The Invasion of 1910, with a full account of the siege of LondonLe Queux, William
Science
The Invasion of 1910, with a full account of the siege of London
Le Queux, William
Great Britain -- Defenses; Imaginary wars and battles
At Cromer the enemy, as soon as they landed, took possession of the post
office, commandeered all the stores at shops, including the West-End
Supply Stores and Rust’s; occupied the railway station on the hill, with
all its coal and rolling stock, and made prisoners of the coastguards,
the four wires, as at Weybourne, having already been cut by advance
agents, who had likewise seized the post office wires. A German naval
party occupied the coastguard station, and hoisting the German flag at
the peak of the staff in place of the white ensign, began to make rapid
signals with the semaphore and their own coloured bunting instead of our
coastguard flags.
In the clean, red-brick little town of Sheringham all the grocers and
provision-dealers were given notice not to sell food to anyone, as it
was now in possession of the invaders, while a number of motor-cars
belonging to private persons were seized. Every lodging-house, every
hotel, and every boarding-house was quickly crowded by the German
officers, who remained to superintend the landing. Many machine guns
were landed on the pier at Cromer, while the heavier ordnance were
brought ashore at the gap and hauled up the fishermen’s slope.
Colonel Macdonald, who had carefully marked a cycling road-map of the
district with his observations driving in his own dog-cart from one
point to the other, met with a number of exciting adventures.
While in Holt on Monday evening--after a long day of constant
observation--he suddenly came face to face with Colonel Frölich,
commanding the enemy’s cavalry brigade, and was recognised. Frölich had
been aide-de-camp to the Emperor at the time when Macdonald was attaché
at the British Embassy, and both men were intimate friends.
They stopped and spoke, Frölich expressing surprise and also regret that
they should meet as enemies after their long friendship. Macdonald,
annoyed at being thus recognised, took the matter philosophically as the
fortunes of war, and learnt from his whilom friend a number of valuable
details regarding the German position.
The retired attaché, however, pushed his inquiries rather too far, and
unfortunately aroused the suspicions of the German cavalry commander,
with the result that the Englishman’s movements were afterwards very
closely watched. He then found himself unable to make any further
reconnaisance, and was compelled to hide his map under a heap of stones
near the Thornage Road, and there leave it for some hours, fearing lest
he should be searched and the incriminating plan found upon him.
[Illustration: POSITION OF THE IVTH GERMAN ARMY CORPS TWELVE HOURS AFTER
LANDING AT WEYBOURNE, NORFOLK
GEORGE PHILIP & SON L^{TD}.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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