'For the last 20 years,
'I've driven hundreds of thousands of miles
'to uncover the history of these islands.
'But now, it's time to do something different.'
I'm going to turn the engine off, leave the car behind.
Instead, I'm going to walk.
'My walks will uncover the richest history from our finest landscapes
'in a way that's only possible on foot.
'This time, I'm covering a 60 mile stretch of the coast of Dorset.'
I'm here to uncover evidence of a time when this sleepy county
of rolling hills and winding lanes was utterly transformed.
Because when World War Two broke out
and the threat of a Nazi invasion was only too real,
this was frontline Britain.
MILITARY DRUMS
Dorset's coastline boasts some stunning scenery.
Lofty limestone cliffs overlook shallow bays and long beaches.
A coastal path and a network of inland byways
make this a paradise for walkers.
I've planned a four day walk
that takes in the best this coast has to offer.
I'm starting outside the village of Abbotsbury,
on the unique 18 mile Chesil Beach.
I'll explore the extraordinary harbours of Weymouth and Portland
and marvel at the strange geology of places like Durdle Door.
I'll be watching my step as I cross the firing ranges of Lulworth...
..and I'll head for Studland Bay and Swanage.
Both my final destinations had vital and secret roles to play
in the run-up to D-Day
and make a fitting end to my journey.
MILITARY DRUMS
Hidden everywhere is a rich history of defiance and courage
exhibited during the most destructive war
the world has ever known.
This is a great story, from 1940
when everyone thought the Germans were about to invade,
through to 1944 and the D-Day landings.
It's a series of events that have left an indelible mark in Dorset
and nowhere more so than here on Chesil Beach.
The beach was created by tidal currents
that deposited shingle to form the long bar,
which stretches from West Bay to Portland Bill.
Walking along this beach is a bit like a workout in the gym,
every step of the way, you're fighting these pebbles,
which are in fact unique.
In fact, they're so unique, that if you remove a single one of them,
you could be in big trouble.
'This is a world heritage site
'and a site of special scientific interest,
'so I'll be leaving the shingle right here.'
'But not so long ago,
'the beach attracted interest of a very different kind.'
(SPEAKS IN GERMAN)
CHEERING
In May 1940, the Germans invaded France,
conquering the entire country in just six weeks.
EXPLOSION
British forces had to be evacuated from Dunkirk
and everyone expected a Nazi invasion of Britain within weeks.
The long open stretches of Chesil Beach
were a prime target for a German invasion.
So, engineers spent the summer of 1940
working furiously to erect defences here.
What are these things, John?
Anti-tank blocks.
When were they built?
August, 1940.
How do these things work?
It's simply a large chunk of concrete.
And the tank can't climb over it,
it can't come through the gaps here...
so it has to stop.
The blocks are cleverly positioned.
Any vehicle landing between here and Portland
is prevented from advancing inland by the lagoon behind the beach.
So these 'Dragon's Teeth' effectively block the only exit
from a ten mile stretch of shingle.
And they weren't the only defences that were put in place.
There's pillboxes behind us,
there's medium machine gun trenches to our right
and there's an anti-tank ditch
running all along the bottom of the beach.
'The defences were designed to deter infantry,
'as well as vehicle landings.'
So this would have been for machine guns?
Yes, indeed.
What would it have looked like?
Be... no pebbles in here,
so, you'd have a trench here and here.
There's a platform here, the machine gun would have sat around here,
so as low as possible.
How many people in here?
There would've been three people.
How far would they have been able to defend?
As far as the eye can see.
The horizon of the beach,
out to... across the fields, roughly, 90 degrees.
'The defences here aren't just on the coast.'
My path takes me past some of the 300 pill-boxes
that were built right across Dorset in 1940.
Young soldiers would've spent days and nights in places like this,
anxiously scanning the sea for the enemy.
'It's almost unimaginable,'
the amount of fear people must have gone through,
especially around here.
I can't imagine a few bits of concrete helping much.
I mean, look at this pillbox.
The thing that strikes me about it is how small it is.
Can't imagine that would've stopped an invasion, can you?
'Luckily, it didn't have to.'
