Great Britain -- Defenses; Imaginary wars and battles
While the War Office refused any information, special editions of the
papers during Wednesday printed sensational reports of the ruthless
completion of the impenetrable screen covering the operations of the
enemy on the whole of the East Coast.
News had, by some means, filtered through from Yarmouth that a similar
landing to those at Lowestoft and Weybourne had been effected. Protected
as such an operation was by its flanks being supported by the IVth and
IXth Army Corps landing on either side, the Xth Army Corps, under
General von Wilburg, had seized Yarmouth, with its many miles of wharves
and docks, which were now crowded by the lighters' craft of flotilla
from the Frisian Islands.
It was known that the landing had been effected simultaneously with that
at Lowestoft. The large number of cranes at the fish-docks were of
invaluable use to the enemy, for there they landed guns, animals, and
stores, while the provisions they found at the various ship's chandlers,
and in such shops as Blagg's, and the International Stores in King
Street, Peter Brown's, Doughty's, Lipton's, Penny's and Barnes's, were
at once commandeered. Great stores of flour were seized in Clarke's and
Press's mills, while the horse-provender mills in the vicinity supplied
them with valuable forage.
Beyond these few details, as far as regarded the fate of Yarmouth,
nothing further was at present known.
The British division at Colchester, which comprised all the regular
troops north of the Thames in the eastern command, was, no doubt, in a
critical position, threatened so closely north and south by the enemy.
None of the regiments--the Norfolks, the Leicestershire, and the King's
Own Scottish Borderers of the 11th Infantry Brigade--were up to their
strength. The 12th Infantry Brigade, which also belonged to the
division, possessed only skeleton regiments stationed at Hounslow and
Warley. Of the 4th Cavalry Brigade, some were at Norwich, the 21st
Lancers were at Hounslow, while only the 16th Lancers were at
Colchester. Other cavalry regiments were as far away as Canterbury,
Shorncliffe, and Brighton, and although there were three batteries of
artillery at Colchester, some were at Ipswich, others at Shorncliffe,
and others at Woolwich.
Therefore it was quite evident to the authorities in London that unless
both Colchester and Norwich were instantly strongly supported, they
would soon be simply swept out of existence by the enormous masses of
German troops now dominating the whole eastern coast, bent upon
occupying London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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