Britain feared Nazi Chunnel

CHURCHILL'S wartime government was worried that the Germans, having failed in their plan to invade Britain by sea in 1940, would tunnel their way in beneath the Channel.

Following warnings from experts about the possibility of such a tunnel, high-level scientific committees were consulted and experiments were conducted near Dover to see if German tunnellers might be detected.

Although some studies dismissed the idea as impossible, one scientist insisted that such a tunnel could be dug in just 16 months, and could convey up to 300,000 men in a day.

The Cabinet file on the tunnel fears, dating from 1941-42, has been unearthed in the Public Record Office by a German historian, Ulrike Jordan, in the course of separate research.

Full report, page 3