Did German Commandos Raid England?
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- Опубліковано 10 сер 2023
- It has been reported that German commandos raided mainland Britain to assault radar stations - are these reports true? Did German soldiers actually land in England?
Dr. Mark Felton FRHistS, FRSA, is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers 'Zero Night' and 'Castle of the Eagles', both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fe...
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Credits: US National Archives; Russ McLean
Rudolf Hess raided England. All by himself.
Funny!
He landed not in England but in Scotland.
@@Steve-GM0HUUas a lot of German Submarine crews taking water (stream) and whiskey (Pub) on the Isle of Skye😂😂😂
@Steve-GM0HUU I was about to say that he landed in Scotland. He was trying to find The Duke of Hamilton who he'd met previously.
Yes and the details of his visit and the reason for it are still kept secret until 2041. So desperate was Britain to keep the secret that they had Hess murdered when it looked likely he was to be released in 1987. We aren't known as "Perfidious Albion" for nothing.
If only Germany had known Britain would find it impossible to stop small inflatable boats
Arab dinghy diver invasion 1000 a day should have fought with not against
😂😂😂
Yeah im sure that would of made the allies lose 😂@user-qe5kz4iv6g
Easy there, Nigel
Well, in wartime, we could shoot those small boats. But the boats coming today cannot be shot at XD
As a young boy I was told by my father that he had been sent to the south coast to remove burnt bodies of German soldiers from the beach. I asked who burnt them and he told me of pipes in the water with oil in them. When the Germans landed on the coast the oil was set on fire and the German soldiers burnt. My father rarely told of such things. He was later sent to fight the Japanese in Burma, he never discussed that period but swore the burnt soldiers story was true. I never found my father out in a lie.
fascinating story.
My father also told me he saw the sea on fire but never got to close to the beach, he was told it was a test to keep the Germans from landing on the beach, your Dads stories makes more sense , i imagine the top brass didn't want the civilians worried that the Germans were so close to invading
@@pogmothoin1342
Sefton Delmer mentions 'setting the sea on fire' in his autobiographic book 'Black Boomerang'. Delmer produced 'black' (deniable/'officially unattributed') radio propaganda for the British government during the war for broadcast into Occupied Europe.
In one such show he sarcastically adopts the character of a Berlitz tour guide' and 'helpfully' offers useful English to German translations for 'German tourists' coming to England. One phrase he translates is _'The SS Officer is burning nicely'_ and goes on to conjugate 'I burn/We burn/ They burn ...' etc for German 'tourists' to use.
@@richardspanner5923 There was a BBC play for the day, “Licking Hitler”, loosely based on Delmer’s exploits during the war. When I saw it, I thought it was over dramatised, but reading your comments and other articles about his life, perhaps it was quite realistic.
My father told me the same story: he was there when the sea was set alight and in the morning had to clear up hundreds of burned bodies on the beach. I have also read an account of a German soldier who survived the raid and became a POW. His retelling of events was that a Wellington bomber dropped oil drums full of petrol amongst the assault boats and machine-gunned them with tracer to set the sea alight.
I live in Altoona, PA and the Germans sent people to attack the railroad shops here, but they were captured shortly after they were dropped of by U-boat.
WhAt?!?!
I heard they turned themselves in right away
One of the leaders turned himself in, iirc. The FBI rounded up the rest. The ones going to Pennsylvania were going to try to take out Horseshoe Curve. I didn't know they were going to hit the Altoona shops nearby.
They were caught they were tried as spies and they were electrocuted I believe I believe there are six of them
My grandmother was the U-boat that dropped them off; she had lots of stories to tell us kids.
Its funny, but years ago there was a documentary about the defence of the UK including flame throwers under the water to which my Grandmother, quite without prompting said "Should have had them at Ventnor" and I asked her what she meant. She said that after she had trained for duties on Anti Aircraft batteries she had got orders for a posting to the Isle of Wright which got cancelled for no reason. A week later, she spoke to a Sgt who had been there who said that "Jerry had tried to nick the radar" but had been wiped out
That was all she ever really knew about it apart hearing that at least one POW was taken
Hope mark see's this, very useful and interesting comment!
Could be some evidence in the German POW records. After action reports are probably still secret.
This is comment is first hand oral history. Thank you for posting.
I'll be the first in the queue to make a follow-up video when documentary/photographic/physical evidence is found to prove one of these stories.
@@WarStorieswithMarkFelton
Mark. Talk to Michael Caine.
Interesting, especially as the Isle of Wight and the South coast are mentioned. My Grandfather was in the Royal Artillery and ended up on the South coast near or on the Isle of Wight. My Dad told me years ago that my Grandfather's greatest 'fear' was being given night guard/patrol duty on the coastal paths - his reason being that there were a number of incidents where other soldiers on night patrol, simply 'disappeared', the implication being that they had been killed by German commandos.
Or they had enough and decided to go on R&R.
Most likely if it were Commandos their bodies would turn up, sounds like it was hysteria
I lived in Puerto Rico and during WWII a German U-boat surfaced in the Mona Channel and fired 30 shells of its 105mm deck gun at a camp site lodging men from the Civilian Conservation Corps. The German crew incorrectly identified the bonfires at night as a military facility. At the end, no injuries reported.
