We recently visited the Pas-de-Calais region in northern France, and on the beach under our accommodation and in the dunes there were some remnants of the Atlantikwall, the set of fortifications running from Norway to Bretagne which should guard Nazi-occupied Europe from being liberated by the Allied forces.

Since the end of the war these installations have lost their purpose, but being heavy, essentially valueless and in remote areas in many cases, they were not sufficiently bothersome to have them removed completely, and only valuable materials that could be easily recovered, e.g. steel shutters, were taken away.

The scale of these fortifications has to be seen to be believed, and it shows how much energy we humans are willing to expend to kill each other.