“Picture the Suffolk coast on a stormy night in 1940. Waves crash against a bleak shingle bank, the wind howls through the marshes, and blackout shades cover every window in the tiny hamlet of Shingle Street. It was a place where the war felt uncomfortably close. Just across the North Sea lay occupied Europe. German bombers roared overhead almost nightly, and rumours of an imminent invasion travelled faster than the tide. It was here, in this lonely corner of England, that one of the strangest legends of the Second World War was born.”

This episode was written by Richard Clements.

Richard has held a keen interest in the Second World War for most of his life. He enjoys uncovering the lesser-known and unusual stories of the conflict and bringing them to life for new audiences. Living in East Anglia, not far from Shingle Street, he first heard the tale of the supposed invasion as a child, and it has stayed with him ever since.