At high water, the beach at
Selsey Bill (including Medmerry) is heave shingle, and at low water hard sand
and light shingle. Landings by enemy
vessels with a draught of up to 5 feet were practicable. The beach at Medmerry
was backed by the Broad Rife. The beaches were classed as suitable for landing
heavy mechanised units, although exits were generally poor and onto open fields
only, except on the west side from East and West Wittering where there where
exits onto main roads and from the Lifeboat House westwards where there was
also an exit onto a main road. On the east side, Pagham Harbour provided a
small inlet that could be suitable for landing small craft.
Following the fall of France, Britain
became a theatre of war, and the south coast of Britain was the most likely
place for a German invasion. At this
time Montgomery’s 3rd Division briefly held the south coast until early July
when it was relieved so it could act as a mobile counter-attack force at
Montgomery’s instance, as he felt his troops were wasted in a static role.
Following the 3rd Division’s departure, IV corps moved from GHQ reserve to
Eastern Command to take over the area Kent-Sussex and Sussex-Surrey. The 10 Brigade (part of the 4th Division) was
responsible for the area Bognor – Thorney Island with the 6th Battalion East Surrey
Regiment responsible for the coast from West Wittering to Selsey. At
first, the layout of the defences in Selsey Bill had ignored Selsey itself;
instead it was planned to stand back on the line of the Broad Rife. After the sighting
of some artillery in the Selsey area to cover the beaches, Selsey was bought
into the forward defences, with one company from the 6th Battalion East Surrey Regiment
organising defences from the coastguard station to Pagham Harbour. This Battalion now held a front of 15,000
yards and all four rifle companies were stretched out in linear defence, with
rifle, medium machine gun and light machine gun posts dispersed and wide
intervals between them. The 6th
Battalion East Surrey Regiment’s War Diary notes that construction of ‘small
pillboxes’ began on 7 July, undertaken by civilian contractors supervised by
the Royal Engineers. Instructions issued by 10 Brigade stipulated that on the
stretch of the open beach between Bracklesham and Selsey, pillboxes on the
beach were to be manned with Bren guns and rifle posts dug into the bank of the
Broad Rife.
The defence plan relied on
covering the beaches with a continuous belt of fire from automatic weapons,
strengthened with artillery fire and the Battalion was supported by 25 pdr
field guns from the 30th Field Regiment, a number of 2 pdr anti-tank guns which
were quickly replaced by static 6 pdrs or 4 inch guns, 4.5 inch howitzers and
two 9.2 inch howitzers (one role of the 9.2 inch howitzers was to engage any
enemy seaplanes that landed in Pagham Harbour). Machine guns were to be sited
within defended localities for protection. Pagham Harbour thence along Pagham Rife was organised
as a Switch Line to link up with Stop Lines in the rear. It was to form a
defensive flank facing east or west. It formed a boundary between two
battalions and as such was to be prepared for occupation of two companies of
infantry supported by one battery of field artillery and one troop from an
anti-tank company respectively by each battalion. In the event of invasion the
Pagham Rife Sluice was to be closed to flood the surrounding land and deny
passage to enemy armoured vehicles. Flooding was expected to begin within 24
hours of closing the sluice.
The 2nd Battalion Duke of
Cornwall’s Light Infantry (also 10 Brigade) relieved the 6th Battalion East
Surrey Regiment on 12 August. As with most
of Home Forces, the 2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry stood ready
for immediate action during 7 to 9 September on receipt of the code word
CROMWELL – invasion imminent.
The 201 Brigade relieved the 10 Brigade on 21
October, with the 13th Battalion Queens Royal Regiment relieving the 2nd
Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry on the beaches, holding the area
from the Chichester Channel to the Pagham Rife. The 9th Battalion Hampshire Regiment held the
east side of east shore of Pagham Harbour to Aldingboune Rife. The 13th Battalion
Queens Royal Regiment War Diary notes they held 10 Vickers machine guns for
beach defence. They formed part of trench stores and had a
static role from purpose built emplacements; presumably two were intended for
the Medmerry emplacements. In support were 75mm field guns from 351 Battery, 88
Field Regiment. Their primary task was to sink hostile shipping attempting to
land troops, but they also had a secondary role to answer SOS calls on pre
arranged defensive fire tasks. Their ‘B’ and ‘C’ Troops (each with four guns)
had a defensive fire task covering the beach at Medmerry. Defensive fire was to
be opened on receipt of the SOS signal which was a ‘Golden rain’ rocket or by verbal
request at the rate of 21 rounds per gun.
The beaches were to be protected by obstacles consisting of two belts of
wire, concrete anti-tank cubes, mines and tubular scaffolding sited between the
high and low water mark (which became available in early 1941). The Broad Rife
itself was also an anti-tank obstacle.
Above: map showing artillery
that had a role which included covering the beach at Medmerry, 201 Brigade
sector.
To defend the beaches – as noted
above – weapon pits had been dug in the sea wall bank and the clay removed for
sandbags. In October, it was decided to fill in these weapon pits and make good
the damage done to the sea wall. If defences were required, engineer advice was
to be sought on the best method to deal with the issue. The pillboxes on the
bank of the Broad Rife (described below) at the area of today’s breach could thus either have
been built following this instruction, but revetted in brickwork and concrete to
help protect the sea wall or were some of those built in July onwards by civilian contractors. They remained as
part of the defences into 1941 as indicated by the War Diaries, which state there
was no reorganisation of the coast defences from Bracklesham Bay to Selsey,
unlike along other stretches of the Sussex coast were many pillboxes were
abandoned following reorganisation of the defences.
Remaining Defences
There are six known defence
structures at Medmerry along what was the bank of the Broad Rife. Following the
realignment, only two are now accessible.
