Fort Henry, Studland Bay - 70 years on

Fort Henry, an observation post overlooking Studland Bay, was built in 1943 beside a 4-inch defensive gun emplacement.

In 1944 Studland Bay was used for practice landings - code-named exercise Smash I - on the Normandy beaches. On 4th April six semi-submersible (i e amphibious) Valentine tanks sank in bad weather Studland Bay during practice. A memorial to the six soldiers lost that day can be seen in the centre of this photograph.

Information provided on the Fort Henry site:

Studland Beach and shore had been heavily booby-trapped with more than 5,000 mines against invasion, so corridors had to be cleared through these for Exercise Smash to proceed. Other anti-invasion obstacles, such as pill-boxes (machine gunposts) and tank traps [dragons' teeth] set into the dunes and cliffs, were left in place to provide authentic touches.

The loudest and biggest bombardment took place on 18 April. British infantry, including the 1st Bataillon of the Dorsetshire Regiment, made amphibious landings. British rocket-firing Typhoons and American Thunderbolt fighter-bomber planes pounded the heathland. Cruiser and destroyer ships carried out a bombardment from offshore. A regiment of United States anti-artillery guns and troops fanned out around Studland village to defend the forces and visiting VIP spectators from the possibility of a real air attack by the Luftwaffe. Semi-submersible tanks also landed and unrolled their own temporary road, like a carpet, in order to cross the soft sands.

The VIP spectators in attendance on 18 April were King George VI, Winston Churchill, General Eisenhower, General Montgomery and the head of Combined Operations, Acting Admiral Louis Mountbatten. Their vantage point was Fort Henry.


The memoirs of British army officer Steve Purcell include this description of Exercise Smash I:

'I had the opportunity to watch the first brigade group’s full dress rehearsal for Overlord. This occurred at Studland Beach, just south of Poole. The brigade concerned embarked in a variety of Landing Ships and craft at Southampton, then sailed around the Isle of Wight in a clock wise direction, forming up for the assault off the Needles. We spectators were stationed on top of Handfast Point, the southerly arm of Studland Bay. We had a perfect panoramic view of the proceedings.

The Brigade landed on a frontage of two thousand yards, two battalions up. The first craft to touch down were some thirty LCT [Landing Craft Tank] carrying assault Engineers and tanks. These were immediately followed up by the assaulting infantry, in thirty LCA [Landing Craft Assault]. The third wave was a similar number of LCA carrying the reserve battalion. From then on fully laden craft were beaching and empty craft departing in a constant stream. In a box of about two thousand yards square were up to a hundred landing craft moving in both directions.

The standard of seamanship achieved to avoid collision was of the highest order. The control of the beaching of landing craft after the first wave was the duty of the Royal Navy Beach Masters. These officers and sympathetic ratings landed in the first wave and set up their public address systems (Tannoys). The air was full of the noise of supporting fire and strafing aircraft. Nevertheless the instructions of the Beach Masters could be heard through the din. The assured handling of their microphones and the clarity of their instructions particularly interested me. Wynford Vaughan Thomas, the celebrated and intrepid BBC war correspondent, had attended a landing exercise at Inverary and was struck by the inaudibility of the Beach Masters’ instructions. He therefore arranged with his brother [an fellow officer of Steve's] for the BBC to run courses for Beach Masters on the correct “microphone manner.” This is just one of the examples of the minutest details observed in the preparation for the greatest amphibious operation in the history of warfare.'


PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTE

This photo was taken with a wide-angle lens, which gives the erroneous impression that Fort Henry was looking away from Studland Beach. The lens was used to ensure that the entire (several mile long) stretch of beach was included in the photo.