You do not often see this on a beach in the United States. Perhaps along the Atlantic Ocean coastlines of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, or Denmark, this is a much more common sight where Nazi Germany had built up the Atlantic Wall, a heavily defended shoreline to fend off a potential invasion by the Allied Forces, an event that eventually did occur as Operation Neptune on June 6, 1944, a day that will forever be memorialized as D-Day. Any knowledge of the events of World War II will center on Operation Overlord, the plan to gain a foothold and create a front in Western Europe that was initiated by the landing operations at Normandy, France, the largest seaborne invasion in history. As with much of the western European coastline, the beaches of Normandy were heavily fortified with bunkers, machine gun nests, trenches, barbed wire, metal tripods, and landmines. To this day, relics of this era still remain as a memorial and a reminder of a dark era in human history. Much less known, however, is that the United States also fortified its own coastline. Not along the Atlantic Ocean coastline, we were never in any real threat of an invasion from that direction, but along the Pacific Ocean coastline, in response to the buildup of naval operations by the Empire of Japan that itself culminated in one of the few foreign attacks on U.S. soil, the attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Their intent was not an invasion, but rather to damage the United States Naval Fleet to prevent its interference with planned invasions in Southeast Asia, where territories were held by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States had remained neutral in World War II, but this event changed everything. From that day onward, the U.S. remained under a constant vigilance and defense to the threat of invasion on its own coastlines. Defensive bunkers were built under beach sand dunes in several locations. Only a few years later, on May 8, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered after the fall of Berlin and the suicide of Adolf Hitler, and a few months later on September 2, 1945, after two nuclear bombs were dropped on its cities and with an imminent threat of a multinational force invasion, Japan formally surrendered, effectively ending World War II. So while our military bunkers thankfully never saw any action, they still remain as a reminder of the state of the world in those days. The Wild Images Team captured this image of a World War II bunker hidden under the Samoa Dunes of Humboldt Beach along the Pacific Ocean coastline in California. As can be seen, it has long remained unused and is covered by typical beach dune vegetation. The Wild Images Team has captured many other photos from California such as the scene of a blooming thunderstorm over Joshua Tree National Park, the lava flow created streaked ridge in Lassen Volcanic National Park, and the high altitudes where a giant sequoia is larger and redder than others, the steep Hyde Street view of Alcatraz Island and San Francisco Bay, the drastic slope of the abrupt drop off of Taylor Street, the Pine Street colorful terraced houses with background buildings, the historic looking beautiful terraced houses and a Classic VW Beetle, and the Asian inspired intricately ornate Chinatown scene, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts from California have documented the long and winding road climb to the giants of Sequoia National Park, the size comparison of The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina and the giant tree, the massive view where giant sequoias maintain their diameters over hundreds of feet, an overlook into the Merced River Valley with Liberty Cap, the road heading towards the sheer monolith of El Capitan, the road heading towards desolate ridges of Joshua Tree National Park, the location where the road rises out of Bumpass Hell, a beach dune covered view of the secret underground World War II bunker, the reflective tower of the Marriott Marquis over the Yerba Buena Gardens, the distinctively ornate Asian architecture and decor of Chinatown, the musically inspired melting records with album covers mural, the long strange trip of the Grateful Dead Jerry Garcia mural, the places where steep sidewalks have stairs cut into them, the street where a tree gives a sense of the steepness, the expansive view of Nob Hill from Telegraph Hill and the oppositely directed view from Telegraph Hill to the northeast, the descent in the upper portion of the Filbert Steps, followed by the middle portion of the Filbert Steps with a pose by The Wild Images Team Coordinator on the steps, followed by the lower portion of the Filbert Steps, and at the bottom a view up the Filbert Street steps again with a pose by The Wild Images Team Coordinator below the steps. From our travels in the nearby Oregon and Washington, we have captured photos such as the deep blue hues of swirled clouds and rim peaks reflected in Crater Lake, the Hoh Rainforest green moss covers every possible branch, and the right place at the right time rainbow over the Mt. St. Helens remnants, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts from Oregon and Washington include the sharp looking view through the Lava Cast Forest, the optical illusion of blue waters and white streaks in Crater Lake, the starkly colorful rainbow rises over the devastation of Mt. St. Helens, the moment The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina is imprisoned by rainforest tree roots, the interesting story of the Port Angeles waterfront Rocktopus Sculpture, and its accompanying bronze plaque of charitable organizations.
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