The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

44
Summer Madness
SATURDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER, had also been the day on which the Joint
Intelligence Committee advised the Chiefs of Staff that an invasion was
once again imminent. Hundreds of invasion barges were now stacked up the
other side of the Channel, and numbers were increasing daily. They also
had intelligence on German troop movements and had picked up the fact
that von Richthofen’s dive-bombers had been moved near to the Pas de
Calais. Four German spies had also been caught landing from a rowing boat
on the south-east coast, and they confessed that their job had been to report
troop movements of British reserve forces. Furthermore, the conditions of
the tide and moon, not to say the weather, were highly favourable between 8
and 10 September. It all seemed to point heavily to one thing. With enemy
bombers already over London, the Chiefs of Staff accepted the JIC’s advice
and at 5.20 p.m., issued an official alert.
The army was already at eight hours’ notice, but General Brooke’s
Chief of Staff, General Bernard Paget, now gave the ‘immediate action’ to
all troops in Eastern and Southern Commands, and then, at 8.07 p.m.,
Brooke issued the signal ‘Cromwell’, the code word that warned all troops
to go at once to their invasion battle stations. Although only a warning,
however, the ‘Cromwell’ signal was issued to all Home Guard
commanders, many of whom interpreted it to mean the invasion was
already happening. Across countless towns and villages, church bells were
rung, calling the Home Guard to arms. In no time, reports were flooding in
of German parachutists landing and fast motor boats approaching the coast.
Of course, nothing of the sort was happening. Although the British had
spent most of the summer expecting German parachutists to descend at any
moment, Göring had still not even pledged his precious Fallschirmjäger to
the invasion operation, despite OKH’s plans for them.
There were plenty of boats out at sea, but none transporting German
infantry to England. All local naval commands had been put at immediate
notice by night and short notice by day. The 29th Minesweeping Flotilla,
for example, had been ordered to lie offshore at Eastbourne as a first anti-