Full Evacuation

One aspect of invasion preparation that has been lost is the plans for full evacuation of seaside towns such as Hastings that were within 20 miles of potential German landing sites. Voluntary evacuation had been in place since circa October 1940, but regional government, together with central government had planned to remove all citizens from potential landing locations to prevent the invaders from utilising civilians to hamper any defences.

The Hastings and St Leonards Observer ran details of the plan in their Saturday 21 October 1944 edition when the threat had passed.