Kent and Sussex 1940

Britain's Front Line

Stuart Hylton

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781844150847
• eBook ISBN: 9781473815728
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

In June 1940, Britain's front line against the German armies was the coast of Kent and Sussex. Across the Channel, Hitler's forces gathered, preparing for invasion, as the Home Forces struggled desperately to recover from the disaster and miracle of Dunkirk. Occupation of these islands was nearer than for almost nine hundred years. Kent and Sussex 1940, tells the story of the communities that found themselves in the front line, placing their experience within the context of huge historic events.

Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgements

CHAPTER ONE	‘Tonbridge is largely normal’
	Evacuees
	The blackout
CHAPTER TWO	Ready or not, here we come
	Before the war
	The British Expeditionary Force
	Dunkirk – as seen from England
CHAPTER THREE	Stay put – and take one with you
	Stay put
	The Home Guard – the Last Desperate Venture
	But what are they for?
	Auxiliary units
CHAPTER FOUR	A very good anti-tank obstacle
	Julius Caesar: early plans against invasion
	Under new management
	The watery front line
	Coastal defences: the big guns
	Port and other coastal defences
	Napoleonic defences
	The army
	Pillboxes
	Anti-aircraft defences
	Airfield defences
	Radar
	Intelligence
	War by petrol
CHAPTER FIVE	Sea Lion
	The final plan of attack
CHAPTER SIX	The Few… and the Many
	The Few – the Battle of Britain
	On the ground
	…and the Battle for Europe
CHAPTER SEVEN	Life on the battlefield
	Defence zones and evacuation areas
	Cromwell!
	Everybody’s talking
	Nobody’s talking!
	Those in peril on the sea
	Ghost towns and financial ruin
	More rules and regulations
CHAPTER EIGHT	What if…?
	What if? The civilian experience of invasion

Bibliography

Index

Introduction and Acknowledgements

Some local history is much more than local in its significance. A couple of years ago, when I wrote a history of the city of Manchester, I soon came to realise that the local events I was describing were ones that set a course for the nation and, in some cases, the whole British Empire, over a century or more. Something similar is true of the events that took place in, around and over Kent and Sussex in 1940. Had those events taken a different turn, the subsequent story of Europe and the entire free world could have been very different.

In 1940, Kent and Sussex were at the centre of the world’s attention. The apparently invincible Nazi war machine had swept across continental Europe, and most of the world – including most people in Britain and Germany – expected southern England to be the next to face the onslaught. As we now know, Kent and Sussex would have borne the brunt of that invasion, had it come.

Following the evacuation from Dunkirk, the British authorities attempted to rebuild their shattered armed forces and to prepare the south-east corner of the country as a battlefield. As they were doing so, the Germans began to devote the vast resources of the Reich to their invasion plans. If, as some suggest, it was all a bluff, there was never such a gigantic and elaborate bluff in all the history of warfare. At the same time, the tens of thousands of people living in Kent and Sussex were struggling to continue something resembling a normal life in their communities.

What I have tried to do in this book is to take a slice through a piece of history, looking both at the leading world players and their grand strategies and at the attempts of ordinary people to make sense of the extraordinary events through which they were living. It is not intended to be a conventional account of the events of the war. I have tried to give that big picture in just enough detail to make sense of what was happening in the local community, but no more.

Equally, I have not tried to do the job of a conventional local history, in terms for example of detailing who was bombed when, or to give the story of individual Home Guard units. Kent and Sussex are very fortunate in the rich variety of their coverage by local historians. There are many good books that will provide far more local detail than there is space for in my volume, and many of these are listed in my bibliography. I hope that my efforts will encourage those of you who are not familiar with them to investigate them further. If I achieve anything through this book, I hope it is to give a flavour of what it was like to live through these times. Often it is the minutiae of life that best give this flavour, as people try to adapt everyday life to fit around the sweep of world events.

Then, as now, local newspapers laid a fascinating finger on the pulse of the local community. I have drawn heavily upon them, both for the local stories they tell and for the advertisements that bring the period so vividly to life. The Second World War photographs, with one exception, are reproduced by the kind permission of the Kent Messenger Group of newspapers from their splendid collection. I am grateful to Simon Irwin and his colleagues for their help in this. Some of the wartime railway scenes in the Messenger collection were originally photographed by the Southern Railway Company. The frontispiece of the railway gun being fired came from Dover Library, part of Kent County Council. I have tried to track down the copyright holders for all the images used in the book, in one or two cases without success, but have tried to ensure that these are at least duly acknowledged. If there are any failings in this respect and the copyright holders would care to draw them to my attention via the publisher, I will try to ensure that they are remedied in any future edition.

