Did German Commandos Raid England?

[Music] thank you during World War II the British made constant Commando raids on german-occupied Europe these raids served as nuisance to German garrisons and also had a role in generating intelligence however one of world war II's big questions is why the Germans didn't do the same to Britain why didn't the German land teams of Commandos to attack British defenses or gather intelligence it is difficult to know why they didn't the only official attacks by Germany on Mainland Britain during World War II were aerial bombing raids by the luftwaffe including of course the later V1 and V2 remote bombing campaigns and long-range artillery bombardments of the Dover area by large artillery pieces based in northern France [Music] officially no German soldiers ever landed on British soil as part of a raid or a reconnaissance however for decades a question mark has hung over this claim a question mark centered on the Isle of Wight a large island just off the English South Coast and a top-secret facility on that island the one great Advantage Britain possessed during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz in 1940-41 was something called chain home radar before the war a chain of radar stations had been established along the south and east coasts of Britain all the way up to Scotland the provided the Royal Air Force with some Advance warning of German air attacks the Germans had tried to knock out some of these stations during the Battle of Britain including launching Stuka dive bomber attacks against them the most heavily attacked was the radar station at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight but despite damage the luftwaffe failed to poke out Britain's eyes and as the war progressed The Radars were upgraded and continued to provide early warning of German aerial attacks the question is was the radar sighted Ventnor on the Isle of Wight the site of a German Commando attack allegedly one was made against it not just to knock it out but to steal some of its Secrets the evidence for such an incident at Ventnor is slim but intriguing a researcher discovered the unit Diary of an air raid precautions unit that is the British Air Raid wardens that provided coverage for the Ventnor area an odd event was carefully inscribed in the diary on the 16th of August 1943 it reads quote special report police report two dinghies full of Germans in the sea seen at 0 to 18 hours reported to police through Navy in quote 10 minutes after this report the ARP log recorded a fire near the Ventnor radar station pylons according to a local Ventnor resident who had been in a teenage ARP dispatch Rider at the time the German raid was openly discussed among ARP staff until the arrival of unidentified civilians from some shadowy government Ministries who forced them to sign the official Secrets Act German aerial activities certainly occurred over the area of the Isle of Wight on the night of the 15th to 16th of August 1943 two German bombers were shot down near Portsmouth during an air raid on the British Naval Base there and on the 16th of August some hours after the alleged incident of Ventnor a Mrs Schmidt bf-109 on a photo reconnaissance mission was shot down at new church on the Isle of Wight could it have been photographing the results of a Commando raid the third piece of evidence comes from another ARP report from the 16th of August 1943. he'd mentioned the sighting of German forces in the sea of Ventnor at zero to 18 hours but makes no mention of a fire or anything else suspicious the strange events at Ventnor had been reported elsewhere in Britain during the war and always associated with British radar sites Ford C Manor on the coast of Suffolk in eastern England was one place where some kind of German raid was apparently thwarted by the Royal Navy as with the Ventnor incident Germans and dinghies had allegedly disembarked from a surfaced U-Boat at night but withdrawn when a naval vessel intervened a similar rubber dinghy type raid was said to have been thwarted at pevency in East Sussex another South Coast Radar Site when in this case local legend contends that the Germans actually landed but were driven off by defending British troops and withdrew after quote flashing lights and gunfire end quote were observed at sea so did the Germans have the troops to perform commando-style raids yes they did the brandenburgers a special army unit of sabotage parachute trained and raiding troops many highly decorated the particular rating unit that would have been used against England custodylong Brandenburg was however never operational against the UK according to its own records the brandenburgers were highly decorated and yet no records exist concerning any awards given to brandenburgers for actions on British soil were in the sea close by and all other raids all over Europe made by the brandenburgers were carefully recorded the records do survive so what might have occurred at the Isle of Wyatt and elsewhere was it a case of rattled troops firing at shadows in the dark or were real Germans indeed spotted in dinghies the crews perhaps of ditched German planes the numbers of Germans and the number of dinghies later inflated in the retelling in local pubs where some attacks actually British Commandos practicing in preparation for the D-Day Landings and the ARP kept out of the loop of such hush-hush operations they were a civilian organization what business did they have knowing about Commando training operations the poor city of documentary evidence from both British and German sources suggests that no German commando-style raids were made on the British Isles in World War II and evidence to the country comprising almost entirely of witness statements often made decades after the events are cases of mistaken identity or outright Fabrications for now until solid documentary evidence is found I will Reserve judgment on this intriguing story many thanks for watching please visit my video channel Mark Felton Productions you can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: War Stories with Mark Felton

Views: 299,176

Keywords: Mark Felton, Brandenburg Regiment, Radar, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, Commandos

Id: rJnLlXy1mC0

Length: 7min 0sec (420 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023