I'm heading east towards Weymouth and Portland
with their famous harbours
and my route brings me down to the lagoon behind Chesil Beach.
Called The Fleet, it gets its name from the Saxon word 'Fleot',
meaning shallow waterway.
It was created at the end of the Ice Age,
when rising sea levels flooded the area
behind Chesil's shingle bar.
Now twitchers flock here for its array of bird life,
although in Abbotsbury, it's dominated by one breed...
the swan.
There's been a swannery here since medieval times,
when local Benedictine monks set one up
to farm the swans for their dinner table.
'But I haven't come here to admire the wildlife.'
'I've come to reveal The Fleet's own wartime story.'
In late 1942, this stretch of water was turned into a test ground
for one of the most innovative weapons of the war,
the incredible dam-busting, bouncing bomb.
EXPLOSIONS
This bam-bam-bam-bam-bom-bom-bom...
is one of the original prototypes for Barnes Wallis's
famous bouncing bombs, which took part in the Dam Busters' raids.
The final bombs didn't really look like that,
they looked more like oil drums,
but it took a lot of experimentation to get to that shape
and a lot of the original trials took place just round the corner.
Barnes Wallis needed a place with long stretches of open water
to test his bouncing bombs, but it also had to be shallow enough
so these prototypes could be easily retrieved.
The Fleet was ideal, and for a few months in 1942 and early 1943,
his team came here for the first ever tests of their novel weapon.
He told us afterwards
that they'd actually put a bullet right through his saucepan.
'Local residents Dick Dalley and Bob Payne
'were just boys at the time.'
So, which direction did the planes come from?
They came from that direction and they went right the way down,
about half a mile down when they released their bombs.
You can see why they would've dropped them here.
Perfect place for a bouncing bomb.
Yes, yeah.
Did you have any idea what it was that was going on?
No, the only thing we thought it could be was a type of mine
that was going to bounce off the water and hit the side of a ship.
I know you were only a little lad,
but did you meet Barnes Wallis or any of his people?
Yes, I met one of his team. He came and lodged with us.
How did you get on with him?
Very well. He helped me with my homework.
I used to get ten out of ten when he helped me.
And after he left?
Oh, I was lucky to get three out of ten.
ALL CHUCKLE
It's extraordinary, isn't it, that today this is a lovely haven
for waterfowl and sea birds, yet one of the most important experiments
of the second world war was taking place here.
And you were just staring at it as kids,
not having a clue what was going on.
No, no idea.
Barnes Wallis' extraordinary invention saw action
in the famous Dambuster raids of May 1943,
which seriously undermined the industrial power
of the German war machine.
And the seeds of his success were sown here,
in the waters of The Fleet.
But that's jumping ahead in my story.
For now, I take the path up away from The Fleet, heading east.
Come on, don't dawdle.
So...
We're round about here, and I want to go all the way along there,
down there. About three miles, I think, into Langton Herring.
'It's what's known as a 'Doubly Thankful' village,
'which means that all the men who left here to fight in World War One
'and in World War Two survived.
'So if you're looking for a memorial
'commemorating Langton Herring's War dead, you won't find one.'
And extraordinarily, there are just 14 villages in the whole country
that can make that claim to fame.
That's where I'm heading.
That's Portland, with Weymouth round the corner.
And can you see there's a line of clouds... just over there?
I reckon that's a front and I'm not convinced
that I'll get to Weymouth without getting drenched.
In the summer of 1940,
the people of Dorset had a lot more to worry about than dodgy weather.
Just across the water, on Sunday 30th June,
the Nazis invaded the Channel Islands.
On the very same day,
German bombers launched some of the first attacks on Britain.
And if I'd been in Weymouth that fateful Sunday back in 1940,
I wouldn't have been looking for a hotel for the night,
I'd have been looking for shelter from German bombs.
EXPLOSIONS
I'm on the second day of my journey
discovering how World War II played out
along what is today a rather wet Dorset coast.
Today, 12 miles in, I've reached the towns of Weymouth and Portland.
They sit either side of a huge harbour, and in 1940
it was home to one of the Royal Navy's biggest south-coast bases.
