Three Days

This story tells of possibly the most important 3 days in the history of WWII. Very little is known about the men who took part in this particular battle as they were members of the Top Secret 203 Regiment of the Home Guard or otherwise known as the British Resistance.
Very much like the French Resistance, these men were in small individual groups known as Auxiliary Patrols. Each patrol consisted of 4 – 6 men from the local area who were in reserved occupations, such as farm workers, agricultural engineers. The most important thing was that they had to know their local area well and could move about unobserved. They could tell no one that they were members as this would risk their lives if and when the Germans invaded England.
In early September 1941 a small group of German saboteurs were dropped into Kent in readiness for Operation Sealion but they were arrested in a matter of days. It was decided to send another group of saboteurs, but this time they would be landed by sea in a remote part of Sussex. This time they ensured that all members of the group could speak English like a native and wore English clothes.
This landing took place at 6 o’clock in the morning on Friday 13th September 1941 in the estuary of the River Cuckmere. The only problem was that up in a field over looking the estuary was Jack smith, who was repairing a binder so that the harvest could get under way when the farm workers and Land Army girls arrived at 8 o’clock. Jack was a member of the Blatchington Auxiliary patrol.
Once his report was given to his patrol leader it sparked off much activity throughout the local Auxiliary patrols as each one was tasked to not only find these Germans but to watch them and see what they were doing. The person controlling these activities was ‘The Pheasant’, the Top Secret leader of 203 Regiment.
During the 13th, the main task was to find and identify each of the 10 men who landed that morning. Once this was done, the local patrol was assigned to watch the men I their areas. On the second day, 14th September, It was decided that they were too dangerous to be allowed to remain in England so the idea was that they were to be made aware that they had been seen and were to be arrested the following morning.
On the morning of Sunday 15th September, the four Auxiliary patrols set about their tasks of ensuring that the Germans were heading home. They were told that they had orders to either arrest or kill the Germans as they saw fit. The only German not to be killed was their leader, he was to be allowed to escape and return to France so he could give details of the British readiness for their invasion.
Six of the German saboteurs were killed, three arrested and their leader escaped back to France, only to stand in front of a firing squad for the failure of the mission.
On the 17th of September 1941 Operation Sealion was indefinably postponed.

Reviews:

Roy Richford (Canada)
The book held my interest from beginning to end. I liked the way the author built his story around a very realistic but fictional plot. It has intrigue, suspense, violence and even discreet sex. What more could one ask? On a number of occasions I had to remind myself that it was fiction.

Nicolas Slade (Cyprus)
Very enjoyable book and a good read.

Christopher Webber (UK)
The plot is pretty good. The author has excellent local knowledge and knowledge of the auxiliaries.