When I Visited San Juan I found the old Spanish forts with WW2 bunkers built into very interesting
My father was in the Royal Hampshires and he told an inquisitive me that there was a raid . I don’t remember the Location but a Group of British soldiers disappeared.
Probably from the Ram public house in Tidworth 😂😂😂
I remember a Jack Higgins novel called The Eagle Has Landed, which Germans land in England disguised as Polish soldiers in order to kidnap Winston Churchill. The movie made from that story had some big stars (Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland). Thanks again, Mark!
i was about to mention the movie myself.
Me too❤
You will like "49th Parallel," in which a group of Germans soldiers are dropped by a U-boat in Canada, only to be stranded when the U-boat is bombed. It's an excellent propaganda film (the US had not entered the war yet) and a stellar cast.
Kurt Steiner.... great film
I remember reading that book as a kid and then finding out there was a movie. I took a bus to get a rental.
The ending I thought, could have been even better. Instead of shooting Churchill’s impersonator, the real Churchill should have been wounded and replaced by an impersonator in public appearances for months. The King would have to be in on the deception. Otherwise it didn’t make sense for the government to keep the story a secret for decades.
My father served in the Orkney islands in 1940 with an anti-aircraft battery on one of the islands in Scapa Flow…. He told me that his unit was relieving another unit but when they got to the gun position there was no crew, They had disappeared.. Apparently German Commandos had landed from a U-Boat and took them prisoner back to Germany where they were displayed. My father and his mates were ordered not to say anything. As you could imagine after that they doubled up guards and kept well alert !!
Wonder if any of those POWs survived the war and made it back home
These were the last rubber dinghies the British Government managed to stop up until this day.
Yes but today's boaties use no discretion, far too blatant.
Arab invasion force
My grandmother told me she once seen Ribbentrop on the top deck of a bus going from Oldham to Manchester.
I asked her what he was doing there
She said about twenty miles an hour
Now don't laugh, but Adolf Hitler's brother *was* actually living in a council house in Liverpool in 1939. His wife received a court summons for non payment of rent on September the 3rd, 1939. The day her brother in-law started WW2.... Another relative of Hiter's, also called Hitler, served in the US Navy during WW2.....
nice one
Do you work for M15 ? typical CIA tactic, try to discredit the Truth. Problem for you people is that too many people have eyewitness accounts from reputable people.
Mark, this is unrelated, but I wanted to tell you how much your channel has become a part of my everyday life. I'm a Magic the gathering player and I love building new commander decks while listening/watching your videos. It's even started to influence my builds. I created a fast hitting red deck I call "Blitzkrieg". Another I use all snow lands and call it "Eastern front". And my favorite is a blue/white flyer deck I call "Luftwaffe". Thank you for your channel. It means a lot to me.
I appreciate your kind words and thank you for watching!
Call your black deck SS-Totenkopfverbände ;D
@@user-hu7lw4le1k good suggestion but I'd rather not us any SS references. Right now I was thinking of building decks around big personalities of ww2. Patton, Zhukov and such.
I think of connected wargames, he is in part the reason I got the games Palov’s House and Solider in Postman uniforms
@@kingofsnakes1000 ah, there must be room for a Monty desert rat in there especially if you're steering clear of adding a Rommel in the mix with Zhukov. Sounds like an interesting project 👍
I worked on a BBC documentary series called invasions some 20 years ago. We covered these stories back then. What you have failed to mention is they are still classified. If you visited locals who sadly are no longer with us like we did they were still tight lipped, but we got enough info to know something happened and bodies recovered.
Thanks for info. Intriguing that material potentially associated with these reports was classified.
As I said, I reserve judgement until proper documentary material is released or found to prove something. At the moment, it's all witness testimonies and nothing much else. I'm happy to make a follow up video.
My late father told me the story that his brother who was in the army during WW2 had told him, about how he was sent to a beach on the south coast, to help load into trucks around 50 bodies of German solders, not Navy. he said it could be seen that they had been killed by gun fire or burnt. He had no idea were the bodies were taken, and was told never to speak about it.
The great thing about this channel is it does not take things at face value. Witness testimony is some of the least reliable evidence you can use because memory is surprisingly fallible, especially when it's being told decades after the fact. As Mark said, there are lots of stories but no evidence. While some other channels will take a single story from someone saying "it happened" and treat it as a closed case, Mark looks for corroboration. It makes no sense that the Germans would have raided England and then expunged all the evidence from their own records when such a feat would have been of immense propaganda value.
"I worked on a BBC documentary..."
I'm sure you'll understand if I stop reading anything after that statement. If I was in your shoes and I wished to remain credible, and for people to take me seriously, I'd stop using that opening gambit 😂
They actually landed in force, but were chased off by animated suits of armor. I saw it in the documentary "Bedknobs and Broomsticks"
No doubt you were bobbing along when you watched it 😊
Best documentation ever 😂
The Germans had "Wunderwaffen", the Brits "Witchcraft" ...
Must be a trick
A friend and former workmate of mine called Stan Flatters swore blind that his father who was in the Skegness area Home Guard was snatched by a German raid whilst he was on patrol along the sea front and he ended up in Germany as a PoW.
Did he return to Skeg after 45 ¿?
@@suzyqualcast6269
I know Skegness. I'd have stayed in Germany !!!
