Plans from the time of the Spanish Armada were resurrected. The Defense Act of 1798 extended the powers of the Lords-Lieutenant in a time of national defense. A telegraph station was erected on one of the towers of Westminster Abbey, another was set up at the Admiralty.
#Ibomber defense great britain series#
A series of beacon-masts, watch-houses and semaphore telegraphs were completed to speed communications in the event of a landing. Plans were drawn up to arm the populace despite fears of putting arms in the hands of the disaffected. Armed associations were formed to carry on partisan warfare.
#Ibomber defense great britain plus#
To this was added 45,000 militia troops, 13,104 fencible cavalry and 11,042 fencible infantry, 15,120 yeomanry cavalry, 51,360 volunteers, and a supplemental militia of 60,000 227,450 men in all, plus 117 companies of artillery. In January 1798 England disposed of 31,824 regulars to oppose and invasion. Bridges were to be wrecked, roads torn up, etc. the aged and infirmed) food-stuffs, livestock and vehicles of all kinds. The plans called for a rigorous “scorched-earth” policy, known as “driving the country”desolating and emptying a district of population (esp. 1796 by Sir David Dundas, the Quartermaster-General. The first detailed plans for the defense of Britain were drawn up in Aug. Years later Napoleon was to muse, “If, instead of the expedition to Egypt, I had made that of Ireland What would England have been today? and the Continent? and the political world?”
Kilmaine replaced Napoleon as commander of the Army of England, but when Napoleon sailed for Egypt the cross-channel invasion force in May of 1798 still had more than 30 vessels and 50,000 troops. “An invasion of England is a most difficult and perilous undertaking .Our fleet is today as little prepared for battle as it was four months ago, when the Army of England was projected ” Napoleon referred to the Army of the East as “one of the wings of the Army of England.” Gen. “With all our efforts, we shall not for many years obtain command of the seas, ” Napoleon reported. Napoleon concluded that the time was not ripe for an invasion of England. He collected artillery in the same calibers as British field-pieces. An English spy reported, ” On the road to Lisle every useful tree cut down, and sawyers at work, cutting plank and other scantling, and carts transporting it to the coast in great numbers.” The army proposed for the expedition was set at 42,000 troops and 4,600 cavalry. He ordered troop-carrying gunboats to be constructed. Napoleon ordered additional ships from Toulon and Corfu. Thirty-four ships were ordered to make ready. The Directory ordered the archives searched for previous plans for a descent on England. “For an expedition against England we require,” Napoleon informed the Directory, “1st, good naval officers 2nd, a great army, well commanded 3rd, an intelligent and determined admiralI think Truguet the best 4th, thirty million francs in ready money.”
Napoleon proposed using, in addition to the troops already stationed in the West, 36,000 troops from the Army of Italy. Let us concentrate all our attention on the navy and destroy England. The present moment offers a good opportunity. “Our government must destroy the British monarchy,” Napoleon wrote, “or it will have only to wait for its own destruction by the corruption and intrigue of these insular plotters. The Directory created the Army of England in Oct.
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