Panel stitched by:
May Bowie
Patsy Brown
Frances Fettes
Stitched in:
North Berwick, Eskbank
Several generations after the German surrender, the marks of war can still be found in Scotland. When an invasion fleet sailed up the Oslo Fjord in 1940, one of its strategic aims was to open up a thousand-mile-long start line for an invasion of Britain. That, in turn, exposed the east coast of Scotland to a direct threat of invasion. Concrete obstacles to inhibit tank movement were hurriedly built on beaches and pillboxes set up at strategic vantage points. But, while the nearest and clearest threat was to the south-east of England, Scotland had few soldiers to defend its shores. In many places, a German invasion force could have landed unchallenged. The Moray Firth coastlands were thought to be particularly vulnerable and so the Cowie Stop Line was constructed. Near Stonehaven and following the line of the Cowie Water, a series of earthworks and concrete obstacles was built between the North Sea coastline and the foothills of the Grampians. This narrow neck of land was the gateway to southern Scotland and, while invaders might have been able to land in Moray or Banff, they would have had to round that corner of Scotland’s geography. In truth, the Cowie Stop Line would have slowed down an advance rather than halt it. In the 1950s and 1960s, Scotland’s concrete defences against the Nazis supplied schoolchildren with a setting for war games with toy guns that had more than a shiver of authenticity. They were built for a real war and might really have been attacked.
Panel stitched by:
May Bowie
Patsy Brown
Frances Fettes
Stitched in:
North Berwick, Eskbank