Overlooking the harbour on the Weymouth side,
Nothe Fort was originally built in Victorian times,
when the threat came from the French, not the Germans.
Now it's a museum, but it doesn't take long
to realise it played a crucial role in World War II as well.
I don't think this is Victorian - do you?
And there are other examples of the very hasty refurb that they did -
over there, and over there.
In early 1940, Nothe Fort was rigged
with anti-aircraft guns and searchlights,
because now the coastal defences
had to cope with the threat of attack from the air
as well as the sea.
That's a pretty chunky piece of equipment, isn't it?
Hang on, I'll just get a bit closer to it.
Shouldn't really do this.
They've actually had searchlights here since the year 1910 -
although that one was put in very swiftly in 1940
by the British company General Electric.
I'm sure it worked much better than its predecessor,
but I wonder if one of the reasons for swapping it
was because the previous one was made by Siemens of Germany.
The defences at Nothe Fort would soon be tested in action.
Within days of the fall of France,
Hitler's attention was focused across the Channel to Britain.
The strategically important Portland Harbour was a prime target.
It was home to a significant number of Britain's warships,
but it was vulnerable.
And on June 30th 1940, German bombers attacked.
It was to be just the first of a series of raids
designed to cripple the Royal Navy ahead of a German seaborne invasion.
I've come to Portland
to meet someone who experienced those bombing raids at first hand.
Hello, Poppy. Nice to see you.
And you.
Are you going to show me where your house was?
Yes, yes.
This was the street you used to live in when you were a little girl?
Yes.
'Poppy Butcher grew up here
'and has vivid memories of that summer of 1940.'
And this one's your house?
Yes, that's where I lived. I was born there, 11th November 1928.
I've got a picture of me taken outside the house.
Yeah. Oh.
Must have been a great little street for people to play.
Yes, it was lovely.
Lots of children, we had a great fun.
Do you remember when the bombs started falling?
Yes, I do.
It was on a Sunday, on 30th of June 1940.
It was the first air raid we had
and I think it was the first air raid in England.
The planes came over and they flew very low
and they started dropping bombs.
You could hear them whistling down. We would lay on the ground.
You must have been terrified?
Oh, I think we probably were, but we... It was exciting as well.
So it's... I think when you're younger,
you know, you don't feel fear of things.
'Portland was bombed five more times in the following two weeks.'
The following Thursday, on the 4th of July,
there was a very heavy air raid on the dockyard.
They bombed the Foylebank.
HMS Foylebank was a former merchant ship
that had been fitted with anti-aircraft guns.
She was deployed to protect the harbour from attack,
an assignment that made her a prime target for incoming German aircraft.
In the raid on the 4th July 1940, the Foylebank was bombed and sank,
with 72 casualties.
And they weren't the only ones in the firing line.
Poppy's father, a dock worker, was in the harbour that day.
They were building a tunnel to put the oil tanks,
and when the siren went they all ran into the tunnel.
And then the all-clear came, and they all came out,
and a lone plane came over and killed 14 of them.
Sadly, my father was killed on that day.
Sad.
Yes, yes, very sad.
One of the other casualties was sailor Jack Mantle -
a gunner on board HMS Foylebank.
His grave is in the Royal Navy Cemetery overlooking the harbour.
And because of his bravery that day,
he was one of the first servicemen in the war
to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
Possibly not the nicest section of this walk -
but even on a rubbish day like today,
still a pretty amazing view from the top.
Jack Mantle was 23 when the attack happened
and is laid to rest alongside some of his colleagues from the ship.
There's somebody off the Foylebank there,
and one there, one there, one there.
Foylebank, Foylebank. So many of them.
This is it - J F Mantle, Jack Mantle VC -
he won the Victoria Cross,
and this is his citation.
"Leading Seaman Jack Mantle was in charge of the Starboard pom-pom gun
"when HMS Foylebank was attacked by enemy aircraft
"on 4th of July 1940."
"Early in the action, his left leg was shattered by a bomb,
"but he stood fast at his gun and went on firing.
"Between his bursts of fire he had time to reflect
"on the grievous injuries of which he was soon to die,
"but his great courage bore him up till the end of the fight,
"when he fell by the gun he had so valiantly served."
