Sussex in World War Two
This background is based on research undertaken for the novel
The Secret of Summerhayes by Merryn Allingham.
The first few months of
the war were characterised by inaction and nicknamed the 'Phoney War'. People
were affected by wartime measures such as the blackout and restrictions on
travel and food, yet there were no enemy bombers in the sky.
Any
complacency was destroyed, however, by the evacuation of the British Army from
Dunkirk in May, 1940, and the fall of France a month later. As a county, Sussex
was heavily involved in the evacuation, fishermen and boat owners responding
immediately to an appeal from the government. Over 850 vessels, fishing boats
and pleasure boats alike, took part in the mission and rescued over 200,000
British troops.
But evacuation does not win wars and when France fell on
17 June, the British people stood alone, braced for invasion. The landing of
German troops by parachute into Holland and Belgium was a dire warning of what
might happen, and leaflets were issued by central and local government urging
people to stand firm 'if the invasion comes'. The flat coastline of the county
was ideal for landing troops and tanks from invasion barges, and under Hitler's
Operation Sea Lion planned for September, 1940, Sussex would have been part of
the bridgehead of the German 9th Army - but for the Battle of
Britain.
Through the hot summer days of 1940 and into early autumn,
conflict raged in the skies over Sussex, its inhabitant's eye-witnesses to the
dog-fights as the 'Few' beat back the Luftwaffe in their attempt to clear the
way for invasion. Today it's difficult to imagine how close to the fighting
people came. Spitfires and German 'spotter planes' flew low and it was easy
enough to identify either the red, white and blue circles of the RAF or the
menacing black swastikas of a German plane. One resident recalls that, as a
child, he saw a German pilot hedgehopping his way across the county and smiling
and waving to the children playing in the fields below.
While the
Battle of Britain raged, the number of air raids intensified and wave after
wave of German bombers flew low over the Downs towards London. Hit-and-run
raids became a feature of Sussex life, with bombs dropped by enemy aircraft
aborting their missions inland. Coastal towns such as Brighton and
Littlehampton suffered particularly badly.
All along the Sussex coast,
anti-invasion measures were put in place and the whole coastline from Hastings
to Dorset, plus an area twenty miles inland, was declared a defence zone and
barred to visitors. Barriers of six feet high concrete anti-tank blocks,
'dragons' teeth' as they were called, were built along the exits of every
beach, and square or hexagonal machine-gun pill-boxes erected on seafronts, at
road junctions, and at other strategic points to form 'stop lines' to prevent
an inland advance by the enemy.
In the dark days of 1940-41, Sussex was
not only a stronghold of defence but a springboard for attack, when and if the
balance of war shifted in the Allies' favour. Troops and equipment poured into
the county and convoys of soldiers trundled through its country lanes. Jeeps
were parked in people's driveways, lorries along the grass verges and private
houses were asked to provide additional accommodation. In The Secret of
Summerhayes, the fictional but grand Arts and Crafts mansion is requisitioned
early in the war and by 1944 bears a huge number of scars from military
occupation. There were large numbers of British and American soldiers in
Sussex, but an even greater number of Canadians. Some 330,000 Canadians passed
through training at Aldershot and from the autumn of 1941 to early 1944, the
defence of the United Kingdom, and particularly the Sussex coast, was largely
in the hands of the 1st Canadian Army.The Canadian Army manned coastal defences
between Newhaven and Worthing, while the whole of Sussex was used as a training
ground. Sussex, in effect, had become one vast military camp and, along with
other southern counties, was cut off from the rest of England. Together with
British troops, the Canadians engaged in a series of major exercises, and the
screech and clatter of tanks and the pounding of heavy artillery regularly
shattered the tranquillity of the countryside. Canadian soldiers in The Secret
of Summerhayes spend long days tramping the Downs, fording rivers and 'landing'
on beaches. Much of the South Downs was requisitioned as an intensive training
area - properties were vacated, farming operations curtailed, and training
gallops taken over - and holiday beaches became practice grounds for invasion.
Check points were everywhere, with barriers blocking the roads and a pass often
needed to reach the home beyond.
Residents endured this inconvenience,
and the deprivations and dangers of wartime, with admirable stoicism. At the
same time, they also made a very large contribution to the war effort. A huge
increase in industrial production had been necessary, particularly of
armaments, and many factories and workshops were turned over to munitions work.
Women were recruited to staff the factories, and also to play their part in the
fields through the Women's Land Army. Their green sweaters and corduroy
breeches became a familiar sight in the countryside. They cleared ditches and
laid hedges, spread dung and milked cows, drove tractors and worked horse
teams. Our life was haunted by leaking wellies, damp socks, hunger and fatigue,
wrote one land girl who, for 45 shillings a week, worked a one thousand acre
farm near Chichester.
Even with the land girls' best efforts, food
supply remained a problem. Ration books were issued in September, 1939 and food
rationing began in January, 1940, with bacon, sugar and butter. People had to
register with named shops for each category of goods. Clothing rationing
followed in May, 1941, along with meat, tea, jam, biscuits, cereals, cheese,
eggs, lard, milk and canned and dried fruit. Despite rationing, shortages
ensued and queuing became a way of life. In the kitchen, improvisation was
essential: egg powder instead of eggs, margarine instead of butter, mashed
parsnips to make custard. Gardens were dug up and allotments rented as people
were encouraged to 'Dig for Victory and grow their own fruit and
vegetables.
The war effort required other responses: salvaging paper,
sacrificing iron railings and wrought-iron gates to build ships, metal toys and
aluminium pots to make war planes. Periodic fund-raising supported the ever
increasing war budget through a government campaign to invest in National
Savings, and through special appeals in towns and villages that raised
astonishing sums of money. The people of the City and Rural District of
Chichester were set a target of £250,000 for War Weapons Week in May,
1941. Concerts, dances, whist drives and competitions were held, and a total of
£621,000 was raised - a staggering amount by the standards of the
day.
In the months leading up to D-Day, the concentration of troops in
the area became even more intense and enormous quantities of ammunition were
stockpiled. There was uncertainty right up to the evening of 5 June, 1944, if
the weather would allow a seaborne invasion. In fact, the invasion was delayed
for a day, but on the morning of 6 June the signal was given and every trace of
the military disappeared: men, tanks, trucks and guns. The previous night many
people in Sussex, directly under the flight path of the 6th Airborne Division,
had lain awake listening to the drone of the paratroop transporters en route to
the landing beaches.
As the Allies fought their way through occupied
Europe towards Berlin, the coastal defences were gradually removed - the
dragons' teeth and pill boxes demolished and the barbed wire unfurled from the
promenades to give small children their first glimpse of a clear seafront. The
beaches, though, still had to be cleared of mines. The formal German surrender
was taken by General Montgomery at Luneberg Heath on 4 May,
1945.
Tuesday, 8 May was declared a public holiday, VE (Victory in
Europe) Day. The celebrations took many forms: bonfires blazed along the top of
the Downs, effigies of Hitler were burnt, people danced and sang - Sussex by
the Sea featured heavily. One of the most popular ways of celebrating was to
forget rationing for a day and hold a street party. One little boy, given
lemonade, cake and ice cream (unheard of luxuries at the time), was heard to
ask Is peace like this every day? |