Folks,

Dux: Luv it!

Sorry I overlooked the coveted Drinking Sash. It must be a source of great pride. It was an unforgivable oversight. As I recall it today, you were in hospital for ten full days after that particular ceremony. The quacks couldn't figure out why someone in your terrible physical condition should have such a broad smile on his face. It was at least five days before you felt any pain at all.

Good old Hymey. He still has my mother's false teeth... I'll hand over the fiver immediately you turn loose of the tenner you owe me Pal. Or, as that dear rascal George 'Kingfish' Stevens once patiently explained to an agitated Andy, "I owes you five and you owes me ten ... I'l make it easy on you Andy...just give me a twenty and I'll give you 15 back, less the ten you owes me...."

And by the same token, here is the next thrilling installment of "Sealion" that I owe everyone as well.

Sealion
BY: Zerosan2 (the magnificent)
HWH Continued
8/16/2004
Page 85

PART THREE
It might have happened this way.

05.52 hrs, 24th September 1940

Day three resembled a more typical late English summer day. Low cloud, light breeze and a fine drizzle that dampened everything. At OKH, Halder survey his situation map and was less than happy.

The failure to take Dover on day one, the fact that the British had sabotaged the harbour by sinking blockships, and the general damage sustained by the installations meant that it would take weeks to get it fully operational.
In the meantime, his engineers estimated, it could operate at no more than 20% capacity.

This was not enough to sustain the invasion for any length of time. Folkestone, which his troops had bypassed to get to Dover quickly, was still in British hands, albeit cut off. He needed that facility quickly now, and had already instructed the 3rd Regiment of the 7th Para to take it quickly.

It had been a tumultuous night. As agreed with the navy, troops and supplies had begun to be bought across under cover of darkness as of 23.00hrs, in an effort to reduce the exposure of the small craft to air attack.

Halder grimaced. He conceded that the Germans were not a maritime people. The inexperienced crews of the tugs and small motor boats, the ratings in charge of the unpowered craft, and even in some cases the navy personnel themselves, had got into all sorts of difficulties last night. Nobody had given much thought to the strong currents, the sandbanks and slip tides that governed the English channel.

In the darkness, craft had got lost, collided, run aground and gone missing even without the help of the British. And when the Royal Navy did show up in the early hours, a mess became almost disastrous. Several destroyers and at least two cruisers had got into the sealane during the night setting off a prolonged engagement between them and the hard pressed German destroyers, supported by the radar directed shore batteries at Cap Griz Nez. The results were not good.

One of the British Cruisers had been badly damaged and one destroyer sunk. The Kriegsmarine had lost one destroyer also sunk and two more damaged and out of action. The heavy Cruiser “Prinz Eugen” had collided with and sunk a small freighter whilst turning sharply to avoid suspected torpedoes, also damaging itself. It was strongly suspected that the shore batteries had fired on their own side in the confusion, and the Germans were generally hampered by the risk of hitting their own ships in such a confined stretch of water.

As it was, 11 vessels were unaccounted for along with dozens of barges. Personnel losses were being put at around 4000, the equivalent of more than a whole Infantry Regiment in a few hours. Needless to say, there would be no more night crossings.

On land the situation was only a little brighter. He surveyed the map, which showed the German lodgement on the British mainland. In essence it stretched from Deal across to Canterbury, then looped south of Maidstone, like a finger pointing at London, to the edge of Sevenoaks. From there, the other side of the finger dropped back past Tonbridge and then turned south in a broad arc all the way down to Lewes. Within it were the larger part of 4 and a half divisions, something in the order of 60,000 men. Separated from the jutting finger by a distance of about 4 miles were the two other Regiments of the surrounded 7th Parachute Division, low on food and ammunition and having taken significant casualties.

The invasion was now well behind schedule, for at this point, the plan had called for no less than 7 Infantry, one Airborne and one Airlanded Divisions to be ashore. But the problem was, not only was it proving much more difficult getting the troops and equipment ashore than had been envisaged, supplying them once ashore was taking up much more time than had been anticipated. Halder had already ordered that the 22nd Airlanding be flown into Lympne, since it was obvious that 7th FJ could not take West Malling.

From dawn, the second wave forces again began coming in, another Infantry Division, the 17th, and, now Dover was in German hands, one Regiment of 3rd Panzer Division together with the “Grossdeustchland” motorised infantry Regiment.

24th Infantry had now reversed itself, detached a Regiment to clear Ramsgate, and begun to advance up the old Roman road via Faversham toward Rochester. Meanwhile, 78th Infantry were preparing to assault Sevenoaks frontally in an effort to break through to the airborne troops and 8th Infantry were still engaged with the New Zealanders around Lewes. The newly arrived 58th were moving to support the thrust around Brighton, the aim of which was to establish a jumping off point to take the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth once enough troops were ashore. 22nd Airlanding, which could only land one of its regiments before 08.45hrs, were to advance in the direction of East Grinstead in order to plug the gap which had appeared between the 8th and the 78th Infantry.

