The exploration of the collapsed and hidden defences in the Clot continues

I've come to the conclusion that there is a mass of hidden and undocumented Civil War military history buried away in the Clot De Galvany and I am on a mission to uncover it. We know about the well-preserved bunkers and installations on the official trail but I'm after the areas secrets. Having found one collapsed and overgrown bunker near the lake a few months ago I now have an eye for the tell tale signs and am sure these parts of the Republican defensive wall were built in clusters and strategic lines. So, I was well chuffed to spot this the other side of the nature reserves fence and squeezed under to take a look. The straight concrete line is the lip of a trench behind what would have been a domed and camouflaged gun emplacement. The trench has been filled in with sand down the years and the bunker has collapsed but the curved wall is still visible although well overgrown. You can also pick out some of the internal concrete shell that the stone disguise would have covered. Another important discovery.

More air raid shelters being opened up in Alicante - a visit to the Plaza Musico Tordera

The authorities in Alicante are slowly opening up some of the long-buried civil war architecture that lies beneath this beautiful city and which reveals its brutal past. I was hoping I might catch the team working on the large air raid shelter beneath Plaza Musico Tordera but I was out of luck and had to resort to peeling back the metal grill and trying to grab a shot of the entrance steps. The shelter was built for 700 people and is thought to be perfectly preserved since it was sealed up in 1947. It is due to be opened up to the public along with five other deep shelters over the next year or so. There was some signs of works opening up the large shelter under the steps leading up to IES Jorge Juan. I will be back for further investigations.

The Civil War air raid siren in the Santa Pola castle

I must have wandered through the square of the castle in the middle of Santa Pola dozens of times but I had a friend with me who had never been and as he looked up at the bell tower he casually asked "is that a siren up there?". I had never clocked it before and the grey mushroom-shaped metal piece jumped out me as I focussed in. I did a quick check on a previous blog entry and it is very similar to the siren on display in Alicante Market and definitely a throwback to the Civil War. It makes sense, Santa Pola was in the front line for the airborne raids of the Condor Legion bombers and the bell tower would be the logical place to place a siren. And there, over eighty years on, it still sits. I owed Tony a lunch down by the harbour for spotting it and his eagle-eyed vigilance reinforces the motto of the amateur historian - look up!

The Clot throws up another undocumented piece of Civil War archaeology

Sometimes as an amateur historian you just get lucky. It's happened to me a few times but occasionally you get the shock of your life when a landscape you are familiar with suddenly throws up some signs of something lurking in the undergrowth that hasn't jumped out at you before. I'd been taking a walk around the Clot De Galvany, more exercise than anything else, and was leaning on the railings on the photo point for the bird spotters overlooking the lake. It's a beautifully tranquil spot and there wasn't a soul in sight other than some wildlife out on the water. As I scanned the surroundings I noticed a glimpse of curved wall that needed checking out. Much of this area was terraced with local rocks by farmers many years ago to conserve water, it's a familiar sight but this was something different. I clambered down the hill and was knocked out to find the partly collapsed remains of a machine gun nest with the rusting anchors of the gun mount still visible. Another one I've not seen documented elsewhere. I was chuffed to bits to log it and photograph it before heading off for some cold beers to celebrate.

A return visit to an old friend

I sometimes get asked what is the closest piece of Civil War archaeology we can take a look at if we are in Gran Alacant and pushed for time, or don't want to spend hours clambering over rough ground and mountains trying to locate something that may not be there. Well, if you enter the Clot De Galvany at the Carabassi end and then take the first left turning on the track after a couple of hundred yards you will come across the splendid, camouflaged bunker in the first picture. It's a belter and I hadn't dropped by for a while and was pleased to see it is still in fine condition. Just in front of it there is a concrete trench installation that would have guarded the old main road now replaced by the sprawling urbanisation of lower GA. The trench is a bit overgrown not but apart from the obligatory graffiti remains in excellent condition with it's thick, buttressed walls and you can still see one of the old machine gun mounting positions. A remarkable survivor more than eighty years on.

A bust of the heroic Archibald Dickson is added to the memorial at the Alicante port

I'd been well pleased to hear that a beautifully sculpted bust of Archibald Dickson had been added to the Civil War memorial by the port side in Alicante and it looked fantastic in the sunshine when I stopped off on a gorgeous September day to take a look. Dickson was the skipper on the ship The Stanbrook which was the only vessel to break the nationalist blockade as up to 20,000 Republicans gathered to escape in the days and hours before Alicante finally fell to Franco and his Italian allies. At huge personal risk to both himself and his crew Dickson managed to cram over 2,600 evacuees onto his badly listing vessel. Due to some disastrous shenanigans in the final weeks of the Negrin Government, covered superbly in Paul Preston's book "The last days of the Spanish Republic", the Stanbrook was the last ship out of the port. Those left behind were herded to Los Almendros and then onto the San Isidro concentration camp to face torture, starvation and death. Dickson, a Welshman from Cardiff, has now been honored as the international hero he truly is.

Shrapnel damage and the air raid shelter in Plaza Balmis

You don't have to look far to see the lasting signs of the Civil War in Alicante. My general advice is to make sure that you look up! The railing around the old fire station, which is now the home of the Civil War museum, are a classic example. Just look closely and you will see where shrapnel has bent and gouged the uprights. A couple of blocks away the air raid shelter in Balmis Square now has a proper entrance. I've still not been able to get in there as the hours for access are limited and depend on having enough visitors to make it worth while. Just something else that I need to sort out.