When I first moved to North Wales and even when undertaking an MA in Military Studies, I did not realise the rich wartime history that abounded around me. I had begun listening to podcasts while walking the dog and We Have Ways was my pod of choice. This led to buying one of James Holland’s books, The Battle of Britain. This will be the first edition of a series of blogs about North Wales at War.
I can read for hours, nodding off permitting, but I do not always pay too much attention to the map section at the beginning of some books. Somewhere during the reading, a place I knew was mentioned as an RAF base, so I looked at the map of RAF bases in the front. I then realised that there was an RAF station of some sort quite close to where I live. A bit of investigation made me realise, ironically, that it is a place I can see when I walk my dog on Talacre Beach. Up on the hill above Prestatyn are a couple of transmitter masts.
I then found out that, during the Second World War, this was a radar station scanning the Dee Estuary and the Irish Sea. This was necessary, as once France was captured, German bombers flew along this coastline to attack the Northwest.
They would leave their airbases in Northern France and fly between Ireland and Wales. They could sometimes see the lights of the Irish Republic, which did not have a blackout whereas looking to the right they would have none. When they reached Anglesey, they would turn right and follow the coast until they saw the Dee Estuary in front of them and slightly to their left, they would see the Mersey with its docks at Liverpool, Wallasey, and Birkenhead.
Investigations
Finding this out led to more investigation that inextricably linked Talacre and Liverpool during the war but before I get to this there are still signs of defences on the beach itself which demonstrated that no matter how much I think I know about the Second World War, there is always more to find out.
After the conquest of France invasion fear became fervent in Britain. Most people’s knowledge of this is probably how it has been represented through Dad’s Army. However, the actual defences and plans to defend the country were complex and did in fact encompass North Wales.
There was a realistic belief that German troops could launch an invasion from the Irish Republic as they held very little sympathy for Great Britain. As such, for a time at the beginning of the war, North Wales had its own defences, some of them still visible on Talacre Beach over eighty years later.
There are at least two pillboxes. The first is almost complete and situated amongst the Gronant dunes behind the beach.
The remnants of the other can be found at the mercy of the tides, on the beach itself around the Point of Ayr Lighthouse. During the war, there were probably more substantial blockhouses too.
Churchill’s Asparagus?
There are also several larch posts in the sand on the beach, most noticeable at low tide. When I first started walking Matos on the beach, I thought they were channel markers. It has now become clear that they are related to the war too. They are an anti-invasion measure. I presume that they are to make it difficult for gliders to land rather than obstacles for landing craft.
I doubt they would be substantial enough to stop landing craft as they are not of ‘Czech Hedgehog’ size, but in this, I could be wrong.
An airborne invasion was a genuine fear after Germany’s use of airborne troops in 1940. This was particularly the case after the spectacular capture of Belgium’s Eben Emael fort by glider-borne troops. The tide retreats about a quarter of a mile at low tide and the slope of the beach is shallow. These would make it an ideal place to land gliders ahead of an invasion through Northwest Wales.
Such posts were a simple solution to making glider landings far more risky as the posts would rip off the wings of the gliders or worse. Such defences would also be used by the Germans, most notably in and around Pegasus Bridge in Normandy. These became known as Rommelspargel or Rommel’s Asparagus.
Target Practice
However, after failing to destroy the RAF in the Battle of Britain and the subsequent cancellation of Operation Sea Lion, the threat of invasion subsided but Talacre would continue to play its role in the war. There were many RAF bases and vital industries around the area, such as RAF Sealand and the Vickers-Armstrong factory in Broughton. The flat beach provided an ideal area to practise gunnery.
The aircraft, including Spitfires, would fire at targets on the beach and to hone their proficiency further, would attack drogues being towed by other planes. To this day it is still possible to find shell casings on the beach.
In 2019, Talacre’s contribution to the war was remembered with a project, displays and a weekend of activities. As part of this, a film reenactment was produced this can be found on YouTube
The Blitz and Evacuation
This practice would be an exciting prospect for those who had come to live in Talacre. With the Liverpool Blitz, the first in December 1940 and the main one in May 1941. Many people fled the bombing. Some of these settled in the dunes of Talacre. They built wooden huts, and some lived in railway carriages. From here they could see their city being bombed over the water.
After London, Liverpool would become the most bombed part of Britain. However, the extent of the bombing was kept under wraps so that Germany would not the damage they had caused. Unfortunately, after the war, the focus of most of the Blitz history was on London and many Liverpudlians felt their suffering had been forgotten.
Chaffing Hell
The story of Talacre and the RAF did not end with strafing runs though. It was one of the areas that was used to test a new weapon against German radar. ‘Window’ was the first iteration of what is now known as chaff. It is thin pieces of aluminium dropped from aircraft to confuse or overwhelm enemy radar. Locals can remember the houses and huts of Talacre being covered in these silver strips. 
North Wales is not the furthest part of the UK away from what many would describe as the front line in the Second World War and Talacre is no great industrial city. But for a time there, it did play several roles in the largest single event in human history. This is one of the reasons I find the subject as a whole so interesting.
You could be walking anywhere in the country and come across a strange structure that could very well be left over from the war. Future blogs will consider other features of the Second World War that are present around my home. From a whole defensive stop line, government relocation and building D-Day landmarks.
So, have a look around your village or town and see what you can find and let me know.
All the best
Bigt