His is the only place to find newly discovered info about WW2. Thanks Dr. Felton. Your channel is a great service to all of us, and a credit to you and your research team. Keep up the great work.
Well said🎯
@@10toMidnight appreciate the kind words.
Thank you Dr. Felton for all you do on this platform. I'm a USAF veteran and had the great luck of living in the UK and several other places in Europe. My great uncles fought in WW2 under Gen. Patton and I was able to walk in their footsteps of many of the battles they fought in. I wish I had your channel and material in the years I served there. I did get my hands on the British Official Histories (History of the Second World War) and all the wealth of knowledge they contain. Your channel and writing combined with the British Histories have made many wonderful and informative nights for me sitting by my fire with an excellent glass of wine to accompany your works and memories of seeing battlefields from North Africa to Norway, and Britain from North to South. Again sir, thank you for what you do.
Harðráði 1066
" We defeated the wrong enemy " General George S Patton
His wiki page is full of some great quotes.
The ones after defeating germany are very interesting.
How about an episode on the German commando mission to kill Churchill which only failed because he had a double standing in for him. I can’t wait for Mark to blow the bloody doors off that story.
Isn't that just the plot to a historical fiction book?
@@cheekibreeki9818 this story sounds like The Eagle Has Landed, from Jack Higgins, which is a fiction
Ha ha but I recall even the double survived. Wearing their actual uniforms under the British ones was stupid (GREAT book though.)
Jack Higgins was a bit of a rogue and pinched the idea for "The Eagle Has Landed" from a 1942 British black and white film called "Went the Day Well". This film was an adaptation of Graham Greene's short story " The Lieutenant Died Last" published in "Collier's" on 29 June 1940. I recommend both the 1942 film and the short story.
@@ahhamartin They had to wear the German uniforms under the Allies Free Polish uniforms to avoid being executed as spies in the event of capture. Not stupid at all.
A few years ago a German gentleman visited the Porlock visitor centre. (West Somerset/northern coastline). He told the staff this was the 2nd time he had been there. The first time was when he was a submariner on a U-boat out hunting in the Bristol Channel. The were running low on fresh water. Their charts showed a spring at Porlock. In the dead of night they rowed ashore and filled containers.
I'm sure Somerset Water Authority will be issuing a bill now they have the information necessary to update their accounts!
I was told the same story in a talk aboard the steamship Balmoral cruising the Bristol Channel back in the seventies. The u-boat crew members landed at night by dingy at Headons Mouth to replenish their fresh water supply.
"The Eagle Has Landed" is one great movie :)
I was also reminded of the same movie about a raid to "kidnap" Churchill,just forgot the name.
Impossible to believe no such activities took place.
Evening Mark, I live 4 miles from Ventnor on the Isle of Wight so that was even more intriguing than usual, fascinating story and thankyou.
Adrian Searle has written a book about the raid. Best regards from St.Helens IOW 😄
@@curiousmonster8221Thankyou, was that 'Churchills last war time secret'? I haven't read any of his work but I'm aware he is from the island.
A family friend once told me that, as a lad during the war, he delivered newspapers to the garrison in the fortifications dug into the cliffs at Newhaven. One morning, he was not allowed in the place. He later learned that all his 'customers' had had their throats slit in a commando raid.
Incredible!
I'm loving all the comments here about burned bodies and warnings to be silent and such, it sounds much like Roswell. I'ma take mushrooms and work all these ideas into a screenplay, thanks Mark!
It is true and is covered up.
German troops probably landed in Britain routinely, both officially and unofficially. I live in Canada and my housemate, who grew up in Nova Scotia on Canada’s Atlantic coast, told me a story in his family that one Friday night in a small Nova Scotia town, in the local dance hall, a group of tall, bearded, blonde men walked in and got drinks. They spoke with a foreign accent and were very polite, drank - danced - and left. It was only long afterwards everyone began to work out who they could have been - with the U-boat possibly waiting somewhere out in the darkness!
Lol yea because a U-boat crew would just openly expose to getting captured like that 😂
Always seems to be in places with lots of alcohol flowing, strange 😉
Norwegian or Danish merchant marines more likely
@@FoxWolfWorld captured by the DJ
@@dzhang4459 I would think that’s what they all assumed too
I born and lived on the island and this raid by the Germans was well known amongst villagers on Niton, although things were hushed-up…..
But gunfire was indeed heard by some of the older locals who I spoke to as a young child, it was suggested that the Germans did get a few bits from the radar that they took back to Germany.
would love to hear more Cliff, I did a brief exhibition in Niton last week. Please get in touch....cheers
See also Adrian Searle's book, from 2016, 'Churchill's Last Wartime Secret: The 1943 German Raid Airbrushed from History'.
As Dr Felton says - 'the case seems thin.'
Mr Searle completely avoids the question 'if anything happened - why are there no records from the German side?' They had no reason to hide it, internally, rather the reverse.
I remember seeing something about a German raid on the English coast that was repulsed by a witch and the three children she was tending to. Air cover was provided by a flying bed and her broom stick.
I think that particular raid was off the coast of a small fishing village called Narnia and also involved a lion and a wardrobe 😂😂
If I remember correctly, the bed didn’t show up in the battle, but all the suits of armor from a nearby building were found outside, often full of bullet holes and even bullets themselves.
… Oh, I can’t help myself.
