MEMORIES OF WAR
What do coniferous forests, the Orford Ness nature reserve and pill boxes all have in common? They all came about because Britain was at war, says Jules Hudson
War is a heavy-handed beast – its impact on people, nations and landscapes is profound. Across much of northern Europe, towns, villages and the countryside still bear the scars of the two conflicts that defined the first half of the 20th century.
In Britain, it might reasonably be assumed that despite our involvement in the two wars, little would remain here that might betray the nation’s efforts, as so much of the fighting took place over the Channel. But the country’s landscape was transformed in the quest for victory and the changes can still be seen today.
THE FORESTRY COMMISSION
At the outbreak of the First World War, just 5% of the UK was covered in commercial timber – a commodity vital for maintaining industrial capacity and, of course, trench building. Since Britain couldn’t rely on imports during times of conflict, Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith set up a commission focused on ensuring the long-term security of Britain’s timber supply.
On 1 September 1919, the Forestry Commission came into being and began the enormous task of replenishing Britain’s forests and expanding them in case a global conflict was to break out for a second time.
TRENCHES AND CEMETERIES
During the First World War, the former Royal hunting ground of Cannock Chase became one of the biggest and busiest training camps in Great Britain.
The Cannock Chase landscape is scarred by a series of training trenches where men mastered the practice of war. The evidence of the two huge divisional barracks now buried underground but recently revealed in some compelling lidar (a laser detection system) and satellite imagery remind us that the number of personnel the area accommodated amounted to a large town – albeit a temporary one.
Today Cannock Chase is home to the Commonwealth War Graves Military Cemetery and the German Military Cemetery (opened in 1967), which brings together German casualties from the First and Second World Wars that never made it home. Among those buried here are the crews of four downed Zeppelins.
As a serving army reservist, I’ve seen quite a few military training areas. Salisbury Plain is perhaps the most famous, but others around Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire and