The Battle of Shingle Street!! 1940

Just listened to a Radio 4 programme tonight that dealt with a supposed true story of ww2. That being, that the Germans actually landed a small invasion force at Shingle Street in Suffolk where upon a battle took place, allegedly, and the invaders were beaten back into the sea where they were burned alive using an oil and petrol mix laid atop the water and set fire to.

The Govt. and records deny this, but eye witness accounts say different, including a soldier now in his eighties that was interviewed for the program that said he was there.
Interestingly on researching the story, the reporter found a document titled Shingle Street, which was closed under the official secrets act for eighty years. She was told it merely related to civilian housing information in the area. Considering sensitive info on things like enigma has long been public, I find this hard to believe.

Has anyone come across this story before?
Here is a link to a site dedicated to the mystery.

Battle of Shingle Street

We've always been told in the uk from a pretty early age that no german ever invaded or landed in this country during the second world war. I've always thought this a bit fishy ever since I was a child, I mean, there's got to be at least one german that landed if only by mistake!
Obviously they dont count Hess's scotland flight....
It would be great to hear from any surviving eye witnesses, something just seem's a bit strange about it, maybe more happened than we know on this beach. Of course they could just have been 'ashamed' about it or used tactics not agreed under the geneva convention. Hence the sealed file.

Wayne...

What would be really interesting is if they were beaten back by well armed civilians, allthough it would explan why the story has been supressed.

If you want you can listen to the programme again here
Battle of Shingle Street

They are quite dissmisive as an overall tone. However having read a few sites this morning, there is definitely something not quite right.

Why would the events be so secretive just about everything horrors and all has been made public.

The only things I can think of that would be this bad would be if we were killing our own people by mistake perhaps. The German invasion could be the cover story for something along the lines of opening up on British or alied troops coming ashore after a recce or some such.

My grandpa served on a base on the eastern coast of Canada during World War II. A German pilot had made it all the way across the ocean and to that base and was immediately shot down. My grandpa and his friends had barbeques and such near the downed plane. They used the German's skull as an ashtray. Sounds crazy now, but I guess a lot of the happenings in WW2 were pretty crazy sounding.

Zip

[edit on 5-10-2004 by Zipdot]

Thanks for the link Smudge

Listening to it now.

Jack

Found some more on Shingle Street

Many maps omit the village, with some justification, for visitors will find few amenities there. Its public house, the Lifeboat Inn, was flattened by scientists from Porton Down (UK Chemical & Biological research Establishment - famous for carrying experiment on soldiers in the 50's) almost 60 years ago.

Yet Shingle Street is surrounded by mystery. To the north lies Orfordness. A secret site since the First World War, the island has played host to a bewildering variety of hush-hush military installations, including an RAF experimental flying field, and in 1935, the first Air Ministry radar station. Post-war residents included the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.

BBC Story on 'Bodies on the beach'

Whilst the place does have certains mysteries attached to it appears that the story of the repulsed invasion and the 'Petroleum Warfare Department' were in fact a part of a highly successful black propaganda exercise co-ordinated by MI6, SOE and the Directorate of Military Intelligence.

Another BBC News Story

I used to work with a guy who lived on the south east coast during those days (1940). He was a young lad and later called up and went to war.

I had a few conversations with him about this subject and he told me a few stories about instances of several German soldiers being washed up dead onto the shore.

It's possible they had training accidents as they prepared for invasion (just as the allies had 4yrs later) but then again maybe an a few advance units were dispatched and 'dispatched' (by nature and/or UK forces)?

As far as I know there are several things still locked away under the 100yrs rule from this time (Brit gov records/documents) so those of us that make it to 2040 and on might find out some of what we had always been led to believe true was in fact disinformation.

(oh, and some things were obviously just destroyed and marked up as never to be released; tsk, secret states, huh?)

We shall see (well, some of us anyway! . )



[edit on 7-10-2004 by sminkeypinkey]

I wasn't aware of the Porton Down/ testing connection. This throws rather a different light on the whole subject. Indeed it appears the Govt. used the publics imagination and allowed stories of the Germans being repulsed to good effect. That said, there is still the small matter of what must be the hastiest evacuation of a civillian population from their homes ever. Does look like, as some of the stories state, that a test of chemical or dangerous weapons may have gone wrong. That may explain the bodies on the beach. I've heard on the Radio 4 programme, that a soldier stated he was given cash and cigarrettes to go and collect the bodies. Which is outrageous for the time or even now. As an ex soldier I can't imagine being incentivised to carry out ugly tasks, your just told to get on with it, even more so during war. Someone was feeling guilty.

