Ever wondered what might have happened if Hitler had breached Sussex’s coastal defences? John Charles Hall has done just that, reissuing an intriguing trilogy imagining life in the county under German occupation. Freddie Lawrence is enthralled
It’s the desperate days of 1940. The Battle of Britain has been lost. Ford Airfield in West Sussex is a German operational base with Messerschmitts, not Spitfires, in the hangars; soldiers of the Reich patrol the Sussex countryside and execute unarmed villagers; and Jewish families have been taken from their homes and incarcerated in a Brighton warehouse.
It didn’t happen, of course. But it was a close-run thing and remains one of the most fascinating ‘what ifs’ of our country’s – and county’s – long history. Just what would have happened if Hitler and his grisly gang had succeeded in their plan to invade and conquer Britain?
Their armada of troop-carrying barges was assembled in the French channel ports and would have headed to a town or village near you after coming ashore all along the Sussex coast, and within striking distance of the capital and seat of government.
Sussex author John Charles Hall has given the prospect a great deal of thought – enough, in fact, to have written an intriguing trilogy of books imagining life in Sussex under German occupation.
He’s not the first to contemplate this perilous time as it might have been. But he bases the action not around the gigantic upheaval of Britain under Nazi government, but the way it would have impacted the quiet lives of a Sussex rural community – in this case, the fictitious West Sussex village of Watersham, not far from Arundel.
Unfortunately for the Germans, Watersham is a hotbed of resistance, its villagers well organised and courageous enough to hit back at the enemy whenever they have the chance. Conquered or not, they ‘won’t be druv’.
With their local knowledge, they set up a network of underground communications centres, buried deep in Sussex woodland, and give sturdy support to the British Army defending the homeland.
Between violent attacks on enemy installations, the village yeomen continue with their age-old activities. Milking the herds is not neglected; the vicar celebrates Harvest festival as always; and the postman continues his rounds (with the post often including secret messages alerting the resistors to the next attack).
It’s a fascinating series in which the author clearly sets the action in locations and countryside familiar to many of us. Indeed, you’ll never cross Houghton Bridge the same way again after reading what ‘happened’ there. What is Watersham’s eventual fate? Well, we’re still in ‘what if?’ territory here, so you’ll have to read and see.
• Under the Yew Tree/Ash before Oak/The Holly and the Ivy by John Charles Hall are out now (paperback £7.99| Kindle £2.99). Available via Amazon and to order in all good bookshops.