Both of these are emplacements for Vickers machine guns dug into the
bank. The gird references for these two
emplacements are SZ8320494619 and SZ8323494708. They are sited to fire in
enfilade along what would have been open fields behind the shingle ridge. They
are unusual in that they are clearly based on the standard field work for a
Vickers machine gun, which has been revetted in brickwork and given a splinter
proof concrete roof, rather than one of the typical pillbox designs for a
Vickers machine gun. The emplacements are
L-shaped with dimensions of 13 feet by 10 feet minus a 3ft 3in x 5 feet corner.
The walls are 14 inches thick and the roof 11 inches thick. There is an
embrasure in the shorter front wall with a concrete table behind it on which
the Vickers would have been set up upon its tripod. The concrete table measures
4 feet x 3ft 6in inches. There is a second embrasure and entrance in the longer
rear wall. The roof was originally camouflaged with turf.
Above: rear of
pillbox at SZ8320494619.
Above: front of
pillbox at SZ8323494708.
Above: Plan and
section of the Medmerry machine gun emplacement.
Above: the standard
field work for a Vickers machine gun (Field
Engineering Vol. I (All Arms) 1933). The Medmerry pillboxes are clearly a
hardened version of this field work.
Above: concrete
platform for machine gun inside pillbox at SZ8323494708.
Above: view from the
front loophole, pillbox at SZ8323494708.
The four structures that are no
longer accessible are known to be in effect concrete trenches for riflemen with
overhead cover rather than any of the standard infantry pillboxes. In his book Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland, Mike Osborne describes these trenches
as a straight sided concrete trench, with four front facing loopholes, one in
the rear wall, an entrance in one side wall and a loophole in the other. He
gives the dimensions as 14 feet by 8 feet with a wall thickness of 15 inches. Three
are sited to fire frontally, one to the flank.
Along the beach, there are also plenty
of remnants of Medmerry’s war history. Fragments of the anti-tank scaffolding
obstacle are plentiful and the occasional screw picket – used to anchor barbed wire
obstacles – and pieces of angle iron can also be found.
Above: remains of the
anti-tank tubular scaffolding obstacle.
The troops holding the Selsey
area were able to watch the air battles taking part in the skies over south and
southeast Britain during the summer of 1940:
11 July: Three enemy aircraft
brought down: one at selsey Bill, one in the sea off Selsey and one further
east. Two British planes lost. (Detail from the 6the Battalion East surrey
Regiment: air battle – 9 Heinkel bombers and 7 Hurricanes. One Heinkel brought
down on Selsey beach by AA fire. Three wounded Germans were extracted from
wreckage and sent under escort to Chichester Barracks).
12 Aug: Big air battle, at least
80 planes engaged. Salvo of bombs near the 12th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s
Light Infantry HQ.
13 Aug: Frequent air raid alarms.
15 Aug: 8:15 a.m. – air raid
alarms; one Hurricane and one enemy bomber shot down; three prisoners taken but
pilot dead.
16 Aug: Frequent air raid alarms;
three enemy planes shot down, all crashed in sea and occupants killed.
17 Aug: Frequent air raid alarms.
18 Aug: Frequent air raid alarms;
49 enemy aircraft south over area; two brought down in sea.
19 Aug: 10:45 p.m. – five small
bombs dropped at Selsey Bill near searchlight 293122 – casualties two children,
three adults and one gunner.
20 Aug: 1:20 a.m. – several bombs
fell in vicinity of Pagham Harbour near ‘C’ Company, 12th Battalion Duke of
Cornwall’s Light Infantry.
21 Aug: 3:00 p.m. – German bomber
shot down (JU88) near ‘B’ Company HQ – 4 prisoners captured.
22 Aug: Four bombs fell in Pagham
harbour.
26 Aug: 4:27 p.m. – about 125
enemy planes passed SE of Battalion area. One enemy bomber brought down on beach
‘A’ Company area, 12th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, and one prisoner
taken, rest of crew dead.
28 Aug: 1:10 a.m. – Whistling bomb
dropped near 12th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry HQ.
30 Aug: 0:52 a.m. – large bomb
dropped near 12th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry HQ beside
searchlight 278198.
7 Sep: 10:00 p.m. – Battalion ordered to man
positions. Heavy air attacks during the night on Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and
Thorney Island.
8 Sep: Battalion again ordered to
stand to.
9 Sep: Positions manned day and
night. One enemy plane shot down off Selsey Bill at 10:00 am.
10 Sep: All training stopped –
everything concentrated on defences.
14 Sep: 2:30 p.m. – 12 bombs on
Battalion sector. Extensive damage done to private property.
25 Sep: 0:200 a.m. – four enemy
prisoners found in a boat of Selsey on ‘B’ Company’s front, 12th Battalion Duke
of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. Big air
battle at 3:25 p.m.; two Polish air fighters shot down enemy bomber.
27 Sep: Large number of enemy
bombers over 11:00 pm.
28 Sep: 2:00 a.m. – 20 bombs dropped in ‘C’ Company
sector, 12th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.
2 Oct: 10:30 a.m. – air battle
over Selsey which continued out to sea.
3 Oct: 5:45 p.m. – attack on
convoy off ’D’ Company beach, 12th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry,
at Wittering.
4 Oct: 7:00 p.m. – enemy dropped
bombs in ‘C’ Company area, 12th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.
8 Oct: 6:30 p.m. – three enemy aircraft flew
over Bracklesham Bay, machine gunning the beaches and buildings. Birdham Road in ‘D’ Company sector, 12th
Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, machine gunned. The enemy was making
use of fading daylight.
Hopefully will do a second post on Medmerry's military history - the Selsey Range, also known as the Manhood Range.
