Just a little further along the estuary of the river Beaulieu, just below Lepe House, on a piece of concrete that was an old slipway back in the war years.

Lepe House is one of the 11 large houses that were requisitioned locally for use by military personnel during the war. Its position here at the entrance to the river Beaulieu made it an important signals base for naval activities. And further along the beach if you were to stagger along the beach a little bit further, you would come to Inchmery House that was a base for training Polish and French troops. And many people know the more famous Palace House at Beaulieu where the Special Operations Executive were training special agents which is just at the navigable limit of the Beaulieu River further inland.

Did you know? Nevil Shute’s Requiem for a Wren is partly set on this stretch of the Solent coastline and thought to be part based on his own experiences whilst based near here in the War.

Image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lepe_House_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1096853.jpg">"Lepe House - geograph.org.uk - 1096853"</a> by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/10124" rel="nofollow">Graham Horn</a>&nbsp;is licensed under&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>

Lepe House

Looking out across to the Island, to your right you can see the red and green posts marking the entrance to the river Beaulieu. During the war, the whole of this river estuary was requisitioned by the Navy and there would be a constant stream of military craft going past Lepe rather than the recreational boats we can see today.

A lot of the larger craft would have been stood offshore here and smaller craft plying to and fro, many of those would have been manned by WRENS who were based at nearby Beaulieu, they had to be out in all weathers, believe me a strong south-westerly wind whistling up the Solent can produce some big waves here, they had to go out sometimes at night-time, ferrying equipment out to the larger vessels and perhaps occasionally taking the odd drunken sailor home as well.

Lepe Beach

Now it’s a chance to think back what this site would have looked like in the war years.

Also at this site is the evidence of Lepe’s Cold War heritage. Lepe’s Monitoring Post.

After the World Wars Lepe was the site of an underground monitoring post during the Cold War period which was used by the Royal Observer Corps until 1991. Today, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the post has been restored to how it was originally built. The Stone Point Royal Observer Corps (ROC) post, installed in 1962, was one of the bunkers built as part of the UK Warning &amp; Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO), which was set up in 1957 Aims:

•Warn the public of air attack.

•Provide confirmation of nuclear strike.

•Warn the public of the approach of radioactive fallout.

•Supply the authorities in the UK and neighbouring countries in NATO with details of nuclear bursts and fallout.

•Provide a post-attack meteorological service.

Altogether there were 1,563 similar monitoring posts around the country (later reduced to 870), including a non-standard one in a coal cellar in Windsor Castle! Each post was responsible for sending information to one of twenty-five Group Controls, reporting in turn to five Sector Controls. All disbanded in 1991/2. Stone Point sent information to Winchester and was in the same cluster as Lyndhurst and Marchwood. The posts were installed by contractors from well outside the area to preserve secrecy and would be manned in exercises and emergencies by 3 ROC volunteers from the local area. Radiation inside the post would have been reduced by around 1500:1.In the case of this post and possibly many other an armed special constable from Hythe would have been expected to also stay in the post and emerge to restore order after the attacks. On an attack warning from the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Centre, thousands of sirens would be activated around the country, including a hand-operated one worked by one of the staff at the post, who had to be back inside before the missiles struck! The warning time could have been around 3-4 minutes for a land-based missile, less from a nearby submarine.

Image: <a href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3459610">''Pine trees at Lepe Country Park'' </a>by <a href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/14997">John Lucas</a> is licensed under&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA 2.0</a> / desaturated from the original

Clifftop View

A very poignant spot, with this giant anchor in front of us, which is a very fitting memorial to the men who embarked from this area for the D-day invasion.

It’s a little bit strange in that we have got everyday life carrying on around us and yet all we have to do is turn our backs and look out over the Solent and start imagining as to what was really going on all those years ago. Further out at sea there were preparations being made under the operation codenamed Neptune; this was a massive minesweeping and buoy laying operation. They had to establish 5 safe sea lanes for the invasion fleet from a muster point just south of the Isle of Wight nicknamed Piccadilly Circus to allow safe passage for the fleet which included 4000 landing craft, 1200 warships and 900 merchant ships, an absolutely massive flotilla.

D-Day Memorial

Looking out to sea once again, just opposite a spit that goes off from the shore here, at low tide, people wander along the spit but must take care, as the tide can come in quite quickly and cut you off if you are not careful.

We’re here really to remember some of the practice landings and things that took place in the run-up to D-day, one of the final ones, Operation Fabius, took place between the 2nd and 6th May 1944, and British and Canadian troops from Lepe were loaded up onto landing craft and practiced invading Bracklesham Bay further along the coast. It’s likely that troops stationed at other locations were brought to Lepe for their training too.

