Polish Army Camp Tenstsmuir

Camp remains
� Jim Bain

A Polish Army camp was located within Tentsmuir forest near Tayport, Fife, on the east coast.

The camp is believed to have been built in late 1940, and remained occupied until at least 1942, by units of the Polish Army.

The site was visible in aerial photographs taken by the RAF in 1947, after it was dismantled, and showed evidence of the bases of dispersed groups of accommodation blocks, which were probably made up of Nissen huts, with a larger facilities block near the road leading east to Kinshaldy farm. On the ground, only two roofless brick structures were noted, and a concrete covered well which had the Polish coat of arms impressed on its facing.

Camp remains
� Jim Bain

Towards the beach, slit trenches and other defensive earthworks were noted, and these would have formed part of the Tentsmuir Coastal Defences, which Polish Army personnel from the camp would have manned. The east coast was considered to be a high risk area in terms of a seaborne invasion from the east, from occupied Norway, with wide areas of low sandy coastline such as that found at Tentsmuir being afforded high levels of defence to form a stop line. In addition, the northern perimeter of RAF Leuchars lay less than a mile to the south, and would have required similar defences to the north and east for the same reason.

Notably, the mine detector was invented by a Polish signals officer, Lt J�zef Stanisław Kosacki, stationed at St Andrews, a few miles to the south.