That's correct Gooner, C company 18 RF was at Lydd Improving the defences (and it must have been backbreaking work preparing defensive positions in banks of shingle ...) but by the last week of Sept. they were behind the RMC with the rest of the battalion (more details to follow).
Should you ever manage to get to the area, you'll find the said defences are not actually IN the shingle - they're
on the top of it; concrete revetments and firing pits along the bank at the top of the beaches - the shingle slopes down
from there. The majority of these defences still exist - they're great little sunbathing (drinking) spots!
In other words - no shingle to move. Where time and tide has moved the banks away from the concret structures, you can see that there were simply wooden formers placed on the ground
and concrete poured on top of the shingle to harden to form the base of the revetments and firing pits! It sounds quick and dirty - but they've lasted 70 years vs. Mother Nature! SOMEWHERE I have hard copy pics stored away - if I can find them after 26 years!
I would not say big, but a couple of years ago a Ju52 flew over me here in Kent on its way back to Duxford. Stunning how incredibly slow it was. Appeared to be standing still. It wasn't of course, but motion only became apparent when it got very close, and even then it was so slow. Not a hard target to hit!
As the Norwegians....
and the Dutch....AND the Commonwealth forces on Crete found out! I've seen varying figures for the Ju52, but "best economy" cruising speed could be as low as 105-110 mph!
In terms of deflection shooting that's nearly stationary
Since the 18th RF were a Pioneer battalion with their primary role being construction it wouldn't surprise me if their companies were deployed all over the Brigade area.
Indeed; and as we know from events as close to this in time as France in May 1940, "Pioneer" units were notoriously short of arms - particularly LMGs and MMGs I.E. Brens and Vickers MGs. Montefiore's description of "pioneer" troops in France is telling - not
all Pioneers even had rifles, they were short on virtually every type and nature of equipment, personal as well as fighting, personnel had ONLY Basic training behind them...and were very poorly disciplined. The three "pioneer" divisions had been rushed to France as a sop to the French the minute they were formated....those divisions which
followed them were better equiped, and had received their secondary training in mobile infantry tactics - what I suppose we'd call today "battle camp".
The 18th battalion, re-activated as recently as April 1940, wasn't to be converted to infantry battalion status until the 24th of
October 1940, a month later -
so during the period of this thread they were STILL labour troops at best. They weren't actually brevetted as an infantry battalion to a senior command until the 5th of November, to 168 Infantry Brigade (formerly 2nd London). It's entirely appropriate that they were behind the line of the RMC prior to that - there would have been a LOT of work to do
there! Decades of erosion to the parapet and firing step repaired, trees and bushes obscuring fields of fire removed...on BOTH sides of the Canal!...and
someone had to build all those nice 1940 pattern pillboxes on what were formerly enfilading-fire
cannon positions!
However, IF as a Pioneer battalion they were as short of heavy weapons as any Pioneer unit - having them there to man those pillboxes
with small arms was worse than useless. At best they'd be "placeholders" until units in front of them retired back onto the RMC.
SHINGLE.
2. The whole sector is flat. Between LYDD and the beaches a belt of shingle runs inland from the sea to an average depth of 2000 yds. This shingle is an obstacle to wheeled vehicles, and a severe handicap to carriers and light tanks. Medium and heavy tanks would be only partially affected by it.
However - Knouterer - does Dutch television show the BBC television series "
Countryfile"? They spent half a programme over last winter on the point at Dungeness; the shingle is actually bound together
once off the beach by low scrub, green "alpine" vegetation and in places heavy Marram grass - which you'll be familiar with from the Dutch coast. It's one of the very very few places where the genus Ammophila thrives
not on sand dunes...probably because of the amount of wind-blown sand among the shingle. Only the
sloping shingle on the beach is a problem for wheeled vehicles - the flat shingle beyond is fine.
In regards to Dunserving's comments about troops attempting to leave the area across country in the face of a German attack on that part of the coast - not only are there the various sizes of drainage channel, and the salt marshes - that shingle embankment has
height over the salt marsh behind; maybe only a yard or two, but anyone ON the shingle bank can see for some considerable distance across the flatland. Anyone trying to get back to Lydd from the coast - or from Lydd back to anywhere else - is in a veritable goldfish bowl.
AIR LANDINGS.
6. All ground within 5 miles of the coast has been made unsuitable for air landings by the erection of asparagus. In spite of this it would be possible for troop carrying aircraft to land almost anywhere in the Sector.
Provided the enemy is prepared to make crash landings and to accept accident casualties – which he would be – troop carrying aircraft can land almost anywhere in the Sector.
This is the sort of over-thinking of the problem that Peter Fleming describes in his book, about the threat from the air. To put it simply - as we know, the LW was short of transport aircraft after Norway and Holland, and the Ju52 was actually quite slow to manufacture NEW...apart from the fact that Junkers and others were ALSO busy trying to rebuild those retrieved in large sections from Holland! The LW was not actually
THAT prepared to accept accident casualties and crashlandings - it had been
forced into them by events in Holland etc. - someone here is looking at what happened and has made a virtue (on the germans' part) out of a necessity!
The LW would need virtually every transport aircraft it had for the large scale landings to the north - AND would be flying them back and forth to THOSE locations all day long - there were the two
drop waves....followed by the
THIRD wave actually inside Lympne's perimeter once the field was surrounded by the FJ - and once (if!) Lympne was taken and could be made operational...every transport aircraft the Germans had would be needed to fly men and materiel into
there!
And of course - ONCE the fighting for the coast was over and a bridgehead established...
...and the breakout battle commenced, every available Ju52 would be needed to keep the frontline resupplied as in Poland.
It's a bit of a flight of fancy (sic!)...
OR symptomatic of the panic described by Fleming ...that the Germans would crash land perfectly good and valuable aircraft just to get men on the ground at Lydd!
Twenty years ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs....
Lord, please keep Kevin Bacon alive...