Horseshoe Shingle Spit

As we’ve already heard on this audio tour of Lepe, the place had a very different atmosphere, as troops and military personnel made their preparations for D-Day.

Proof of just how important the site was prior to the Normandy landings lies all around us. Even today, roads, tracks concrete and metalwork features are still very much evident.What we are looking at here then is real evidence of what was happening all those years ago.The concrete track that you can see through the gate was laid during the war years to help improve access to the embarkation beach. It continues to the slipway further east, but it has been covered by shingle over time.

The Old Road. Access Track

Since this audio was recorded, a new permanent memorial for the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards has been installed further along the beach.

The information board will demonstrate what the remains are here at Lepe. Take some time to explore what the remains are and if you’re keen to know more, you can pick up a leaflet from the Park office on your return back to the visitor hub.

Or for more reading on D-Day at Lepe visit:

<a href="https://nfknowledge.org/contributions/d-day-at-lepe-beach" rel="noopener" target="_blank" title="D-Day at Lepe Beach NFKnowledge">D-Day at Lepe Beach</a>

&nbsp;

D-Day Remains

Just a few steps to walk over to the structure we are looking at the moment is a round bricked structure.

It’s the base of a water tower, part of the facilities that were needed to support the 700 workers who were employed her to build the 6 Phoenix caissons, Lepe’s contribution to the Mulberry Harbour project. The caissons were huge reinforced concrete boxes, 200 foot long, and the men that were working on them probably had absolutely no idea what they were for, that they were the sections of a huge harbour, that would then be towed across the harbour and then set up on the French coast.

Water Tower Base

Looking east you can see Calshot Activities Centre, and then the curve of Stanswood Bay.

And then in our near view here we’ve got the part of the remains which reminds us about the Mulberry harbour construction. Building the Mulberry harbours was a triumph of British ingenuity and engineering. From start to finish the project took just 6 months and cost 40 million.

Here at Lepe 6 Phoenix caissons were constructed simultaneously and then winched by hand to where we are stood now to be launched sideways into the Solent.&nbsp;

Image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Phoenix_breakwaters_(1).jpg">"The Phoenix breakwaters (1)''</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/38605191@N05">Joost. J. Bakker</a> is licensed under&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">CC BY 2.0</a>&nbsp;/ crop and filters applied to the original

Phoenix Caissons

Once you are closer to the bollards they really do stand out.

From a distance they look quite ordinary size, but when you see them close up they really are quite something. They are going to be here for a very long time. If its low tide when you are here, if you look down beyond them towards the shore, you can see what looks like little chocolate squares on the beach where they laid hardening to allow troops and vehicles to get down to be loaded onto the landing craft.

They are slowly disappearing over time, but they will last for a few more years yet. At this final point it’s good to look back at the whole operation. Operation Overlord, which was the name given to the total combined operation of the invasion of France in 1944, marked a turning point in the war, and this part of the country played a huge part in its success. It was described by King George VI as the greatest combined operation the world has ever seen, perhaps the greatest it will ever see. It involved 20,000 vehicles and 176,000 men. And 6000 of those troops and their associated vehicles left from Lepe.

This audio for this tour was recorded in 2010, a new permanent memorial for the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards has since been installed further along the beach. Historical facts given in the audio are correct according to information available at the time and new information may have been uncovered since. 
 
Image: <a href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4310840">''Lepe, bollards''</a> by <a href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/30470">Mike Faherty</a> is licensed under&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA 2.0</a> / desaturated from the original

Bollards

On the 6th June 1944, thousands of troops with their vehicles and supplies left Britain for the beaches of Normandy. This was D-Day, the start of the great campaign to drive the German army out of France and to bring the Second World War to its end. The D-Day invasion, code named Operation Overlord, one of the best kept secrets of the war, was underway.

Lepe played three important roles:

• As a major departure point for troops, vehicles and supplies.

• As a construction site for part of the prefabricated floating Mulberry Harbour.

• As the mainline base for the PLUTO fuel pipeline.

This audio tour focuses on Lepe’s varied roles and will share with you how Lepe and the surrounding area, played a vital part in the build up to D-Day and invasion of Europe. As you explore the area, you will also hear memories from those who were actually there at the time, the Normandy veterans themselves.

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Audio tour developed by "Lepe Country Park" and powered by IZI.travel

Lepe D-Day Tour

Lepe

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Lepe

Lepe D-Day Tour

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