Adrian Searle - Churchills Last Wartime Secret: The 1943 German Raid Airbrushed from History

Churchills Last Wartime Secret

This book is dedicated to my two-year-old grand-daughter, Hannah, the perfect tonic for a long-distance writer struggling to get across that elusive finishing line!

The 1943 German Raid Airbrushed from History

Adrian Searle

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Adrian Searle 2016

ISBN 978 1 47382 381 5
eISBN 978 1 47387 773 3
Mobi ISBN 978 1 47387 772 6

The right of Adrian Searle to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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A ny acknowledgement for the help and support I have received in writing this book must start with my publishers, Pen & Sword, for entrusting me with the task of uncovering the truth behind the enduring raid on the radar wartime legend despite the handicap of having little in the way of archival material to consult owing to the continuing insistence by the British Government that the story I was setting out to tell had no verifiable factual basis. Put another way, there was nothing officially available to prove it was a fact! I very much appreciate the faith which Pen & Sword have vested in my ability to crack the toughest nut of a writing assignment I have yet to undertake and I especially appreciate the patience extended to me by Heather Williams in the editorial and production team when I have asked more than once for a little more time!

I must also express my gratitude to my editor (and fellow Isle of Wight resident) Carol Trow, whose perceptive professionalism undoubtedly has enhanced the final presentation of this work.

The support of family is always a tremendous help, especially when, as with my son, Matt, and daughter-in-law, Sarah, they are able to contribute directly to the book with photography and mapping respectively. The encouragement of other family members is also acknowledged while special thanks are extended to Mark Steadman and Ashley Webb here in my home town of Ryde. Their extraordinary enthusiasm for the project and the practical help they have provided with the research has been of tremendous value over a long period of time. The support I have received regularly from Roger Bunney has also proved an immense help.

The Isle of Wight is at the heart of the story told in this book. Countless people on the island have willingly given their time and the benefit of their knowledge in the realms of raid folklore. Most are acknowledged within the books narrative but special thanks must be extended to Gareth Sprack for sharing the incredible story of his chance meeting in France with a German ex-serviceman who, as it turned out, seems actually to have been a member of the wartime raiding party at St Lawrence in 1943! Both Gareth and his wife, Val, have also provided valuable insights into other aspects of the story. I am immensely grateful for their help which was so freely given.

Which brings me to Alfred Laurence who, more than twenty years ago, first revealed to me the details of the hushed-up raid he had gleaned from his good friend in Germany, Dietrich Andernacht, another apparent member of the wartime enemys raiding party. Both men have since died but their joint contribution to fleshing out the bones of the story was immense, indeed pivotal. There wouldnt have been a book without them. Alfred, or Fred as he was known during his days as an Isle of Wight resident, had led a truly remarkable life (worthy of a book in itself) and I warmly acknowledge the enormous input of his USA-based son Geoffrey in helping me to piece together the extraordinary story of the man who, in retirement, had devoted much of his energy to the quest of establishing the wartime raid as a fact.

With a paucity of nationally archived material available, much of the formal research for the book has been undertaken on the island, from where invaluable records have emerged to support the evidence from Germany. The dedication and friendly service extended at the Isle of Wight Record Office in Newport always makes the task of carrying out research there a pleasure. Some of the strongest documentary evidence used in the book was the product of the hours I spent in the office. It was also a pleasure to carry out research at Carisbrooke Castles wonderfully evocative museum while secreted among the maze of high-level rooms which make up the old Norman strongholds inner sanctum. My thanks to the curatorial staff there for going out of their way to meet my requests for inspecting material relevant to the book.

In the south of the island I received an immediate response from Ventnor & District Historical Societys Michael Freeman to my request for information on the towns wartime and post-war doctors in a bid to discover who might have been at the heart of a story relayed to Gareth Sprack about a local GP who apparently discovered medical notes relating to raid casualties but was then seemingly warned off his quest for further information by high authority. This strand of the raid on the radar legend remains a work in progress which can hopefully be pursued in the near future with further help from Ventnors excellent historical group.

At the islands southernmost point I was readily granted out-of-season access by Trinity House to the lighthouse at St Catherines and the chance to inspect its wartime records which are preserved on site. Special thanks go to Andrew Booth, the lighthouses visitor centre tour guide, for turning out on a windswept December morning to accommodate my search for the facts.

Further south, I was grateful to the wartime historians of the Channel Islands Occupation Society in Guernsey for sparing the time to talk to me and helping to clarify some key issues. In the fascinating nearby island of Alderney a personal favourite on a, literally, flying visit it was a pleasure to spend time with the Alderney Societys Dr Trevor Davenport discussing possible links between his island and a German raid nearly seventy-four miles to the north.

In Germany a great deal of help was readily provided by Silvia Stenger and archival colleagues at Frankfurt in my attempts to trace as much information as possible about former city archivist Dietrich Andernacht. I should also acknowledge the help of the countrys national archival service, the Bundesarchiv , as I sought to uncover any details of the raid which might survive among the documents in their possession. The staff there offered a lot of potential leads but, with no precise knowledge of the incident, were unable to pin the story down.