So, call out the Navy, call out the Ranks,
Call out the Air Force, call out the Tanks,
From the cliffs of Dover, call up the gulls,
And don’t forget the loyal terri-torials, but
Who’s digging in here? Who will defend
Every inch of England, no matter what they send?
Who’s standing firm in their own front yard?
The soldiers of the Old Home Guard, THAT’S WHO!
The soldiers of the Old Home Guard!
@@28russ I think it was Brigadoon 😂🤣
Bednoobs and broomsticks
I don't credit it myself but a Dorset man I met claimed that the Germans attempted a commando raid on the explosive works at Holton Heath and this explains some of the wartime German graves at Wareham. These graves bear other explanations, but, it's an intriguing story. Holton Heath was certainly the target of Luftwaffe attention.
Thank you Dr Mark Felton for your interesting story. My grandfather was a NCO in the Royal Engineers in 1940. After being evacuated from Saint-Nazaire with other elements of the British Expeditionary Force, the Royal Engineers were put to work bolstering the coastal defences between the Thames Estuary and Solent area.
He recalled installing the devices to flood the sea with oil/petroleum a few yards from the beaches which would be set on fire to deter any invasion landing craft from coming ashore. There were also devices similar to WWI Levins Flame Projectors on the most vulnerable beaches to fire at troops who might have been able to land.
When I asked if the Germans ever landed? His reply was that he was involved with removing burnt dead bodies of Germans from some South Coast beaches. Other than that he said he was bound by the Official Secrets Act and could say no more. Whether the the Germans attempted invasion landings and/or commando raids is a matter of conjecture without any documentary or photographic evidence.
Perhaps the most plausible answer to burnt dead German bodies being washed up on the beaches was the Germans carrying out mock invasion rehearsals on the French Coast between Boulogne-Sur-Mer and Le Harve and were attacked by the RAF bombers and sunk; thus allowing burned corpses to be carried by the tide and being washed up on the British South Coast.
The After the Battle Book on Operation Seelowe documents RAF reconnaissance and bombing raids on the French ports used for German invasion preparations. I have seen a You Tube post that made claims that a German “Slapton Sands” type rehearsal was attacked near Le Harve. Dr Mark is there any evidence to confirm this?
I can confirm that. My father - with the R.E.M.E. was also working on coastal installations and defences in Kent at one point. He used to say that if you saw more than 5 aircraft in formation, they weren't ours......he always recalled speaking to a group of Home Guard blokes. They had the task of defending 3 miles of coastline, with a water cooled Vickers machine gun, manufactured in 1921, and a full belt (250 rounds) of ammunition..... My father used to say Dad's Army on the TV was great comedy, but little did most folk realise how close to the truth it actually was.....
There's never a dull moment with you, Dr. Felton. Your stories are always fascinating. 👍
Dr. Felton-excellent video as always. Part of me was expecting something about Oberst Kurt Steiner and his 13 paratroopers landing at Studley Constable in November 1943…
Great movie, and Michael Caine was superb as Steiner.
Great comment, I was just thinking that also.
Jack Higgins RIP. I wonder did he originally get the idea from a whispered secret back in the 70's
@@jonmurphy4218 Allegedly it was inspired by the planning for "Operation Long Jump", a proposed commando raid on the Tehran conference to be led by Otto
@@Rendell001 I have to admit I'd have loved to have met Skorzeny, I bet he would have had some fascinating tales.
Yes they did! The secret German Kommando raid occurred in 1940, in preparation for Operations See Lion. The astonished Grrmans were discoverd and repulsed by a practicing country Witch, who, through the "Substitutiary Locomotion" spell, managed to animate some medieval armour from the local museum, which drove them back into the sea. As she sailed over the battlefield upon he broomstick, directing her erstwhile troops, she was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed to the ground, but was ok as her fall was cusioned by a nearby hedge. The Old Home Guard arrived to mop up and took credit, while brave Egglintine's efforts were lost to history.
Underrated comment
Not to be dismissed or ridiculed - didn't Churchill either consult a witch or have one or more locked up?
They banged up Crowley didn't they ¿?
You almost had me half-believing you until the animated armor part when I realized it was an old ass movie I once saw lmao.
I couldn't resist to make a comment on "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" either. 😂😂😂😂😂
Best comment, second best the one pub which was raided during Napoleonic wars, ww1 and ww2.
The local pub goers made the invaders pay the drinking rounds 😂
True story! It was Harry Potters' great grandma. It was cut from the film because of wartime secrecy laws. But Harry gave her credit, and flew a few of the moves she made in the Quiditch game. He later said it was a tribute to her. If you slow the film down and watch a frame by frame edit, you can see he gives the famous Churchill "V" sign as he loops over the defeated team.
Something happened, i live in Portsmouth and there was talk of navy ships leaving the harbour in a hurry and when they returned after 3 days the sailors were swarn to secrecy.
I know of the shingle street incident, perhaps that was the reason, cammando raid on orford ness to get radar equipment.
What an excellent video Dr. Felton!! 😇
A relative of a relative (RIP) was in telephone communications in WW2 - GPO Telephones. He said he overheard on the lines of an attempted landing that was defeated with all Germans killed. He said the lines were buzzing with activity.
A friend of mine, sadly passed away, told me that he had a friend who insisted he was snatched by a German raiding party whilst in patrol between Dover and Folkestone. He was in the Home Guard at the time and returned to Britain after VE day. I wish to goodness I could verify the story.
