During WWII, the Isle of Wight was frequently bombed. With its proximity to German-occupied France, the island hosted observation stations, transmitters, and the RAF radar station at Ventnor. Adolf Hitler personally suggested an invasion of the Isle of Wight as a supplementary operation for Operation Sealion. The island was the starting point for one of the earlier Operation Pluto pipelines to feed fuel to Europe after the Normandy landings.Shortly before, D-Day Auxiliary Units were deployed to the island for two weeks as a precaution against counter-attacks.On the night of 4-5 May 1942, the Polish destroyer ORP Błyskawica successfully defended the towns of Cowes and East Cowes from a detachment of German bombers.On January 1,1943, there was a total ban on civilians travelling to the Isle of Wight until 25 August 1944.On 1 June 1943, Niton village was attacked by the Luftwaffe,destroying homes and other infrastructure.Shingle Street is a coastal settlement in Suffolk. Several buildings were destroyed during WWII, including the Lifeboat Inn.After the war, many strange happenings were reported to have taken place at Shingle Street, including a failed German invasion.Since the civilian population had been evacuated in May 1940, there were no eyewitness reports, although official documents remained classified until questions led to their early release in 1993.The Air Ministry purchased Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk in 1936 to establish a new research station for developing the Chain Home RDF (radar) system.There have been rumours of a German raid taking place on the radar station at St Lawrence in August 15/16th 1943 in which cathode-ray direction-finding equipment was taken.Supposedly, there were as many as 12 specialised Nazi stormtroopers that secretly arrived in U-boats from the Channel Islands-sensationally trying to come ashore in dinghies until they were spotted by British soldiers and engaged in gunfire.This incident was wiped from the war history within hours of it taking place, with witnesses made to sign the Official Secrets Act.This supposed incident has never been acknowledged by official documentation or authorities.

Princess Fuzzypants here: Did they or didn’t they? Was there a German raid on the Isle of Wight in 1943 in spite of claims that the Germans never got any closer than the Channel Islands during the war? And if it did happen, where did all the documentation disappear? Why is it still like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack to find any kind of official proof 70 years after the event?

There is a strong possibility that if there was a raid, it would have been covered up for National Security reasons whilst the war was ongoing. There is also a good chance that if these documents did exist, the passage of time and the lack of care in keeping them safe would exacerbate the situation. But even after an exhaustively researched book, the author cannot proclaim unequivocally that a raid did occur.

Intriguingly, there are stories passed down generation to generation. There are some notes in personal diaries and letters. And there are similarities in the rumours and myths that have grown around the event from both the British and German sides. For someone like me who likes to have a definitive answer, it is a frustrating exercise but it is still a compelling and fascinating read. Four purrs and two paws up.

Rumours of secret operations in wartime abound though the ages but this story of a supposed raid by German forces against an early radar installation on the Isle of Wight in 1943 is fascinating. As there appears to be no conclusive evidence that the raid ever took place at least from UK sources, there appears to be some from the German side. That said, there are scraps of stories that appear from some residents of the western part of the IoW that still support the story of the raid. The background as why the raid might have taken place is a story in itself and brings to light other details of actions that have not been seen as ‘high profile’ as others.

This book did nothing to either prove or disprove the raid on the Isle of Wight by a German force based on the occupied Channel Islands. It gave us a lot of hearsay and a lot of information that often had little to do with this alleged event and which gave the appearance of padding. Disappointing.
My thanks to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for this ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

The premise of the book, a raid by the Germans on the South coast of England in WW2, is quite fascinating but weirdly still seems mired in secrecy. The author has undertaken a significant amount of research and cross-checking of various eyewitness accounts and official reporting.
From my perspective, the book was unnecessarily padded out by masses of background information on various characters and vaguely related events. I found the book to be well-written, enlightening, and enjoyable to dip in and out of.

If there is no evidence that an event occurred, did it really happen? That is the premise of this book. The author attempts to convince the reader that Germany conducted a successful raid in England in 1943. However, there is no proof either in England or German records of such an event. The author confuses the issue by bringing up other items such as a supposed coastal defense system of igniting oil to burn up an invader that had no bearing on the subject of the story. There were supposed eyewitnesses to the event (a soldier captured by Germany and place in a POW camp), however there is never any contact of the individual in the book to confirm the story. Mostly, the author relies on hearsay of people who knew someone who knew of the event. In the end, it left me wondering why the story was ever brought up to be told, since as far as I can tell, it never happened.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.