Meanwhile, XII Corps only uncommitted unit, the 1st Motor Machine Gun Brigade was advancing straight into that gap, following its orders to assault the unidentified German unit whose flank appeared to be in the air north of the village of Rotherfield. However, it was wholly unaware of the presence of another German Division coming up on its left.

Ironside had also surveyed his map. Together with his staff, they had decided that this was the real McCoy, and since there was no sign of a threat elsewhere, they could not delay a decision on where the main battle would be fought any longer. At 07.23hrs on that morning, the General Staff released V Corps most easterly units, the 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions, and ordered them east to assist the embattled XII Corps. At the same time, they issued orders to the GHQ reserve formations to go to “readiness 2hours”.

At the same time, the 18th Infantry, belonging to XI Corps, had crossed the Thames at Blackwall and was moving to support the 45th Division, while the 22nd Guards Brigade moved from positions in South London to support the remnants of 29th Brigade holding a makeshift defence line from Westerham down to Grinstead.

The news that the Navy had given the Germans a pasting in the channel overnight had been well received. This was offset somewhat by the news that refugees, despite the pleas of government to the contrary, were clogging roads all across south east England, severely hindering the movement of troops, and part of the reason why commitment could not be delayed much longer.

This was not helped by the Luftwaffe’s apparent policy of indiscriminate attacks on refugees, although there was much confusion on the ground mistakes were bound to occur. Several instances occurred where the RAF attacked the British Army in error. But, strangely today it was the Germans who had the greater cause to welcome the break in the weather, as air activity was greatly reduced. Both air forces, however, were grateful for what little rest this afforded them.

Although the Germans now occupied a sizeable enclave of south east England, ‘controlled’ was probably not the correct word. In addition to the major actions, many small groups, platoons and squads cut off from their units continued to fight on in isolated groups, as did the crews of searchlight positions and anti-aircraft batteries. At first, the LDV had been disappointing, but many of these brave men, especially where they were led by veterans of WW1, continued to harass the invaders from behind. However, they did not have the weapons or the ammunition to hold on for long and retribution in these cases was swift and brutal.

By mid morning, only isolated pockets of resistance remained in Folkestone, and it seemed that the Germans would have this small port open to traffic soon also.
While Ramsgate remained in British hands, Faversham, Canterbury and Sittingbourne all fell to the Germans before noon.

During the night, quantities of ammunition at last began to reach the forward units, and from the early hours Sevenoaks had been under heavy artillery fire.
This was followed by a direct assault by a whole Regiment during the morning.
Under pressure from both in front and behind, the British holding the town were compelled to withdraw and by mid afternoon, the 78th Infantry finally broke through to relieve the 7th Parachute Division, or at least, what remained of it.

Of the 6500 men who made the drop, only 2800 remained by the time they were relieved. However, though they had failed to take West Malling, the Paras has achieved their primary objective, to secure the high ground south of London and to had prevented the 45th Division from moving forward to contest the landings.

From the top of the downs the officers of the 7th, sharing a stiff schnapps with their rescuers, could see the dome of St Pauls Cathedral. The centre of London was only 25 miles away.

Meanwhile, the British were suffering even bigger reverses further south. The 1st MMG Brigade boldly slammed into the flank of the 8th Infantry Division in the area of Maresfield early in the afternoon. At first, the Germans were driven back, until the arrival of the 58th Division to their left enabled them to switch forces to counter this unexpected British attack. Bloody fighting centred on the towns of Haywards Heath and Cuckfield as the British first attempted first to drive in the German flank, then sought out a defensive position as the enemy bought more forces to bear and counter attacked. The New Zealand Division now joined in, mounting a counter attack of their own, from the area of Burgess Hill toward the main German position on the high ground north of Lewes.

Fighting raged all afternoon and into the evening, when the arrival of one Regiment from the 22 AL Division turned to day to the Germans advantage.
4th Corps commander, General Leutnant Stempel quickly exploited an opening found by his Auflarungs, and hurriedly fed 22AL into it. Crossing behind Ardingly, they emerged north of Cuckfield, effectively cutting off the unfortunately remnants of the 1st MMG Brigade. At the same time, 58th Division attacked along a 5 mile front to the southern end of the New Zealanders positions, piercing the line between Brighton and Lewes at Staumer.

By nightfall, the whole British position had collapsed, the NZ Division was in retreat forcing the abandonment of Brighton, and the 1st MMG had all but ceased to exist.

As darkness fell, the Germans took possession of Brighton. An hour later, they cut the main south coast railway line to London. They did not know it, but there was nothing in front of them for twenty miles.