There’s a book called ‘the bodies on the beach’ by James Hayward. It’s about a rumoured landing in Suffolk. Its an interesting story that demonstrates how tricky it is to pick out the truth from rumour, disinformation and speculation. But that book contains details of unverified reports of a couple of instances where home guard members were snatched from channel beaches and taken back to occupied Europe.
@@caitoliver5189 It would seem logical for the Germans to do commando-type raids and perhaps seize enemy troops or even civilians to question them about beach defences and so on. But there is a lack of documentary confirmation that they actually did so. What a special forces-type outfit like the Brandenburgers did in Poland, the Netherlands, the USSR etc. is fairly well-documented, but there is nothing like that in relation to Britain.
Butcher Jones?
Another fascinating report! I don't know how you do it, Dr. Felton , but don't ever stop! Right when I think I have read and seen it all you come up with a incident that I am humbled by. Bravo Zulu from the USN, Ret.
Another outstanding video. Keep them coming
The Disney movie "Bedknobs and Broomstick" ends with a German raid that is driven off by museum pieces and a small body of Home Guards. It is intriguing there might be a snippet of history hidden in the story.
I live close to Shingle Street. There has long been rumours of an incident at Shingle Street including a statement from a local man claiming during the war he was ordered to the beach and witnessed damaged rubber boats and dead bodies with burns and wearing German uniforms. Years later there were reports in German documents of soldiers with burns returning to Europe. Many British documents about any incident here were put on a 100 year secret list. The few documents that were released under public pressure a few years ago had been heavily censored.
It could have been a failed raid, an Allied training exercise that went wrong or it could have been nothing at all.
Shingle Streets probably the one true historical account of a German Commando raiding party landing on Mainland England soil. There has been many references by locals, including finding burnt German military uniforms found above the beach area.
Well I finally have watched and listened to all of your videos on both your channels. I have learned so much. Keep up the great work. Cheers
As usual stunning stuff, outstanding mate thank you
So somebody set/caused a fire and said, "I saw Germans" to cover their ass.
I live on the island and I'm not sure if they would have known what fire was in the 40s here 🤣👍
Sounds like an episode of Dad's Army.
I recall a story from the Napoleonic Wars, when very early one morning lookouts spotted a fire in the distance and assumed it was another beacon alerting them to a possible French invasion. The militia were turfed out of their beds but what it actually turned out to be was a farmer burning a load of weeds
In his memoirs called "Dear Me", Peter Ustinov mentioned guarding a patch of coast in Sussex or Kent for a time, and hearing a rumour that earlier guards had been abducted by German raiders. Ustinov was a private in the British Army during WW2.
That sounds like something the Sergeant of the Guard would say before posting out the new guard.
Apparently in west Wales German submarine crews would come ashore to find water and in one case went to a pub. A friend of ,mine remembers talking to an old German veteran in Porthgain who was visiting where he had come ashore. The locals thought they were Dutch allies serving in Wales.
I heard that ftom a local as a WWI story. It is a very remote place. None of the Welsh at that time spoke English, so just assumed the Germans were ftom England.
@@chrisg9352 Lol well you know the Welsh word for English (nationality and language) is Saesnag (Sassenach in Gaelic) which translates to Saxon? Perhaps those Germans were from Saxony.
There always seems to be a pub involved , I think any foreigner in Porthgain during WW2 would have been stopped and held.
John - do you have a definitive named source for this ?
@@simonh6371 Correct. "Sasanach" in Scotland.
Wasn’t The Brandenburg Regiment(part of ABWHER) mostly committed on the eastern front?
And in 1943 they were mostly engaged in anti-partisan operations in Yugoslavia. But hey, why let facts get in the way of a good story?
Another great video by Dr Mark Felton! thank you for these as always!
The Radar site attacked was not at Ventnor - it was at St Lawrence which is near to Ventnor - the low key radar site based there was hidden - also there was a mobile Radar site at Niton Isle of Wight, this radar was on a semi circle track and was wheeled out when required and wheeled back into cover when not required. My father was the runner for the local police motorcycle rider and rode pillion with him - the police officer was elderly and so required a runner to deliver and pick up messages from the various sites around the Ventnor area.
can you tell us more please?
Another awesome video mark. Thanks
What a lovely treat. Been watching Mark for a while now. Nice to see a vid on my local area
I will speculate that though there is no record of a Brandonburger unit raiding England, that does not preclude other German agencies did not, since the Intel organizations among the various military forces were divided amongst themselves and did their own thing, competing against each other. The Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Wermarcht, SS, and others could have ran their own special ops independent of each other. Hitler's government was a polyanarchy, which is why Goering made his own Luftwaffe ground divisions.
Aye, ALL struggling for supremacy and Ahis admiration.
My father was captain of a minesweeper based on the east coast, he mentioned that they opened British minefields to allow German troops access to a particular area before the sea was set on fire. If correct it would seem to indicate that they knew they were coming.
Always an outstanding video and presentation.
My grandfather was RAF, protecting a RADAR station. I could not pry much detail from him, however, he said he was posted on the South East coast were he witnessed several inflatable dinghies coming assure from a U Boat. His section had only a few rounds of ammunition each. The end was a battle with bayonets on the beach were the Germans were repelled. I wish I could have learned more.
