Dunfermline taken back to wartime ’40s

Packed programme awaits history enthusiasts

Dunfermline will roll back the years to the Second World War at a new festival next month.

Organisers of Defend Dunfermline World War II Festival have just announced its packed programme of events to bring to life the story of Scotland’s ancient capital’s top secret defences for the first time.

Taking place on August 19 and 20 across the town centre, the festival will feature street theatre, exhibitions, a talk and music.

Highlights include a live promenade piece, moving from the trenches to a 1940s High Street and a chance to play out strategies on wargaming tables.

Sunday sees a parade along the High Street, with a pipe band, 1940s dancing and re-enactors, marking the contribution of the allied Polish armies and the Home Guard in Dunfermline.

It also looks at those on the home front, from making a rag rug – popular with the make do and mend brigade – to looking at how householders kept on the right side of the blackout rules.

The two-day event celebrates the links with Poland during the war years.

Dunfermline had its defences strengthened in the war years against attack from enemy tanks and paratroopers. Visitors will be able to investigate recently unearthed confidential maps and plans, drawn up by the allied Polish armies who were exiled to Scotland during the Second World War.

These plans, which were an enforcement of the roadblocks, checkpoints and fighting positions created by Dunfermline’s home guard, were prepared in the result of invasion.

The festival will retell this story through the eyes of the Scottish and Polish soldiers who worked to ensure Fife remained protected.

Festival director Roger Pickering said: “It’s a weekend packed with wartime entertainment, exhibitions and activities. It is also a chance to remember the special relationship between the people of Dunfermline and the Polish Army in exile, who helped to protect our town during the Second World War.”

It’s a weekend packed with wartime entertainment, exhibitions and activities. ROGER PICKERING