And he was 23 years of age.
As I leave Weymouth, the sun has finally broken through.
And I can for a moment imagine how the darkness lifted
from the lives of the people here in September 1940.
The Germans had repeatedly bombed the area that July and August,
but then, in late summer,
they switched their attention to big cities like London.
Weymouth was spared.
And today, as I leave the surprisingly intact Georgian streets behind,
I can appreciate a different kind of air display.
Can you see that flock of terns?
They're fishing in there and every time one gets one,
it flies over the other side of the road with one in its mouth -
there's a bird reserve over there - and presumably feeds its chicks.
It's lovely. Really nice.
I've another four miles to go,
around the bay to Osmington Mills where there's rather a good pub.
But it's time to enjoy the countryside
and I can make a good pace under the clear skies.
Which is good,
because the next stage of my journey is going to be very different.
I'll be going underground in search of mysterious hidden bunkers.
But that's for the morning.
'It's the third day of my quest for the hidden remnants
'of the Second World War along the Dorset coast
'and I've just over six miles to do today.'
As you can see, I've ordered the full English.
I never know whether that's a good idea when you're walking
because you're burning the calories slowly all day
or whether it's stupid because it just makes you slow and sluggish.
But we'll find out, won't we?
Oh, and by the way, the weather forecast couldn't be worse.
'My route will take me over the hills to Ringstead Bay,
'where I'm going to find out how this area
'played its part at the height of the Battle of Britain.
'Then a wonderful stretch of coast
'before my next overnight stop in Lulworth Cove.'
'As soon as I leave the pub, it's clear the forecast was about right.'
'The coastal path here is quite a challenge to the walker
'so it's just as well that this morning
'I need to keep my eyes on the ground,
'where I'm looking for traces of a cutting edge wartime technology.'
That's a bit unusual, isn't it?
A great square of concrete in the middle of the path.
It's got to be World War II, hasn't it, overlooking the sea there?
'It's the first sign that I've entered a part of the coast
'absolutely crucial to the defence of Britain in 1940.'
'I've met up with pilot and historian Graham Matthews.'
We had a very large radar station here,
which we're walking up towards one of the bunkers now.
But the part that you just passed,
that probably would have been the receiver aerial base.
There were a couple of very large masts there,
round about 240 feet high, with some bunkers hidden in the woods
and also some other ancillary buildings to do with the equipment.
'Radar uses bursts of high frequency radio waves,
'transmitted from a mast, to detect aircraft.
'The signal bounced back to receiver stations allows operators
'to work out the aircraft's height, speed and direction.'
It was developed just before the war.
The RAF needed some form of system to give early warning of any
approaching German bombers or fighters.
It was used very effectively during the Battle of Britain.
'Between July and September 1940,
'the Luftwaffe and RAF fought for air supremacy
'over southern England.'
'The Germans needed control of the skies if they were going to invade,
'so the whole future of the war hung in the balance.
'Radar gave the Brits a fighting chance
'and the western end of the detection network
'was based on the Dorset coast.'
So where is it that you're taking me?
Just up here about another couple of hundred metres,
we've got one of the transmitter bunkers which is still intact.
'The transmitter bunkers were key parts of the radar chain.'
'And although it's difficult to find,
'the one here at Ringstead is still open to the public.'
Cor, it is big, isn't it?
You have to remember, 70 years ago, when the war was on,
we didn't have computers and small microchips,
we're dealing with valves and big units
so that's basically... We needed a space to put all that equipment in.
'The equipment needed for this primitive
'but vital technology was so large,
'there would only have been room for four operators in here at most.'
Is that a ventilation shaft?
Yeah, because you've got to remember, when the RAF personnel
were in here working, this would have been a sealed environment.
Yeah.
'During the Battle of Britain, stations like this were frantically
'feeding back information on enemy plane movements to Fighter Command.'
'Thanks to their work, RAF fighters broke up repeated German attacks...'
'..and on September 15th 1940,
'they claimed an incredible 185 Luftwaffe planes.'
'It proved a turning point.
