As dawn broke over the English countryside, it seemed as if god was favouring the attackers again. On the eastern horizon, the sun began lifting itself, an orange-red glowing ball, anyone could tell it was going to be a glorious day. There was almost no wind, no cloud and the channel was a flat calm.
In his headquarters, Ironside cursed the weather. Two fine late September days in a row was rare enough. Invasions were even rarer. Both together were disastrous. Still, as the minutes ticked by, his mood began to brighten a little as a steady trickle of good news, in contrast to the events of the previous day, began to reach GHQ.
Over night, sporadic fighting had continued across central Kent, but little had changed overall. Bomber Command had come into action over night also, launching raids against the invasion ports on the opposite side of the channel. It had recorded success, as the quaysides were packed with troops and equipment awaiting embarkation. The targets were easy to find and many fires had been started. However, unknown to the British, the damage looked worse than it actually was. The British bombers had limited payloads and were more disrupting than damaging. It could have been different had there been four engined bombers available.
It had also become clear that holding his main forces back from the coast had been the correct course of action. Had he committed them to coastal defence they would have been spread too thinly too make a difference, and worse still, become quickly cut off by the speed with which the enemy came ashore. As it was, XII Corps was still largely intact, save for the battered 29th Brigade, and losses appeared relatively light. Dover was cut off but still in British hands, while the parachute landings around Sevenoaks appeared to have been contained, for now at least.
News was coming in of the fabulous action overnight of the 66th Coastal Defence Battalion which, poorly equipped and on its own, had managed to stall the advance of the German 8th Infantry Division. Barely 600 men strong and armed with WW1 vintage weapons, it had held off a whole regiment of around 3000 men for 6 hours. Long enough for the 3rd Brigade of the New Zealand Division to close up to a defensive position east of Brighton. As a result, the town was still in British hands this morning. The defenders needed examples like this.
As the dawn became morning, Ironside began to realise the importance of Dover to both sides. The Germans would need it to get supplies ashore, he needed to stop them doing that. Therefore, he needed to relieve the town as quickly as possible. However, the only unit in the immediate area was the 2nd Brigade of the 1st (London) Territorial Division. Not a first class unit, but he had no other choice. 45th Division was containing the airborne drops, while NZ Division were moving to defend Brighton. The 29th Brigade was out of position and pulling back, while XII Corps only other unit, the 1st MMG Brigade was moving forward from the area of Croyden. He spoke on the landline with the 1st Londons OC, Brigadier General Rose, who informed him that during the night, it had become clear that the enemy forces moving forward to link up with the airborne drops had exposed their flank along the Tonbridge – Ashford road. Rose requested permission to attack the flank with his second Brigade, which was in the area of Maidstone. Ironside refused, ordering him to attack toward Dover with the 2nd, and to use his 1st, in the area of Wrotham, to engage the flank of the forces approaching Tonbridge. This would mean leaving the containment of the airborne drops to the 45th Division, but both attacks needed to be made quickly. Rose acknowledged his orders.
Meanwhile, the Germans were making moves of their own. The initial attempt to take Dover the previous afternoon had failed. Just after dawn, 24th Infantry were to launch another assault in company with the 3rd FJ. 8th Infantry were preparing to loop around Brighton when they ran into the NZ Division, 2 Brigades up and spoiling for a fight. Soon, they were engaged in heavy fighting around Lewes, as far north as Uckfield and Hadlow. In the centre, the Germans renewed their push toward Sevenoaks where the embattled 7th FJ were still hanging on to the North Downs. During the morning, the Germans began to establish 4th Corps HQ ashore, at Bilsington Priory, north of Hythe. At the same time, the follow up wave began to come ashore, but because of the limited sea transport available and the need to bring supplies ashore on the beaches until Dover could be taken, this was limited to one full Division, the 58th. Heavy fighting continued in the air all morning as the RAF continued to attack the beacheads and the shipping milling around in the channel. The Luftwaffe responded with constant CAPs over the beaches but the fighting was more even on the second day, mainly because the RAF had recovered a little from its initial shock. That did not stop the Luftwaffe from claiming 26 enemy aircraft shot down by midday, whilst owning up to 18 losses of there own.
At last, at noon on the 23rd, the Admiralty agreed to limited operations against the channel sealanes, provided the RAF could cover them, a somewhat tall order in view of the bitter fighting it was already engaged in. Accordingly, the Northern Group, consisting of 4 cruisers and 6 destroyers was released on the east coast, and the Channel Group of 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 3 destroyers was released from Portsmouth. At the same time, a Battlegroup at Scapa was given orders to prepare for further action.
On the downs south of Otford, the 7th FJ was still holding out, under attack from three directions by the 45th Infantry. During the late morning, advance elements of 78th Infantry Division approached Sevenoaks, only to find a defence line held by a Brigade of the 45th Infantry. An assault would have to be made on the town since the British also held the high ground on either side of it. Besides, they needed to get through to relieve the 7th Para. 7th Para meanwhile, had been forced to call off its attempts to take West Malling in order to fend off constant attacks on their shrinking positions.
Further south, heavy fighting was now going on around Lewes as the Germans attempted to bypass Brighton. The NZ Division was putting up determined resistance and all attempts by the Germans to penetrate their line were being held. The Germans problem was that, despite being better equipped than their enemy, they were having difficulties in getting that equipment off the beaches, and ammunition in particular was piling up in the sand dunes and roadsides by the beacheads.
The second assault on Dover began at around 13.00hrs, supported by fire from warships offshore. By now, after the first assault and constant air attack, the number of defenders in the town had been substantially reduced from the 2500 or so that had been there the previous day. Many had been killed, but some had also deserted, it became clear. Nevertheless, the defenders clung on grimly as the fighting moved from street to street. By late afternoon they were still holding on.
During the mid-afternoon, the Admiralty decided to postpone their interdiction of the straits until after dark. The reason for this was the same as the one being considered on the other side of the channel, where the Germans had decided to start crossing overnight to avoid British air attacks which the Luftwaffe was still having difficulty in countering. Another large supply ship had been sunk that morning, as well as the loss of one of the Kreigsmarines precious destroyers, of which they had considerably fewer than did the Royal Navy.
At around this time, Brigadier General Roses territorials began their counter attack. From the direction of Faversham, they crashed into Canterbury, which had been abandoned the day before, and easily drove out the only German unit there, a recon platoon of the 116th Infantry Regiment. They then continued in the direction of Dover. At the same time, the 1st Brigade attacked from the area of Maidstone toward Tonbridge, catching the Germans in the flank as they were about to assault Sevenoaks. However, the 78th Division, a veteran of Poland and France, easily absorbed the blow from the soft Territorials, and quickly redirected their effort against the new threat, driving it back with heavy losses. Around Dover, things also went badly for the 1st London. The Germans quickly detected the axis of approach, despatching a Battalion to the left to counter-attack whilst parrying the blow with the Divisional reserve. The effort quickly melted away and by evening, the 1st London was back where it started, having suffered over a 1000 casualties for no gain. However, the Division had succeeded in delaying the attack on Sevenoaks, which was postponed until the following morning because the forces were now out of position. It was too late, however, for Dover, which fell to the 24th Infantry Division at 21.50hrs that night. The way was at last open to bring in supplies.
