Lighthouses in the UK during WWII

Due to my affinity for lighthouses, readers expect to find a lighthouse in my books. Sometimes the lighthouse is the main setting, other times it’s just mentioned and may be missed unless searched for. As a result, looking for the lighthouse in the story can be like the game, “Where’s Waldo?”

My book, The Escape Game, is set in World War II in both England and a POW camp in Germany. The male protagonist is a Spitfire fighter pilot flying bombing missions out of England and over the English Channel to parts of Europe. As a result, he has the opportunity to see many lighthouses from the air, also sitting ducks to enemy planes flying over England.

The South Foreland Lighthouse above the cliffs of Dover is the one mentioned in the book. It was the first electric-operated lighthouse in the world. Although South Foreland itself was not bombed, the town of Dover to its south received heavy bombardment due to its harbor.

During the war, some of the lighthouses were completely extinguished so the enemy could not use them for navigation. Others, however, were simply dimmed to aid Britain’s merchants and fighting ships. Some lighthouses were even painted with camouflage paint.

St. Catherine’s Lighthouse on the southernmost tip of England was bombed in 1943, killing three lighthouse keepers. The South Fair Isle Lighthouse in southwest England was the most damaged lighthouse, bombed twice during the war. The first time was in a December 1941 attack which killed the wife of an assistant lightkeeper. Six weeks later in January 1942, the lighthouse was hit again, this time killing the wife and daughter of the principal keeper.

Sometimes being a beacon of light makes one more vulnerable to attack, as evil always seeks to destroy what is good. Jesus called believers to be beacons of light. As such, we stand out to help guide others, which makes us a target to those who oppose our beliefs.  The Bible says evil fears the light because it reveals their wrongs. However, in the end, the eternal light of God will overcome the darkness. Became Christ overcame death.

I once heard someone ask, “Do you brighten a room by entering it or leaving it?” I hope I am the former.

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5