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 Things to Come

After two months in country, the 129th had seen some action in defense of England, putting their long months of training to the test. At roughly five months in, they were moved to the southwest city of Weston-super-Mare, a seaside resort town known for its vast estuary, a wide, shallow inlet on the Bristol Channel. They began to waterproof their equipment “preparing for invasion of France.” So, by this time, they knew their purpose.

Though the diary doesn’t mention it, nor have I seen it mentioned anywhere, I can’t help but imagine that the seafront along Weston was used as a training area for amphibious assault. It is extremely shallow, to the point that at low tide, the water retreats to the horizon and one can walk a mile of beach out to the sea. At high tide, the water is only wading depth, more or less, leaving still a vast beach across which to charge.

(Turn your volume down. Loud wind noise on the video.)

Mark and I went on a small expedition to Sand Bay, just to the north of Weston, in search of a World War II-era machine gun emplacement. We struck out along Sand Bay Beach but could not see anything and, searching one last area, we headed further north in Mark's car along Sand Point Road, a pavement that got narrower and narrower the further we went. Just as Mark was looking for a place to turn around, we passed the emplacement. The road was so narrow at that point, Mark couldn’t stop or else he would be blocking traffic should any come along. So we parked at the National Trust car park at the end of the road, maybe a quarter of a mile past the bunker. The instructions to pay for parking at the remote location were unclear, so Mark suggested I walk back up the road to see the pillbox while he figured out the parking. I saw that one could enter the pillbox, but I first opted to step out into the field of fire, as it were, to take photos of the front of it. It sits among some seriously overgrown foliage and is barely visible from the front, but I did get some photos. Just as I stepped forward to return to the pillbox, I looked to my right, to the south, and about 100 yards away I saw the peak of another one! I walked to it and took a couple photos of its front and returned to the first one I had seen. They really had nothing to do with the 129th AAA Battalion, but they were neat to find and explore.