ON THE BEACH
German WWII fortification in France. No wonder Ballard said he photographed them obsessively. This particular one used to serve as a summer venue for local bands in the '60s.
Postscript 20/3/06: well, there you have it. J G Ballard in the Guardian today on modernist architecture, including the Normandy blockhouses.
posted by The Silver Eel @ 12:07 am
2 Comments:
It is quite odd to come across these structures on the French, Belgian and Dutch coasts. See them closer to home too when you go out to the little island next to Crammond in the Firth of Forth and find all these buildings and structures to protect Rosyth naval base during the two world wars.
Weirdest I saw though was in the Netherlands at the legendary 'bridge too far'. Not so much pill boxes etc but the buildings where the pock mark of a bullet fired in that desperate and doomed attempt to free Holland and shorten the war is still clearly visible. History and the film collide with the reality.
It looks like the bunker 25 miles from the actual stage where a Disaster Area concert is about to be performed. I wonder if Douglas Adams had a thing about them too...?
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