Hastings Pier in WW2, continued

Taken from http://www.pillbox.org.uk/pillblogs/detail.asp?ID=370, with permission.

The photo below was taken by the Luftwaffe in 1940 and shows both piers, with Hastings on the right.

Both St. Leonards and Hastings had had their detonators removed in the wake of the Dunkirk emergency; they were back in position by 20:00 on June 5th. Three weeks later, orders were received to remove the decking from both piers. An 18ft gap had been cut in St. Leonards Pier using oxy-actylene equipment by July 12th, but the completion of the job is not recorded as complete until 23rd August.

However, both piers had been cut enough that, that by 17:00 on 1st August, the detonators and charges had finally been removed.

The cutting of the girders at St. Leonards had proved valuable to the army though; some RSJs  were salvaged and an RE unit used three of them to build a roof for a field gun emplacement at Rye. A year later, another Royal Engineers Field Company managed to build overhead cover for 12 artillery emplacements using RSJs from St. Leonards.

It's quite likely that similar reuse of materials from the other piers took place, but is not explicitly recorded.