'The Nazis shelved their plans to invade
'and Britain could breathe again.'
'Back in 1940, radar masts would have been dotted
'all along the coast, from Dorset to the Orkneys.
'This cutting-edge technology would continue to play its part
'as the Allies turned their energies from defence to attack.'
'But for the moment, I can take a break from the war.
'And, luckily for me, the sun has come out to light up
'one of the most impressive parts of my walk.'
That's Durdle Door down there.
It's an enormous sea arch that's been created as the limestone's
eroded over millions of years.
But it's a weird name, isn't it, Durdle Door?
The Door is pretty straightforward - D-O-O-R.
But the Durdle is probably from an ancient Saxon word meaning open.
So it just means open door.
'Durdle Door isn't the only geological highlight
'along this stretch.'
'The horseshoe shape of Lulworth Cove, just over the hill,
'has been created over millions of years
'as the sea has eroded the hard rocks
'at the mouth of the cove much more slowly than the softer ones behind.'
'And the erosion has revealed a form of buckled rock strata
'so unique, it's got a name of its own.'
That's Lulworth Cove down there and you see that stratification?
That is called Lulworth Crumple.
Sounds like a very nice Dorset cake to me.
'Maybe that's because being here
'brings back happy memories of childhood holidays.'
We always used to come here when I was a kid,
with my mum and dad, and there was a flask of tea, of course,
and a packet of biscuits.
And it was always a sunny day, wasn't it?
'I think I'll take my memories to bed.
'Lulworth feels like a good place to stop for the night.
'Ahead of me tomorrow is some of the most dangerous land in Britain.'
'It's another wet summer's morning as I head off
'and, what's more, it doesn't take long
'before I find my route blocked.'
I'm in one of the loveliest parts of the country
and suddenly there's all these signs saying,
"Danger, danger. Go away or basically, we'll blow you up."
I'm on the edge of the Lulworth Firing Ranges - one of the few
'spots in Britain where the Army trains with live ammunition.'
Hello, David.
Hello. Welcome to Lulworth.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
'Fortunately, David Willey,
'curator of the nearby Tank Museum at Bovington,
'is here to guide me through.'
'The ranges are only open to the public on specific days,
'generally at the weekend,
'and I've had to get special permission to walk through today.'
What are these yellow markers?
The idea here is that the range wardens come along
and they keep an area clear on the paths,
so after they've been firing
they check all the time to make sure there's no ordnance
lying around, no empty shell cases, no unexploded bombs.
'Although all sorts of weapons are used here, the ranges were
'developed for one in particular.'
This is a training area for tanks.
If you look into the distance, you can see the gunnery school.
They train the guys there to fire the guns.
And up on the ridge there, you can see there's some concrete pads.
That's where they park the tanks up and they fire down the valley
towards targets just below the cliff here.
And the idea there is,
if they miss the target, the rounds go in the hill
or, if they hit the target and they bounce off, they go into the sea.
The guns are so powerful,
they actually have a twelve mile exclusion zone out to sea.
Incredible.
'It's not immediately obvious that the ranges have a long history
'but tanks were a key weapon on the battlefields
'of the Second World War
'and, by 1943, these ranges were jam-packed with vehicles
'and soldiers preparing for the invasion of France.'
Everyone is down here training, ready for the D-day landings.
Lots of armoured soldiers here at Lulworth firing the guns
and, of course, the rest of Dorset is basically an armed encampment.
You've got lots of units here, under canvas or in wooden huts,
waiting for June of 1944.
'Today, the ranges are littered with relatively modern
'armoured vehicles, which are used for target practice.'
'And amazingly, if you know what you're looking for, there's
'also evidence of a military culture from thousands of years ago.'
Is that what I think it is?
Yeah. This is the edge of an Iron Age hill fort here.
We've just walked through the ramparts and there at the end,
built on the edge of it, a Second World War observation post.
Yeah, it's bizarre, isn't it? Once human beings decide
that somewhere is a good defensive outpost,
it can stay like that for millennia.
Absolutely.
'Reminders of World War II continue to litter my route
'and I'm heading to St Aldhelm's Head
'to see one in particular.'
