Gladwyns and The Invasion of 1910. In looking on Google for images of Gladwyns to illustrate a previous article, a reference to a book ‘The Invasion’ was flagged up and looked to be of local interest. ‘The Invasion’ by William Le Queux was written in 1904 with serialisation in the Daily Mail and belongs to the genre of books warning about the unpreparedness of Britain to resist any invasion, such that the increasing military might of Germany might indicate, should the Navy not stop any fleet approaching the coast. Today ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ by Erskine Childers is probably the most well known of such books. Having the backing of Lord Harmsworth, Le Queux was requested to include as many towns as possible from the Daily Mail’s readership heartlands! The events are set in 1910 and the Germans manage to make unopposed landings on the east coast on Sunday 1 September, with their agents cutting telephone wires and blocking the rail system, particularly in East Anglia. The main landings were at the docks of Lowestoft and Yarmouth but also at Weybourne and Cromer and Kings Lynn. Further landings were made on the Humber at Hull, Goole and Grimsby and in Newcastle. The story concentrates on the German advance on London from East Anglia with an additional landing at Maldon, leading to a major battle at Colchester before continuing their advance. At this stage Hatfield Heath and Hatfield Broad Oak enter the story with British defences along a line from Hyde Hall - Little Hyde Hall – Gladwyns – Sheering - Harlow. Night time advance patrols from both sides had clashed at Hatfield Heath crossroads. ‘It was still profoundly dark when the Rifles at Hatfield Heath heard a dozen shots cracking through the darkness to their left front. Almost immediately other reports sounded from due east. Nothing could be seen beyond a very few yards, and the men of the advance company drawn up at the cross roads in front of the village inn [Fox and Hounds pub, now Nursery on the Heath] fancied they now and again saw figures dodging around in obscurity, but were cautioned not to fire until all their patrols had come in, for it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe.’ A skirmish with an advancing German patrol in semi darkness occurred at the crossroads and after half an hour the main battle was joined as dawn broke. ‘Twelve guns opened with a crash from Hatfield Heath, raking the Gladwyns enclosure with shrapnel, whilst an almost solid firing line advanced rapidly against it, firing heavily. The British replied lustily with gun, rifle and maxim, the big high-explosive shells bursting amid the advancing Germans and the houses of Hatfield Heath with telling effect. …. In the midst of this desperate fighting the Leinsters, supported by a Volunteer and a Militia Regiment, which had just come up, assaulted Hatfield Heath. The Germans were driven out of it with the loss of a couple of their guns, but hung on to the little church [URC church], around which such a desperate conflict was waged that the dead above ground in that diminutive God’s acre outnumbered the “rude forefathers of the hamlet” who slept below. …. At this time the positions were as follows: One German battalion was hanging obstinately on to the outskirts of Hatfield Heath, two were in possession of the copses about Gladwyns, two were in Sheering village or close to it and the sixth was still in reserve at Down Hall.’ Thus Hatfield Heath featured at the start of William Le Queux’s Battle of Harlow and the British retreat to Epping and then London. He had done his homework on the local terrain and likely German tactics to carry his story and message forward. It is interesting that come the Great War a decade later, the Government took the prospect of invasion on the east coast seriously and set out evacuation instructions and defined which roads were for military use only (in Hatfield Heath’s case all five roads into the village were military ones) and which roads and lanes the local population should take to evacuate to the Oxford area. The Dunmow Museum has a copy of the instructions on display. In WW2 the Home Guard defences were also geared towards holding up attackers from the east taking the road to Harlow with three spigot mortar positions along the south edge of the Heath, two of which are still extant. Luckily the village has only had to contend with paper plans of invasion and destruction. ……………. Our next meeting is the AGM on Tuesday March 15. Details of time and location to be announced. Quentin Spear
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