Editing Isle of Wight (section)

===20th century and later===

During the [[Second World War]], the island was frequently bombed. With its proximity to German-occupied France, the island hosted observation stations, transmitters, and the [[RAF Ventnor|RAF radar station at Ventnor]]. [[Adolf Hitler]] personally suggested an invasion of the Isle of Wight as a supplementary operation for [[Operation Sealion]], and the possibility of an invasion was incorporated into [[Fuhrer Directive]] 16. Field Marshal [[Alan Brooke]], in charge of defending the UK during 1940, was sceptical about being able to hold the island in the face of an invasion, instead considering that British forces would retreat to the western side of the island rather than commit forces against what might be a diversionary landing. In the end no invasion of the island was carried out as German naval commanders feared any invasion force might be cut off by British naval forces, particularly Royal Navy submarines.<ref name="Harvey 2017">{{cite news |last1=Harvey |first1=Ian |title=Hitler Considered Occupying The Small English Isle of Wight in WWII – It Could Have Changed History |url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/isle-of-wight.html?chrome=1&Exc_D_LessThanPoint002_p1=1 |access-date=26 April 2023 |work=War History Online |date=27 November 2017}}</ref>

The island was the starting point for one of the earlier [[Operation Pluto]] pipelines to feed fuel to Europe after the [[Normandy landings]].<ref name="Ddaymuseum">{{cite web | url=http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-dayonyourdoorstep/details/pluto-pumping-station-sandown-isle-of-wight | title=PLUTO pumping station, Sandown, Isle of Wight | publisher=D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery | access-date=16 February 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216215300/http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-dayonyourdoorstep/details/pluto-pumping-station-sandown-isle-of-wight | archive-date=16 February 2015 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The [[Needles Battery]] was used to develop and test the [[Black Arrow]] and [[Black Knight (rocket)|Black Knight]] space rockets, which were subsequently launched from [[Woomera Test Facility|Woomera]], Australia.<ref name="Standard">{{cite news | url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/welcome-to-britains-secret-cape-canaveral--on-the-isle-of-wight-7255168.html | title=Welcome to Britain's secret Cape Canaveral (... on the Isle of Wight) | newspaper=London Evening Standard | date=31 March 2007 | access-date=16 February 2015}}</ref>
[[File:Jimi Hendrix statue outside Dimbola Lodge.JPG|thumb|upright|Statue of [[Jimi Hendrix]] outside Dimbola Lodge]]

The [[Isle of Wight Festival 1970|Isle of Wight Festival]] was a large [[rock festival]] near [[Afton Down]], West Wight, in August 1970, following two smaller events in 1968 [[Isle of Wight Festival 1969|and 1969]]. The 1970 show was one of the last public performances by [[Jimi Hendrix]] and attracted somewhere between 600,000 and 700,000 attendees.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=32552 |title=Movies |publisher=Movies.msn.com |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109173009/http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=32552 |archive-date=9 November 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The festival was revived in 2002 in a different format and is now an annual event.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.isleofwightguru.co.uk/isle-of-wight-festival-history.html | title=Isle of Wight Festival History 1968 to Today| publisher=isleofwightguru.com| access-date=28 November 2016}}</ref>

On 26 October 2020, an oil tanker, the ''Nave Andromeda'', suspected to have been [[Nave Andromeda incident|hijacked by Nigerian stowaways]], was stormed southeast of the island by the [[Special Boat Service]]. Seven people believed to be Nigerians seeking UK asylum were handed over to Hampshire Police.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-54687379|title=Tanker stowaways: 'Hijacking' ends after special forces storm ship|work=BBC News|date=26 October 2020|access-date=26 October 2020}}</ref>