06.06.2008

64 years ago today the view from Peveril Point for the duty Coastguard would have been very different. The Coastguard then under war conditions had a slightly different role, the following is taken from the MCA's main web site.

The Coastguard Service Act (1925) still allowed the Admiralty control of the Coastguard in time of national need. In the 1930s the departments worked together to prepare the Coastguard as a War Watching Organisation.

When war came 4,500 Auxiliary Coastguards were recruited on National Service to strengthen stations coast wide. Intelligence and signalling were again key tasks. In May 1940, fearing invasion, the Admiralty assumed control and armed the Coastguard. Life saving was hampered by beach defences but in 1940 the LSA Brigades met one of their greatest challenges. The destroyer's 'Ashanti' and 'Fame' ran aground on the rocky Durham coast. Life Saving Apparatus carried the local firemen aboard the burning 'Fame', ferried ammunition in danger of exploding ashore, and overnight landed 104 men from the two ships.

In the south Coastguards gained a new rescue task. Lookouts used cross-bearings to direct the air/sea rescue service launches searching for airmen who had ditched in the Channel.

D-Day brought safety from invasion and a reduction in the Auxiliary Coastguard numbers. In 1945 the service was placed under the Ministry of War Transport, eventually returning to the Marine Division of the Board of Trade in 1959.

By 06.00, 64 years ago, the duty watch keepers and the shore battery crews at Peveril would have already witnessed a massive flotilla of ships leave Poole and head for the shores of Normandy, no doubt this continued for several days if not weeks.

Many of those men who were either local or trained for many months in the Purbecks never returned.

Less we forget.