Around 1997/8 in either the Mail or Express there was a question asked as to what happened in a particular coastal village one night. A number of troops arrived and forced everyone indoors, telling them to keep their doors locked and their windows shut. I cannot recall if the piece stated whether shooting had taken place or not. The writer also asked why the 50 year ban had been increased by another 30 years. A work colleague wrote to the paper in question asking to make contact with the writer but never recieved a reply. This particular action may have been one of many probable 'panics' at that desparate time as it is prior to the villages evacuation or may be a cause for it. The village- Shingle Street. We were going to visit and have a look aroundbut never managed it.

As a little girl I remember going to Shingle Street with my parents for "tea" at Shingle Street. This would have been between 1946-1949. I clearly remember asking my father why there were concrete roads apparently going nowhere, and some ending by a planted treed area. My father didnt know, but said there was a lot of goverment secret stuff going on around there during the war. Does anyone else remember this??

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


The "Shingle Street incident" is a good yarn, but that is all that it is, it was started in 1992 and has multiplied since. Body counts, according to which site that you read, vary from 40 to 40,000, burial grounds vary from 3 in Suffolk, one in Norfolk and one in Wales. Some say that the bodies were in German uniform, others say in English. Oddly, no prisoners were taken, presumably the entire invasion force was wiped out to a man? Also there are no records of any British casualties, despite the ferocious battle that had supposedly been fought. All "eye-witness" accounts are of a "a bloke in the pub told me that he saw it" variety.
The truth is quite mundane;
After France fell in June 1940, a coastal defence area was created between Southend- on-Sea and King's Lynn. In East Anglia alone, some 127,000 people left coastal towns to make way for the construction of an extensive network of fixed defences, including deadly minefields. In line with this Shingle Street was completely evacuated in June 1940. Villagers had just three days to find alternative accommodation, most moving inland to Hollesley and Alderton (it was clearly difficult to take all their belongings and there was considerable looting of what was left behind ). A German flyer was washed ashore at Shingle Street on 29 October, with two more at Bawdsey the day after - a fourth had been found at Aldeburgh on the 27th. All four had been in the water for almost a month, after their Heinkel 111 crashed into the North Sea on 4 October 4th. These were the only Germans that have been officially acknowledged as having landed near Shingle Street during the Second World War.

Ever read the book 'The Eagle has Landed'? By Jack Higgins I believe. It tells a tale of a German attempt to assassinate(or kidnap?) Churchill with the help of an IRA gunman(who is the only survivor of the attempt). 14 German soldiers parachute into Britain with this task. Interesting to think that this could have possibly inspired the book, but I'd have to look into it to be sure. Good find.

[edit on 2/23/2009 by ludaChris]

Apologies for opening a really old topic but I'm just watching a program on uk discovery history about this... Absolutely fascinating and was just about to post something about this but did a search first thank god!!!!

i am very skeptical about the entire " shingle street claims "

1 - IF a german raid had been repulsed - it would have been outstanding propoganda , at the time there were many fears of invasions - and GOOD news that a raid had been repulsed would have been a moral boost to the publuic

2 - german silence , if the germans had lost a covert operations force - where are the records of it - why would they suppress it too ? they OBVIOUSLY would at the time - for the same reason that the british SHOULD hace shouted it out - ie the allegedly " invincible " germsan war machine fails - but why continued suppression ?

if the brittish had allegedly committed warcrimes to repulse the raid - why not use that " fact " as a defence at neuremberg ? several defendants made other claims of illegal brittish action

3 - the operational logistics - and the logistics of mounting a defence - at the time - i am highly skeptical that the bittish defences could have contsained a german raid entirely " on the beach " at shingle street

look at the raids by the brittish - breuneval , loften islands etc etc

however determined you are - its impossible to secure an entire coastline against any incursion 24/7

you have to maintain a picketr line - to detect and engage the enemy - and slow his advance while counterattack forces rally

lastly - bodies on the shore - were distressingly common - aviators , MTB crew , naval personel etc were regularly lost at sea - and floated up on both sides of the channel / north sea

Wasent there at least one confirmed German 'commando' raid on England towards the end of the war? I believe they launched from one of the occupied Channel Islands and stole some fuel, food, and other supplies during the raid. And no I am not referring the movie "The Eagle Has Landed" with Michael Caine.

Surely the Germans had to have launched probes and 'commando raids' on the British much like the British did at Bruneval, Dieppe, and into the Normandy area.