'This headland owes its name to a Saxon Bishop of Sherborne
'and it boasts a really unusual Norman church.'
I'm not much of a one for cathedrals and great big churches.
Too often, they seem to me to be overblown
like great big ideological, "Look at me" statements in the landscape.
But this little chapel to St Aldhelm is the complete opposite.
It's 800 years old, it's beautiful architecture, very delicate.
Dignified, I think. But that's not what I've come here to see.
'Just along from the church is another structure -
'this one dedicated to some of the backroom heroes
'of the Second World War.'
This monument is dedicated to the men and women who worked
so hard during the dark days of World War II
to push radar technology to its limits.
And by so doing, they gave us the edge over the Germans
and ultimately helped us to win the war.
It's rather nice, isn't it?
'The monument is here because the nearby village of Worth Matravers
'was home to a top secret radar research station during the war.'
I nearly squashed a chicken then.
'95-year-old Dr Bill Penley is one of the few scientists
'who worked there who is still alive today.'
Bill, what was your involvement in the development of radar?
Cheers. Thanks a lot.
We were based here at Worth Matravers,
near the CH station, which was the end of the chain of radar stations
which had been erected before the start of the war.
And I was put straight away onto the transmitter development side
because my PhD was a good lead into designing transmitters for radar.
What improvements were made to radar while you were here?
I was involved in developing the Chain Home Low, CHL, stations
to detect low-flying aircraft
that came in under the detection level of the main stations.
Was it here that they developed that circular thing
with the beam and the blips?
That development of what's called the Planned Position Indicator
or PPI, which is what people think of as radar these days,
was actually first tried down here
and I had the job of fixing up this radar in order to put
the signals into this equipment
so that it could be displayed on the tube.
'The research station at Worth employed 2,000 people and their
'innovations included specialised radar units
'for use in night-fighter aircraft -
'a development that ensured Allied air supremacy 24/7.'
It was an amazing thing for a young chap like myself
to come down with a team where we had top priority
and whatever we said we wanted, we could have, really.
It was absolutely amazing.
How significant to the war effort was the work that was done here?
I think without radar, we'd have lost the war almost straight away.
'But we didn't. And the war ground on...
'..until, by 1944, the Nazis were, at last, losing.'
'Dorset would have its part to play in the invasion
'that would bring about their final defeat.
'That's what I'll be investigating tomorrow.'
I'm on the final leg of my 60 mile walk across Dorset.
From Worth Matravers, I'm cutting across the Isle of Purbeck
to reach Studland Bay.
In the spring of 1944, the long,
flat beaches of this bay played a key role
as the Allies were preparing to invade Nazi occupied France.
D-Day was looming.
And the evidence of Studland's wartime role remains open to the public even today.
Well, I've seen a few pillboxes along the way
but this one's the mother of them all.
But it's not just the size that's so striking.
It's so long and narrow, I can't imagine a gun being sited here,
so what was it for?
Hey, John.
Hello.
Good to see you, mate.
'Hopefully World War Two historian, John Pearson, can fill me in.'
That is a bizarre-looking thing, isn't it?
It's like a huge, concrete mouth organ.
It's an observation point that was built specifically
so that you could watch rehearsals for D-Day in the bay here.
High-ranking officers would watch and also VIPs.
On one occasion there was Churchill, King George VI, Eisenhower
and Montgomery were all here on the same day.
Why is it stepped like that?
That's for safety reasons, so that any shrapnel or bullets would
actually be bounced off as opposed to skidded into the vision slot.
So they were really protecting them, weren't they?
Oh, yeah. I believe it's more than a yard thick, the concrete.
Can we have a look inside Fort Henry?
Yes, sure.
I don't think I've ever seen a structure like this before.
Huh. Extraordinary place, isn't it?
Yeah.
Just for the function of viewing, nothing else?
No, nothing else. Perfect view.
It is a great view.
What Churchill, Eisenhower, King George, and Montgomery came
to see here was the biggest dress rehearsal for D-Day.
Studland Bay was chosen for its similarity to the beaches
of Normandy and in April 1944 thousands of British troops
landed here in Operation Smash,
the largest of all the training exercises for the invasion.
