The danger in the deep
From a distance the whale looked like a wrecked Heinkel III bomber from World War II, a likeness which I can just remember and which put the fear of hell into me at the time.One of these aircraft once flew low over Stiffkey village and strafed the main street as we children cowered behind the vicarage wall. Another was shot down on the beach.
Many years later, the dead sperm whale washed ashore on Norfolk's Holkham beach was a powerful reminder once again , of what horrors the human race is capable. There is now a much more sinister twist to the equation though, since we are not seeing the enemy dead on the beaches, but friends; the whales, the dolphins and the porpoises, washed up after meeting some terrible fate beneath the waves.
For the remainder of ther feature read Richard Williamson's Country Life column in the West Sussex Gazette, February 16