Defending Albion

by K. W. Mitchinson

"The fear of a cross-Channel invasion had been a recurrent worry to Britain's naval, military and political leaders for centuries. By 1908 the likely invader had changed but the British public, alarmed by lurid tales of a bestial, rampaging German army protected by the might of the Kaiser's provocative new fleet, demanded greater security. Although the War Office and Government were confident that full-scale invasion was unlikely, they continued to assume that vulnerable and strategically important sites might be raided by up to 150,000 troops. Defending Albion analyses the responses of the British military and civil authorities to the perceived threat. It is the first published work to explore the schemes designed to confront an enemy landing and to examine the difficulties faced by the derided Territorial Force in trying to meet the challenge. It also investigates the long-neglected political and military problems posed by the unwanted spontaneous creation of what is today the largel