops about to storm the beaches of Normandy. However, in the aftermath of the raid the following morning photographer George Ellis captured the moment when the Royal Mail postman turned up to the Pentargan to deliver the mail.
Swanvale
Swanvale was a Civil Reserve Petrol Storage Site built in 1939. The 18 tanks, each with a capacity of 6000 cubic metres of oil, were set partly underground. The photograph shows one of the access rooms for the pipes into a tank underground. In Falmouth's final air raid of 1944 the site was hit. One tank suffered a direct hit and was destroyed. Another suffered severe damage and several lesser damage that led to a flaming flow of oil down the stream threatening nearby houses. USNR Chief Boatswain's Mate Phillip Bishop and USNR Machinist's Mate William Serey both received the British Empire Medal (Military Division) for driving a bulldozer to build a dam to stem the flow. In the 21st century the site was cleared for the housing development Prislow Fields.
Turnaware Point
Known to the D-Day planners as PF2 this was an embarkation hard on the eastern bank of the Fal estuary. The site was surveyed by Admiralty in the autumn of 1942 and construction began on the hard and on the concrete road down to it early in November. All the work was done by the British overseen by civil engineer Bernard Breakell, although the construction firm did bring in some Irish navvies to help. On the 1st December 1943 it was inspected by Admiralty and handed over to the Americans to use. In a couple of places the Americans widened the 13 foot road as they feared for their drivers on the “narrow bends” but the roads and hards were NOT built by the Americans. Thirteen landing craft are thought to have embarked their loads at Turnaware on the 1st to 2nd June 1944. Today the site is “cared for” by the National Trust and a new memorial was unveiled in a ceremony for the D-Day 80 commemorations.