Looking for a day trip out of London? There’s an interesting nook in Newhaven – a one hour and fifteen-minute trip from Victoria Station. Here, you can zoom back to WW2, where you’ll find an ingeniously planned 19th century fort. Inset secretively by the coast, it was of strategic import during the D-Day Landings of 6 June 1944. (Not to mention the disastrous raid on Dieppe.)
What’s so interesting about this place ? Give it time! Roam around the interior and you’ll find the barracks, where doomed young men waited to be shipped out. Sit in the one of the dark, tunnel rooms, to relive the Blitz – sirens, wardens and the all-clear; it really will give you an insight into what living then was really like. Have a look at the severe food rationing – an absolute disaster if you liked cake! You can even pose for a selfie in the wooden cut outs – World War Two Nurse? Cavalry officer?
Back then, people just sacrificed and got on with it; a generally selfless generation. Can you imagine if the young today were asked to do the same? Truth be told, there’s something special, something nostalgic and reassuringly old school about Newhaven Fort; it’s the antithesis of Ai, social media, narcissism and consumerism.
As I strolled across the grass, overlooking Newhaven docks, I considered how easy we have it. No rationing, no bombs, no tragic lists of the war dead…
My own grandmother, Elsie Dora lived through both WWI and WW2 – and never complained, more regretfully, I never got to talk with her about it. Perhaps, that’s today’s takeaway? The lesson of selflessness? No doubt we all have problems, but at least we aren’t dealing with the daily lottery that is war – at least not here.
Makes you think about the wars that are happening right now, doesn’t it?
London Sketches – A D-Day Trip
Here, you can zoom back to WW2, where you’ll find an ingeniously planned 19th century fort.