Spent a lot of time in Ventnor as my ex wife and family resided there. I knew about the stuka raids but never about any (alleged ) German commando raids- fantastic video as always Dr Felton.
I can recommend 'Churchill's Last Wartime Secret' by Adrian Searle, the book solely focusses on the St Lawrence raid
Wow! You do find some intriguing stories Mark! I'd never heard of this except in fiction ("The Eagle has Landed"). Well done yet again Mate!
Crikey... There was an old b+w filum where a loada Jerry's landed upon an English village somewhere but whose true character was revealed by an an irritated 'Tommy' lookalike kick back at a youngster... Can't reschedule title nor detail, but their game was up.
This is another great video Mark-they are all good!
Intriguing video, thanks Mark.
My late father was a former WW2 radar boffin at TRE Malvern and later a keen historian of WW2 ground radar. He never mentioned this topic to me , in any of our informal chats.
He did mention that, after the Bruneval Raid of February 1942, TRE was moved inland from Swanage to Malvern, so it would not be vulnerable to commando raids arriving or leaving via the sea.
By August 1943, the original chain home equipment at Ventnor might well have been updated to include newer and more effective air defence radars but I do not have the details readily to hand. Hence those later equipments might have been of interest to the Germans...
Later on, the use of allied radar was extended to offensive purposes. For the D-day landings, the US MEW (microwave early warning) radar was used in conjunction with a British height finder radar to perform "air traffic control" over the Normandy battlespace, by directing allied aircraft away from any German intereption sorties. I have a video of that in my collection of radar media.
That's what the good Doctor wants, - proper details, not the ex classified bs. Nice One.
In the 70’s I had a True Stories Readers Digest book that described this incident as the Defence force testing a system that “set the sea in fire” as they called it. It was described as a test which have been fairly spectacular at the time.
Completely unrelated to this story, but my dad was a commando in WW2. He served in Italy and North Africa. I think they were unkindly dubbed the D Day dodgers. I did have his medals, but unfortunately, they disappeared in a house move many years ago.
Greetings from America.
In 43 years, it will mark 1000 years since the last time an enemy foot soldier set foot in England from the seas.
Congrats to y'all for such a record of longevity of national defense and security. 1066.... is just crazy to fathom.
Arab dinghy divers by the thousands
@@user-qe5kz4iv6g Yeah. I forgot.
When I worked in the Gulf of Mexico, I heard stories of a German submarine that surfaced off Louisiana. It sent a crew ashore to buy provisions from local stores. This would have been around Cameron or Holly Beach.
Yeah, l've heard of natzi u-boats in the Gulf of Mejico.
Say,are You in Louisiana?
Me, l'm in Southeast Texas right now.
@@carywest9256 No, I'm in Tennessee. I worked down there for Fairfield Industries.
There was the "Battle" of Graveney Marsh, 27 September 1940 in Kent, where shots were fired and one German was injured. I believed this ended with the captured Germans being taken to the local pub.
That makes sense, they may have had some Schnapps for them.
Yes I recall this, it was a German bomber which crash landed, but the crew manned the machine guns against the Home Guard until they eventually surrendered, then all went to the pub
@@royalhero4608 Yep.
As I understand it, the Germans were trying to use one of their heavy machine guns to destroy some of the sensitive electronics in the cockpit. As luck would have it, they opened fire on their plane just as the Home Guard was approaching. The HG naturally assumed they were the ones being shot at, went to ground, started shooting back and sent some men to attack the Germans from the rear. The Germans were severely outgunned and rapidly surrendered, and then everyone went to the pub to have a drink and await the arrival of higher authority.
I bet that pub is still talking about it.
Never seized to amaze Dr Mark Felton.
Mark Felton, you are always with very interesting subjects.
Its common knowledge that Germany sent agents and saboteurs to the USA, but most if not all were captured (apparently)
So it wouldnt be too far of a stretch to not have done the same to the UK, which would have been much more accessible considering the distances involved.
Certain aspects of WW2 are still to this day shrouded in secrecy, and so I wouldnt be surprised at all if successful operations/attacks were conducted in both the USA and UK by German forces, but not made public for reasons of national security etc.
Yes the biggest secret kept hidden is who actually pushed for war, and actually made the first declaration of war on Germany in March 1933. 6 years before they got their Proxy Poland to fire the first shot.
Operation Pastorius conducted by Abwehr. It is likely Canaris sent the worst agents possible so they would get caught and Hitler would cease ordering operations of that sort.
They did send spies and saboteurs to the UK too, it's well documented, and some of those caught were executed by Albert Pierrepoint. However they were pretty inept, I believe at least one of them didn't even speak a word of English.
The easiest way for Germany to send agents into the UK would be via Ireland, with which it had diplomatic relations. Let them cross into the UK via the North Irish border. Or use double agents from the occupied countries, as people from those countries escaped to the UK via lots of means throughout the war. Sending agents into the UK with no local network to connect or support them would be a suicide mission, and why the agents sent to the US were so easily caught.
Operation Pastorius, June 1942. Eight German saboteurs were landed by U-boat on the eastern end of Long Island, about 100 miles from New York City. All eight of the Germans had lived in the US prior to the war and could 'pass' as Americans. After landing two of the agents immediately turned themselves in to the FBI and snitched on the other six. The two snitches were imprisoned until the end of the war then deported to occupied Germany. The other six were executed. It's the only known commando raid the Germans tried against the US during WWII.
