Lepe, Hampshire a country house. In 1943, it was requisitioned by the Royal Navy who used it as the base for J.1 Assault Group for the D-Day landings. In the past history they have had 3 floods one in 2004 one in 2005 and one in 2014 Prior to the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, Lepe was used as a secret manufacturing site. Six massive concrete caissons (type B2 Phoenix breakwaters) were built here and later towed across the English Channel where they formed part of the artificial Mulberry harbours after D-Day. Lepe was also one of the many places on
South African Railways and Harbours Administration workers by Afrikaners. Most of the black workers were migrants, housed in company labour compounds. In 1936 starting pay for single black workers was 3/6d a day and for coloured workers 4/-d a day. After 11 years pay rose to 4/6d for black and 5/- for coloured workers. Married workers got between 4d and 6d more per day. 28,000 of the 45,000 employed were casual day labourers. Dock workers were often required to "stand by" waiting for a ship to arrive. The South African Railways and Harbours Union was formed after a meeting of the staff in Cape Town on