Chapter One

‘Tonbridge is largely normal’

(a headline in the Kent and Sussex Courier, 1 September 1939)

Yesterday everyone went quietly about their business without any dread of possible alarm…l Everywhere one came across optimistic people displaying a calm characteristic of the Britisher. Kent and Sussex Courier, 25 August 1939

The summer of 1939 was drawing to a close. August turned to September and, on the face of it, the tranquil pattern of English life was continuing uninterrupted. The holiday season was in full swing and the seaside resorts were packed with people enjoying the sunshine. Business, hit by bad weather in the early summer, was at last booming:

Outfitters, who have perhaps been the hardest hit of all tradesmen, are now doing a splendid trade in light summer dresses, bathing costumes and sportswear… If the weather continues to hold good for several weeks, we expect to recover from the effects of the trade depression. Kent Messenger, 26 August 1939

The Mayor of Ramsgate was full of confidence for the future:

On our shores today you could not find a happier crowd… I feel that in a year or two Ramsgate will be the leading resort of the country. Kent Messenger, 26 August 1939

Messrs P and A Campbell were offering pleasure sailings from the piers at Brighton and Hastings (weather and circumstances permitting). The Southern Railway was running ‘Cheap trips to the Continent from Folkestone and Dover: Boulogne from 10 shillings. Passports are not required by British subjects.’ For the more adventurous traveller, the Continental Express Company could provide excursions to a range of continental locations, including Germany. Going to the extremes of adventurousness, two men arrived in Kent with an 18-foot collapsible canoe, announcing their intention to paddle to Australia. The next week they were planning to cross to France, making their way to the Mediterranean via the inland waterways of continental Europe. It was a bad week to start out. They got as far as Sheerness before their canoe drifted away from them and they had to be taken to Leigh-on-Sea to retrieve it.

At home, Alan Russell and his Laughter Unlimited show at the Hastings Pier Theatre was sending the audiences home with aching ribs. This ‘sparkling and happy programme’ featured Charlie, the popular naughty boy of the show. ‘His clever fooling never fails to reduce one to almost helpless laughter,’ the Hastings Observer promised. The cinemas were showing Shirley Temple in The Little Princess. ‘The laughter, the tears, the drama, the tenderness of this great story are impressively presented,’ the Sussex Daily News told its readers. In Folkestone, the entertainment was live, as the town prepared to welcome Bertram Mills’s Circus, whose big top held 4,000 people and was the largest in Britain. ‘Some idea of the magnitude of the show may be gathered by the fact that three special trains are used to convey the circus and menagerie from town to town/said the Dover Express and East Kent News. It was due to open on 4 September. Live entertainment was also on offer at the Royal Hippodrome, Chatham, where the Gordon Ray Young Ladies promised ‘a treat for the tired businessman’. Those not wishing to be over-excited might have preferred the Linton Women’s Institute, where ‘Miss Anderson gave a very interesting talk on “The comfort of the feet”, with several useful hints on corns and rheumatism.’ Employers were still advertising for staff. A ‘smart intelligent boy’ was wanted as a chocolate seller (salary 10 shillings – 50p today – a week, plus commission). At the more genteel end of the jobs market a ‘gentlewoman of mature years (over forty) desirous of augmenting income, is offered congenial employment with permanent income.’ If you were neither smart, intelligent nor genteel, there was always ‘Lad wanted; able to ride cycle. Early riser and willing’ or ‘Wanted: strong girl as general.’ (This latter was a general domestic servant, not fast-track promotion in the armed forces). Those wanting a military career could join the Royal Air Force:

An example of wartime humour – has our taste in matters comic changed so dramatically since the 1940s?

Learn a trade in the RAF. Vacancies for unskilled men of good education to train as wireless operators, armourers and instrument repairers… All jobs well paid and with liberal annual leave.

Journeys to work in Brighton would have to be made without the aid of the town’s trams, which were being replaced by trolley buses and something called ‘heavy-oil-engine buses’. Enthusiasts could buy their very own Brighton tram for the bargain price of £5 (buyer collects, and you could not use the Corporation’s tram tracks to get it home).

Small boys were doing what small boys have done since time immemorial. Three of them were summoned to appear at Hastings Police Court, where they were fined 5 shillings apiece for damaging the wall of the Borough Sanatorium in the process of scrumping apples.

At the county cricket ground in Hove, Sussex were being trounced by the champions, Yorkshire. Hutton and Yardley scored centuries for the visitors and Verity took 7 for 9 as Sussex were skittled out for 33 in their second innings. But Sussex supporters seeking solace in the tea tent would have noticed that something was amiss:

The order for the evacuation of London children and their reception at Brighton, Hove and elsewhere robbed the tea tent on the county cricket ground at Hove yesterday of a good number of its working personnel…

Over 30% of the waitresses in all sections were unable to help owing to the prior demand of ‘voluntary service’ and one section, run by Lady Wishart an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Content