All the bunkers and emplacements were broken up when Latvia became independent, it was difficult to remove all evidence of course so when you walk through the coastal areas - you find them dotted about. If the materials could be used for building - they were taken.
The only parts that survived were those buildings such as barracks that could be put to use..
An ex girlfriend's father was a Major in the Armored Division along the coast from here and he spent most of his time underground in the Command Bunker ... when independence came along and he was 'de-mobbed' - he was alienated by the locals and had a very hard life till he passed away. Sad really because he was like most others 'told' to do his job ... whether he agreed or not.
The saddest item - was the Naval Building in Liepaja. There was a training and full naval base there with a large Mess hall / Barracks building. On one wall was a giant mural of the Russian fleet that sailed to Japan .... Russo-Japanese war - where the Russian Navy was badly mauled by the Japanese. Many sailors from the Baltics lost their lives. The building was wrecked by the Latvians in 91 - 92 but the wall remained. But only a year or so later - that was destroyed - lost forever. Sad because many of the sailors who died and the mural was in honour of - were Latvian / Baltic persons, not only Russian.
The coastline for a hundred metres or so back from the beach edge - is dunes, created by the Soviets to make it defendable. Those dunes had the trees planted as you see.
About 40kms north of me - there is Little Star ... Soviet Radio Telescope, buried in the forest. I will try and get up there some time to video. It used to be open for anyone to visit the 'town' that was built to serve it ... derelict now... but later Nato and Latvian University closed the area of to public. You can imagine that it was not only a site looking into the cosmos .. but being so close the the west - was a Soviet Spy station.
When Russia was leaving - they offered the military equipment and Little Star to the Latvians .. but they refused them telling Russians to take their **** .... So Russians scuttled ships b locking Liepaja port entrance ... poured acid into the workings of Little Star ... took away the best gear ...
It took a lot of effort and help from others like UK / Netherlands to remove the scuttled ships ... and to repair Little Star for Astronomy use ...
Its one of the areas that if you look - you find ! It may just look like a coast of trees and sandy beaches ... but there is far more inside once you start looking.
Nigel
