What happened to Whitstable in the war, dad?
It's the sort of question that you might be asked
by your offspring and
the answer is perhaps a little more complicated than you might imagine.
The town was fortified to some degree.... but
not as extensively as neighbouring communities to the south and east. It
witnessed much of the major conflict taking place around and above it.... but without
ever becoming a major target itself. It suffered a number of attacks, incurred
some significant bomb damage and, sadly, sustained loss of
life on a small scale.... but mainly through bad luck, accident and/or
opportunism rather than any planned devastation on the part of the
German Luftwaffe.
But, why was a sleepy fishing port involved even to this
extent?
Well, if
you are a visitor who has stumbled across these pages without knowing
much about the town, a
short explanation may be in order.... because most of the answers stem
from the town's
location.
The
Importance of Location
Let's take a look at the scene in the dark days
of 1940.....
At that time, the German army was amassed on the coastline of Northern
France. An invasion attempt was thought to be imminent and Kent's lengthy coastline
was vulnerable. Although Whitstable was not the most likely landing
site, it's beaches needed to be fortified along with those of the rest of the
county. Some military presence was also needed within the town and
surrounding areas. After all, Whitstable was one of the seaside towns
closest to London.
The Channel ports had been thrust into a front line that
edged the important sea route through the Straits of Dover. They were
within easy reach of enemy aircraft and within shelling range of big
guns located on the coastal fringes of France. By contrast, Whitstable
held a more sheltered position on the North Kent waterfront - some 30
miles behind the main lines of confrontation and outside the scope of
even the heaviest of artillery. The town's lack of industrial and/or military significance
also meant that it was never going to became a target for pre-planned air attacks.
Nevertheless, it did attract some passing interest from the Luftwaffe... and, again, location played an important
part as follows....
-
Whitstable sat beneath the air route that many enemy
bombers used to strike at London. Occasionally, such aircraft
suffered damage and/or technical problems that prevented them from
reaching their intended target... whereupon they offloaded their
explosive cargo over Kent in order to lighten their burden for the
precarious return trip Northern France. This led to sporadic hits on
our town.
-
The Whitstable coast was set alongside the main
shipping lanes into both London and the Medway towns. The Luftwaffe
attempted to block this major supply artery by dropping sea mines
into the Thames estuary on parachutes. Very occasionally, parachutes
drifted inland on the prevailing wind and landed in the Whitstable
area. These inidents gave rise to some the of biggest explosions
suffered by the town. Fortunately, most landed in open areas but one
hit Victoria Street and created the worst scenes of devastation
suffered by the town in war time.
-
Whitstable was set in the middle of a major air
conflict and suffered the occasional sporadic attack from a German
fighter plane or fighter-bomber. These appear to have been
opportunist attacks from aircraft roaming the Kent countryside on
seek and destroy activities.
In the final years of the war, Whitstable also sat below
the tracks of Hitler's terror weapons - the V1 flying bombs (ie the
doodlebugs) and the V2 rockets. The town suffered some strikes by these
weapons... but, once again this was largely by virtue of bad luck and/or
accident rather than any intentional attack.
Witness to the Battle of
Britain
As a precursor to invasion, the Luftwaffe began to
strike at RAF sites in an
attempt to destroy Britain's air defences. Serious damage to the
country's permanent air bases led to air force high
command creating a myriad of makeshift and easily repaired air
fields across the south east. Kent airfields used during the course
of World War
II are shown in red on the map below....
Some of these airfields were designated "Advanced
Landing Grounds (ALGs)" and were only populated with planes at key times of
the day. For protection, the aircraft were withdrawn to
larger bases further back from the main battle zone when large scale enemy attacks
were less likely.
As we all know, this initial struggle for air supremacy became
The
Battle of Britain and much of it took place in the skies of Kent
including those of our town. It was a short but critical time....
lasting between 10th July and 31st October 1940. Whitstable witnessed
the historic events.
Eventually and somewhat unbelievably, Hitler became
frustrated and changed
tactic.... by switching the main focus of bomb attacks onto cities (particularly London) in
an attempt to undermine the morale and will of the people. The
Battle of Britain had been won... or, perhaps more important, it hadn't
been lost. The RAF now had breathing space to strengthen its
resources.
An enemy invasion had become less likely given Britain's
massive naval power and the Luftwaffe's failure
to achieve air supremacy. Moreover, Hitler's attention and many of his
resources would soon be diverted eastward..... towards Russia.
Witness
to Major Air Raids Elsewhere
With Hitler's change of tactics, Whitstable witnessed the massive bombing
raids that passed overhead en route to London and, as we have said, it suffered occasional
bomb strikes itself. It also became a spectator in the dogfights between
RAF fighters and enemy bombers and their escorts. In fact, a number of
aircraft were brought down off the town's beaches and amidst the
surrounding countryside.
Form a distance, Whitstable also viewed and heard
devastating attacks on more strategically significant towns such as
Dover. And, of course, it watched in horror when, just seven miles to
the south, a large section of Canterbury was demolished by the Luftwaffe
on the night between 31st May and 1st of June 1942. This raid was
believed to have been a reprisal for a massive allied air raid on the
German cathedral city of Cologne just 24 hours earlier. Much of the
southern area of Canterbury city centre was destroyed.
Whitstable and the V1
As the war progressed, enemy equipment became ever more
complex and devastating. On and from 13th June 1944,
a new and more sinister form of
weapon was directed at London in the form of the unmanned V1 - the
"doodlebug" low flying bomb. Many passed over Whitstable and
were viewed by Natives.
Unfortunately for us, a very high proportion of
doodlebugs fell
short of their intended targets. Some were brought down by anti-aircraft
fire, barrage balloons or RAF fighters. Others suffered technical
problems. The end result was that many plummeted
into Kent and, by sheer misfortune, there were occasional hits on Whitstable.
Whitstable and the
V2
Hitler's final weapons of terror were practically
"invisible" due to their high speed and high trajectory. These
were the V2 rockets
that were introduced on 8 September 1944 and they carried massive
explosive capability. Like the V1 doodlebug, they were largely directed
at London but some fell short in Kent.
The "shortfall" had nothing to do with orchestrated
defence measures because the V2 was impossible to stop. Some simply
malfunctioned due to their primitive guidance systems. Some had
insufficient power to reach their intended target due to German fuel
shortages. Some were actually sabotaged by non-German staff working on the V2
production lines of mainland Europe.
Mercifully, few V2s hit Whitstable. In fact, we know
of only two incidents involving a V2 within the borders of the town.
Witness to Allied
Operations
By the time the V2 was operational, Whitstable people were viewing the massive flights of allied bombers heading eastward
and witnessing some of the air-based activities that supported the push
through Europe following the Normandy landings. They also spotted new
types of aircraft from across the Atlantic and welcomed American air
force to nearby airfields such as Manston. Some Natives
now live in the US after marrying American military personnel.
To Sum It
Up
Whitstable could perhaps be described as a bystander who
was inadvertently caught up in a major war zone and unable to escape! As
such, it was a witness to many historic events and suffered significant
collateral damage by virtue of bad luck, accident and occasional
opportunism on the part of individual Luftwaffe aircraft.
Casualties were mercifuly light and damage was confined
to specific locations. This contrasted with other major cities and towns
(such as London, Canterbury and Dover) that were specificallyt targetted
and had large areas laid waste by blanket bombing.
This is the background to Whitstable in wartime. Now, it
is time to look at our "detail" pages to see the human side of it all - through the quotes, stories and anecdotes of our Native contributors.
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