Editing Beachy Head (section)

==At war==
The third day of fighting in the [[Battle of Portland]] in 1653 took place off Beachy Head during the [[First Anglo-Dutch War]]. The [[Battle of Beachy Head (1690)|Battle of Beachy Head]] in 1690 was a naval engagement during the [[Nine Years' War]]. The so-called Second Battle of Beachy Head took place over a week in September 1916 during the [[First World War]]. Three German [[U-boat]]s sank 30 merchant ships between Beachy Head and the [[Eddystone Rocks|Eddystone]]. This was despite a major effort involving the [[Royal Navy]] and 49 destroyers, 48 [[torpedo]] boats, seven [[Q-ship|'Q' ship]]s and 468 auxiliaries.<ref>Reagan, Geoffrey. Military Anecdotes (1992) pp. 118 & 119, Guinness Publishing {{ISBN|0-85112-519-0}}</ref>

During the [[Second World War]], the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) established a forward relay station at Beachy Head to improve radio communications with aircraft. In 1942, signals were picked up at Beachy Head which were identified as TV transmissions from the [[Eiffel Tower]]. The Germans had reactivated the pre-war TV transmitter and instituted a Franco-German service for military hospitals and VIPs in the Paris region. The RAF monitored these programmes, hoping (in vain) to gather intelligence from newsreels.<ref>{{cite journal
  | last = Ockenden
  | first = Michael
  | title = TV Pictures from Occupied Paris
  | journal = After the Battle
  | issue = 39
  | publisher = Battle of Britain Prints International
  |date=April 1983}}</ref> The area had an important wartime [[radar]] station. During the [[Cold War]], a radar control centre was operational in an underground bunker from 1953 to 1957.<ref name=SURTEES/>
On 20 May 1942, a [[Messerschmitt Bf 109]] of JG26 piloted by Uffz. Oswald Fischer belly-landed on the beach due to flak damage. Fischer was taken prisoner, and the relatively undamaged plane was sent to RAE Farnborough for examination and evaluation. The plane was probably scrapped at the end of the war.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jackiewicz |first1=Jacek |title=Captured Me-109's |date=2007 |publisher=Atelier Kecay |location=Poland |isbn=9788392491408 |pages=177}}</ref>