Any info on 31 Aug 1940 / 01 Sep 1940?
Known by me is a landing on the Norfolk Coast and a simultaneous landing at Shingle Street. Shingle Street is well known and has details on the Web, whereas the Norfolk landing the only Web entry mentions a large recovery convoy of the German dead passing through Crostwick (south of Coltishall) heading towards Norwich in the first week of September 1940. Have 1st hand knowledge from an Army person who was on that convoy. He lived at Burnham Norton and described the beach as being very much like Brancaster beach.

My mother worked with an ex RN officer in the early 70's. One Christmas Works party he told me that he had been on the bridge of a destroyer returning from a convoy escort duty. They saw many landing craft and they rammed as many as they could. I presume they were heading for a destination and could not stop or slow down.

He looked me in the eye and said,"don't let anyone tell you the Germans never tried to invade"

Unfortunately I have no details of the date or location. I had often wondered if his flotilla had run through an American practice invasion such as at Slapton Sands. But this might well be the incident he recalled.

__________________
If dogs don't go to heaven, I'd like to go where they go.

From one that was very much around at that time....The Germans never landed anywhere on the soil of Britain...Only as prisoners or when they were shot down.
Sapper

Actually, the only part of Britain to be occupied by the Germans were the Channel Islands. If the German's had crushed Britain's air power in the Battle of Britain they would have invaded. The reason Britain won was because a German bomber accidentally bombed London. Churchill was infuriated by this occurrence. So, he decided to arrange a raid on Berlin. Hitler was so outraged that Britain bombed Berlin that he ordered to bomb London instead of the air fields. This gave the the pilots and the men working on the airfields the much needed time to make repairs. The Royal Air Force then defeated the Luftwaffe.

[ 30. December 2004, 12:42 PM: Message edited by: col. hessler ]

Yes, this is a very interesting side note to the BoB. King George VI withdrew all military personel two weeks prior to the German "landing". At the end of June 1940 a Ju52 landed on Guernsey grass airfield. One German drew his pistol and disembarked. Suddenly, three British fighters buzzed the field. The German scrambled back to the aircraft and dropped his gun. Later that day, however, the plane returned with three men. One carefully retrieved the revolver and another announced to an unruffled policeman that they intended to take over the island.

__________________
"That's FUBIJAR."
(Fu--ed Up, But I'm Just a Reservist... )