Back from a kicking and my backside’s sore. I never intended to claim someone else’s work as mine. In this place, that would be foolishness anyway. My apologies if anyone was offended. For the record, I built this timeline from Richard Cox’s excellent book. In future, I’ll quote any sources at the start of writing rather than at the end. I should probably do better at replying to messages as well. Apologies again. Just to finish things, the rest of Richard Cox’s timeline is below.
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1000 Only the 7th, 17th, 35th and 1st Mountain have received resupply from the fleet, with the airborne units being resupplied from the air. The remaining divisions have few supplies remaining.
1500 The Canadian Div. begins a counterattack from Herstmonceux towards the coast and makes good progress towards the coast. Several units of Germans surrender due to being out of ammunition.
1800 Newhaven is now fully under British control. The Armoured Brigade has pushed the 8th Div. back along the coast. Many German units in the area are suffering from severe ammunition shortages.
September 25th
0800 Goering convinces Hitler to order a partial withdrawal so that the paratroopers can be saved.
1000 British attacks throughout the day see the German bridgehead divided in half. German divisions in the western half of the bridgehead begin to collapse as their ammunition is exhausted.
1800 German units to be evacuated from Folkestone and Rye disengage from British forces and move towards the ports, protected by infantry units being left behind.
2000 The fast steamers of the transport fleet sail for Folkestone, minesweepers sail for Rye.
September 26th
0600 Units of the 7th Fliegerdivision and 22nd Airlanding at Folkestone and 7th and 1st Mountain Div.s at Rye begin to embark for the continent. On the return journey, the transport fleet is again hammered by both the Royal Navy and the RAF, suffering heavy losses. Approximately 15,000 troops are lost during the evacuation. Only 9,400 reach safety from Folkestone and 6,000 from Rye. German troops left behind in Britain surrender over the next two days, the eventual total of POWs being over 30,000.
FIN
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As I said at the start, I used one source for this timeline. All the substantive information for the timeline came from here:
Cox, Richard. Operation Sealion. Thornton Cox, 1975.
It’s an excellent book and you should read it if you can find a copy. It’s based on the Sandhurst wargame of Sealion that was gamed in the early 70s. I was inspired to build this timeline watching the Battle of Britain flyover last weekend and realising Sealion was planned to happen 70 years ago this week. Although it would have been a complete disaster for the Germans, they really wouldn’t have stood a chance.