The Bodies on the Beach: Sealion, Shingle Street and the Burning Sea Myth of 1914

by James Hayward

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0954054903
• ISBN13: 9780954054908
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: CD 41 Publishing
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

More Research Needed

While the author has done quite a bit of research in proving Shingle Street a "myth," he still admits here and there that much is still kept under wraps. There is other firsthand information located on the internet site: "The Secret War at Shingle Street", run by Ronald Ashford, in the U.K., that leads me to believe that there is more here than meets the eye, and that James Hayward is not giving us the entire story, especially when it comes to eye witness accounts. Having seen the written statements and listened to witnesses testify to their experiences during the War, I tend to think this was not "myth" or black propaganda. Hayward makes too many generalized statements about some of these eyewitnesses; for instance, Dr. Charles Bove, head surgeon at the American Hospital in Paris is dismissed with an "unlikely story." And then the Home Guardsmen who are seen as POWs in Germany, who report they were abducted by German raiders off the Kent coast, are dismissed by the author with "but can these reports really have any foundation in fact?" Well...if the author would do a little more research, he might make the statement with some "facts" to back up his assumption. If the MoD wouldt come clean with the entire file, perhaps we could get to the whole truth; there are enough eye witnesses, with written statements available...and I've seen the written documents signed by them (and not third party hearsay), to prove that there WERE bodies hastily taken up and off from the scene. Was this incident used by the British as propaganda, i.e., that the Germans failed to land, to bolster morale? Maybe. But don't tell me the MoD doesn't lie; consider the false statements they made to relatives of downed RAF flyers, during the War, and of whom, knowing where their bodies were, but refused to tell the truth or recover them...until now...as they are now forced to tell the truth, as the flyers are discovered by amateur aviation archeologists; and as each flyer is discovered, the MoD is further discredited. See: Missing in Action: Resting in Peace? More research needs to be done, and there are still too many secrets still kept under wraps by the Ministry of Defense to make a blanket statement on a book cover referring to Shingle Street as historical myth. Hayward's book is 9 years old; new information to the contrary has surfaced and the entire story needs a fresh look.