Yes a friend told me about the pevensea bay raid many years ago......he said his dad was on leave at the time from r a f coastal and had removed dead German bodies from the beach on pevensea
Intriguing Dr Felton. Thank you.
Good video Mark cheers
If they had landed, the men of the Walmington-on-Sea platoon would have been waiting for them! Seriously, you would suspect that the Germans might have mounted some operation to glean insite into Britain's RADAR capability. It has always intrigued me that German high command did not focus more and earlier attention on attacking CHL sites. Thankfully, they did not. Also, when attacking CHL sites they targeted the towers (rather than the huts full of equipment and valuable trained operators). The towers could be easily repaired or replaced.
Whatever you do, Steve, don't tell 'em your name.
Some time ago I read ( in a source I unfortunately can't now locate) that the Germans underrated British radar as exceedingly primitive and thus didn't persist in their attacks. They were, of course, correct in their assumption but ignored to their peril the fact that primitive systems can and do work.
@@meijiturtle3814 Yes, I think this is correct. The Chain Home CHL system was fairly primitive. However, during WW2 British RADAR was rapidly developed. For example, development of magnetron and centimetric sets for airborne and naval use.
Don’t tell him Pike !
@@raypurchase801That's exactly what I was thinking, Ray. My Mom told me once, "Brian, respect other people's privacy."
"Went The Day Well?" is a great old film to watch. I think it was made early in the war, and tells the story of German Commandos, disguised as Allied soldiers, who take over a remote village on the coast of England, and the villagers fight back when they discover their real identities. "The Eagle Has Landed" made in the 70s, has a similar theme. German Commandos, disguised as Polish Paratroopers, land on the coast of Norfolk, to assassinate Churchill, who is soon to be visiting a stately home in the area. . They get rumbled by villagers, but in this one, the Americans at a nearby base come and save the day (despite being commanded by a bumbling fool of an officer, played by Larry Hagman)
‘Went the day well’ provides a rare opportunity to witness a gun-toting Thora Hird!
Oh yes!
@@AtheistOrphan
“Went the day well” is a quaint little Ealing-comedy style British film production which turns into Red Dawn, well before Red Dawn was even a thing. It’s gritty.
@@georgemorley1029 Definitely. Some of the Germans meet quite a gruesome end. .
Good film! I believe the director was Cavalcanti, who made 'Night Mail' and other public information films for the COI.
I worked in a California vineyard in the early 80's that hired an elderly German winemaker consultant. So we asked him what he did in the war. He told us stories of how during the war a sub would drop a team, of which he was a member, off the English coast in the night and they would cut phone lines and sabotage rail lines before leaving on the sub. He was not the type to make these kinds of things up and we all believed him. No photographic or documentation though. He made it sound like it was a very routine thing to do. Not sure, but thought his missions were in the Northwest parts of the Isles.
Mum used to tell me how when she and Auntie Joan were girls, they shared a bedroom at grandad's house in the New Forest,, their mum having passed away in 1942. One night there was a panic and their dad, who was CO of the town Home Guard, was called out w
ith his men since there were reports of Germans landing on the South coast. Mum often told me about how terrified the two girls were having to stay home alone while Germans might appear at any moment. I knew one of the Home Guard in later years, and when I asked he remembered the night clearly. He made light of it by telling me he and his mate were ordered to search a particular plantation for paratroops, but they were so frightened they sat in the boundary ditch and drank bottles of beer until daylight when the scare had passed.
In the first volume of Spike Milligans war memoirs, Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall, he claims that he got so bored with continual signalling practice that he once deliberately transmitted an invasion warning without the ‘practice’ prefix, causing an invasion scare on the south coast.
The Gulf of St. Lawrence on the east coast of Canada was a hotbed of German U Boat activity in WW II. The ferry 'Caribou' was sunk with loss of life off the coast of Newfoundland in 1943. There are stories that persist to this day that German U-boat sailors came ashore in the area -- some claims that they went to dances in local villages!! They did put up a weather station on the coast of Labrador I believe which was found years later. Very interesting videos Mark. Hard to believe we are seeing a new war playing out in Ukraine with all the images etched in our brains from WW II.
U-Boats were also in the Gulf of Mexico and sank several ships around Florida.
There were German spies who landed in Canada from the Gulf of St Lawrence. Their mistake was having cash from before 1937 with King George V on it. By the time they landed, most of the old currency had been replaced with notes showing George VI.
That weather station nicknamed "Kurt" I believe is now exhibited at the canadian war museum.
I heard that they put some men ashore as spies but they were caught right away. They reeked of diesel oil.
I always wondered if there was any truth in the movie 'Bed knobs and broomsticks' with the Germans invading?
Excellent. Keep up the good work 👏
According to Marvel Comics and their series, “Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos,” German commandos raided the coast of England several times and each time were put in their place by the famed First Attack Squad.
But wait, if it’s a comic then it must be fiction, right? You mean to tell me that everything in print isn’t true? Heaven forbid! Who would’ve thunk’d it?
Nothing to worry about UNIT was on the job with Dr. Who.
5 shots rapid.