Of most interest to the visiting VIPs
was the use of amphibious tanks.
Specially designed for the invasion, they were regarded as vital
if troops were to successfully fight their way off the beaches.
But it was only now, just weeks before D-Day,
that they were first ready to test them in a full-scale exercise.
'A canvas screen is attached around the body of the tank.
'And that is held up by compressed air.
'And then the tank floats with the tank actually hanging
'below the water surface, and all you can see is a rim of canvas
'with the frame above the surface.'
Sounds a very dangerous thing to do.
I certainly wouldn't want to be involved in it myself.
In theory, the operation of amphibious tanks was
straightforward, but in practice the sea is unpredictable
and accidents were bound to happen.
On one of the exercises here, six tanks were sunk
because of the bad weather.
And six men drowned and the stone here commemorates their loss.
You think their sacrifice was quite significant, don't you?
Without the lessons from this exercise,
D-Day could have been a disaster.
While these exercises taught troops how to sail tanks
on to the Normandy beaches,
the actual assault would still rely on infantry.
And the nearby town of Swanage would host some of the men who would
lead the attack on the beaches of France - the American 1st Division.
My walk just happens to coincide with the return of the GIs.
They've come back to mark a special occasion.
The guest of honour is Wes Mullen.
He was stationed here in the war
and 68 years later, he's returned to unveil a plaque
commemorating the strong ties
between the GIs and the people of Swanage.
Do you remember this spectacular view?
No. I remember the Channel, but we didn't pay attention as young kids.
We did not pay attention and we should have.
You were here for how long?
Nine months.
Nine months and you didn't notice the view.
We ate right in this building right here in front of us
and never thought about looking out the window!
Cos you're an 18 year-old!
I guess. Too dumb, too stupid or something to look out
and see what was around me.
So what were you doing?
We were here for the invasion.
Yeah.
We were here for that purpose
and we were supposed to be sort of in hiding.
We were not to make too much noise, not to be seen too much,
because they were trying, I guess, to trick the Germans into thinking
that we were going down further, around Calais instead of here.
And apparently it worked.
I love the way you say 'Calaise'.
That's what we call Calais, isn't it?
Calais? I'm close.
So what did you do?
We played cards a lot, we played cards,
we walked into town often, and movies in town, we...
..went to dances.
We danced with all the girls.
They were very nice, all good-looking girls
but their mothers were sitting up in the balcony
and when the dance was over, we'd run for the door
and the girls would run for the door but their mothers were there first!
During the first half of 1944, the American soldiers played
and partied in Swanage
and the war must have seemed a million miles away.
But then the partying stopped.
Wes and his comrades were loaded onto boats
and on 6th June, D-Day itself, they landed on the most heavily
defended of all the landing beaches - Omaha.
We landed about noon time. We were very fortunate.
We drew straws, who was going to go,
and it was the 16th first, 18th and then us.
We were, we were the lucky ones.
Did that make much of a difference to the casualty rate?
Terrific, tremendous difference.
The original regiment, the 16th regiment, lost 90% of their men.
The 18th went in and lost about 75%,
and we went in, I don't know what the whole regiment lost,
we didn't lose, as far as I know in combat, actually none.
The Americans on Omaha suffered around 2,000 casualties that day.
And many of Wes's comrades would fall in the fierce fighting that followed.
Maybe a month, two months later,
most of the rest of these fellows were all killed.
You were incredibly lucky.
Most definitely, absolutely, and I'd say that's all it is.
# BUGLE PLAYS LAST POST
We honour all the American soldiers
who set out from Swanage,
but who did not return.
The ceremony is a fitting end to my walk through Dorset's World War II history.
I've seen how the four years between 1940 and 1944
have left an indelible mark on the landscape of this county.
It's been a fascinating, intriguing and, at times,
deeply moving experience.
And even though time has obscured some of that history,
many people down here are determined to ensure it's not forgotten.
And that's been my experience throughout this walk.
Little groups of people illuminating parts of the story
so that future generations will understand that a great war
played out on these very beaches.
If you want to follow in my footsteps,
you can download a guide to my walk from...