Having been involved with English Heritage’s ‘20th Century Fortifications in Britain Project’ from 1996 to 2010, and growing up in this coastal landscape, a vested interest is declared. I know this landscape, some of it intimately, and I know the wider historical context of which its Second World War defences formed a vital part. In the words of Private Godfrey, this book felt rather ‘near’ and because I know the area so well I was fearful of disappointment. I needn’t have worried. A quick first glance gave an entirely positive impression – a clear thematic structure, an informed but accessible narrative style, excellent production and bold and helpful illustrations. A close read confirmed the first impression: this is a tremendous book and an outstanding example of how to weave complex local history with the intricacies of landscape archaeology. In any such study the maps play a vital role and here they are among the best I have seen; their bright colourful tones and their ability to convey complexity through simple representation is genius. From a personal angle, they also shed new light on a familiar landscape. Even though the aforementioned study revealed the locations of many of these sites on a national scale, seeing them presented in such close detail gives a nuance that promotes new understanding of both strategy and deployment and of the lasting impact of these sites on the landscape and on memory. I know from my own excursions that traces of many of these sites survive today. This book confirms that impression.
As the authors explain, this study was not straightforward, the book ‘being a long time in the making’. It is the result of two research projects, the first a local ‘Walberswick project’, funded by the University of East Anglia in 2012, and the second a wider EU-funded programme from 2012–15. The study area is a distinctive and comparatively remote region on England’s east coast, stretching from Lowestoft in the north to Landguard Point in the south, about forty kilometres in all. The Sandlings is so-named for its geology and sandy soils, comprising shallow valleys and estuaries, low sandy cliffs and long beaches – a vulnerable landscape therefore in terms of an invasion threat. Its remoteness also made it suitable for covert military training, and arguably enhanced the chances of site survival across subsequent decades. From enemy territory the region was also on a direct route to the industrial midlands and north, and to London. This was also therefore a landscape of anti-aircraft defence and of DIVER – a specific and mobile deployment against the fast changing trajectories of the V1 flying bomb.
This is a wonderful book, a welcome combination of accessible, affordable and learned. It sets a high bar not only for regional studies of militarised landscape, brilliantly combining archival research with field survey, but also for landscape archaeology in general. Many readers will appreciate the skill with which the authors have made a complex landscape easier to comprehend. The book’s greatest achievement, however, and the reason it should be read beyond a conflict archaeology audience, is the impressive way the authors engage with and present landscape, a fluid and ever-changing form, which always has more to reveal. I no longer live in East Suffolk, but I cannot wait to go back, and will take this book with me when I go.