@@rogersmith7396A shame the Tardis was out of action at the time or the war would of been over before it begun. But luckily agent Pertwee could still rely on his rapid response vehicle code named Bessie. 😂😂
Sarah Jane could easily handle the Waffen SS on her own.@@28russ
There was a clandestine operation by Nazis. They tried to open a portal to another dimension. And something got through ...
I always heard they landed in Suffolk near Shingle Street and people had seen the bodies piled up..and hushed up..
This is one of the alleged incidents described in James Hayward's book The Bodies On The Beach.......
Another gem from Dr Felton! 👏
I live in Niton, on the south coast of The Isle of Wight. I moved here just over five years ago from the mainland. My dad decided to avoid being called up for national service in the early 50's by joining up instead. He didn't fancy the army and so joined the Royal Air Force instead. He worked within the chain radar network and so I was very interested in the Ventnor radar site and have visited what remains of it on several occasions. Much is still spoken here in Niton of increased military activity here at one point during the middle of the war. Trucks full of soldiers arrived along with some navy personnel on high alert and extensive patrols and searches were carried out along the coastline between St Catherine's Lighthouse, Reeth Bay and Niton Undercliffe. It only happened on this scale once apparently and it was to do with an attack on the Ventnor radar station, according to village gossip.....
I live on the island and have been told this story, there are a few slightly different versions. which are quite plausable, but no definate accurate evidance to support any version.
the old man across the alley from me told me before he died he was in london as a med helper. the british were afraid the germans would come up the themes river so they put petrol barrels across secured by a chain to be set off by gunfire if something was spotted. one night germans came up the river, the barrels were set off and he was one who had to go pick up the burned bodies. he said it was the worse he had seen, flesh peeled off like a glove. id love more info on that
My father, who was a Londoner, was conscripted for war service in June 1940. His battalion, all of them conscripts, completed basic infantry training, and were posted to the Cromer area of East Anglia at end 1940. Early in the following Spring, the entire battalion was split into small groups and each was given a stretch of coastline to patrol. They were told they would receive 5 Woodbine cigarettes for each German body they recovered. My fathers group did not find any bodies but those who did succeed in winning cigarettes said all the bodies were badly burned. It was rumoured that the sea had been set alight.
We've all seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks, we know how it really went down 😂
All jokes aside - another impeccably put together video!
There were stories of German bodies being found at Shingle Street in Suffolk. This is just a few miles from the Radar research center at RAF Bawdsey and the base at Orford Ness where all sorts of weapon testing took place.
The German bodies may possibly have been from aircraft which had crashed in the sea after being shot down. There would certainly have been plenty of German aircraft in the sea off the South Coast of England. There was hysteria around at the time, and no doubt any German body found washed up on a beach, would cultivate numerous tales and stories..... There are still Germans buried here in Britain from both World wars. I think the numbers are still in the thousands, even after some bodies have been exhumed and repatriated. I think a few exhumation and repatriation programmes have taken place since 1945.
It was me who met the retired German officer in the bar of the Coq Hardi Hotel, Verdun back in the early 1980s, who claimed he was on the raid, and my telling of that recollection is a chapter in 'Churchill's Last Wartime Secret' by Adrian Searle. The raid was not against the Chain Home high level radar at Ventnor, but against the depicted low level site at St Lawrence which for Islanders are two very separate locations. Interestingly my German knew the difference and specifically mentioned St Lawrence low level site. Amongst other things he said that during the fire fight they had one wounded who died on the U-boat going back. When I asked him why there was no documentary evidence about this raid, he said it was quite simple that for about 18 months to two years British intelligence officers went through the Kriegsmarine archives looking for things of interested and would have simply weeded anything they didn't want found.
Typical Brit official attitude to what the peeps under the representative Govt, oughta know.
Sounds plausible
There was a segment on a bbc factual show, coast I think, where they showed the pipes used to transfer the oil to the tidal zone at Weymouth Dorset, the pumping station was in a hotel basement on the promenade.
I find it fascinating that the first responders to the threat of German commandos (according to ARP records) was the Police. My respect for the unarmed British Bobby has gone up immeasurably.
Some years ago a British national newspaper, the Daily Mirror I believe, ran a story about a German soldier who said he was part of one of these raids but he said the attack was decimated when oil was spread onto the sea and set on fire. I seem to remember that part of his claim was that he was the only survivor the rest dying in the fire.
The planned defences against a German invasion included setting the sea alight
Good point. Always wondered why Germany didn’t do any recon. Seems to make sense they would have. Thanks for this one.
Great video again but surprised that a commando raid/invasion attempt at Shingle Street hasn't been mentioned in this video. Can't see why any attempts would still be covered up after 80 years, what difference would it make finding out about it now after all these years?
Mark, never dismiss the memories of those there and eventually called upon to recount.
Memories are very unreliable.
I still liked "The Eagle has Landed".
Would like to see a video about the Germans landed off the coast of Maine
Could it be that it was our troops practicing in captured uniform? Of all people, spike milligan mentions in his war memoires that whilst in Sussex he was a signaller. There was an exercise one night for an enemy landing operation. Milligan was due to send the signal for the landing op followed by the word PRACTICE but said he forgot to send PRACTICE after and all hell was let loose
This man never disappoint.
TY 🙏🙏. You would think any raid would have got a lot of German propaganda publicity.
Just if the footage made it home intact ...