British defenses 1805-1812

Construction of the 26-mile long Royal Military Canal was commenced at Seabrook, near the city of Hythe in Kent on 30 October 1804. The Royal Military Canal was built to repel possible French invasions in the Romney Marshes during the Napoleonic wars of 1804 to 1815.

The canal was constructed in two sections: the longest section runs from Hythe to Iden Lock. The second section runs from Winchelsea to Cliff End. Both sections are linked by the Rivers Rother and Brede. Gun positions along the canal were generally located every 500 yards. Any troops stationed or moving along the Military Road would have been protected by the earthen bank of the parapet, which was piled up during construction. The final defense of the Royal Military Canal was to flood the Romney Marshes and surrounding area. This would prove disastrous for any advancing army which moves primarily on foot or horseback, not to mention the movement of artillery! The canal was finally completed in April 1809 at a total cost of £234,000.

But during the 1812 invasion, the Royal Military Canal seemed almost useless when the French dropped their corps d’aérostiers behind the canal, creating havoc among the British soldiers stationed along the canal enabling them to open the sluices. During this chaos, hundreds of British soldiers were taken prisoner and other hundreds were routed! In order to prevent the French to launch other aerial attacks, the British Army Headquarters ordered the construction of hundreds of kites on strategic positions. These kites were equipped with long ropes on which thousands of sharp razors were attached. During the further campaign the kites were able to take down dozens of French transport and observation balloons. Causing the French to limit the use of the corps d’aérostiers as airborne troops.

The British Army also built small independent strongholds called Martello Towers. In total 74 of these towers were built between Folkestone and Seaford. The walls were up to 4m thick, and each tower held 24 men and had a rotable huge cannon mounted on the top. During the French invasion of 1812, these towers proved their reputation of being hard to take. The four Martello towers located at Hythe were able to resist numerous massive French attacks and delayed the invasion force with several hours before they were finally neutralized by some French howitzers.