Wars and ConflictsΒ permalink
Disinformation regarding bombing
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Message 1.Β
Posted by priscilla (U1793779) on Sunday, 4th September 2005
I urgently need a serious answer to resolve last night's dinner table arguement.
I contend that by giving false broadcasts about bomb raids WW2, there was a deflection and they fell further north of the Thames. Was this V1 and V2, or dropped bombs? Indeed am I correct?
I have the Cadogan War Cabinet Diaries with me by happenstance - he became quite un nerved by the later raids 1944/5 over his patch. Whitehall I assume. -
Message 2
Posted by TonyG (U1830405) on Sunday, 4th September 2005
I believe it was really just V2. Earlier in the war, while attempts were made to fool night bombers into dropping bombs in the open countryside, this really only became possible later in the war when the Allies had total air supremacy over the UK. As the Germans could not send aircraft back to see their targets after the event, they relied on radio messages from spies to tell them where the V2's had landed. I believe that many of these spies had been "turned" and were sending back incorrect information, so that the Germans changed the targetting of their rockets and thus many of them over-shot their intended target.
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Message 3
Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Sunday, 4th September 2005
Re: message 2.
Tony,
not exactly about the subject. But Priscilla and you seems to know something at least about the V 1 and V 2.
Last Sunday morning I was in the "Life Center" of Newcastle. There is an exposition about the research on Mars. There is even a Mars stone, recovered from a meteorite, and by comparing analysis made sure that it is from Mars.
There was a girl, (estimate from my not always reliable view: some 20 years old), who stand at a desk in that Mars hall, I started to talk about the exhibition and we came to rockets and the V weapons of Germany and the bombing of London by the V2. She had never heard of the German V 2. I explained: Vergeltungswaffen (revenge weapon). I said that a V 2 on an Antwerp cinema made more than 600 deads at the end of the war in Belgium. I spoke about the war criminal Werner von Braun, who was one of the fathers of the moonrocket and was taken by the Americans, forgiven his war faults and used to help in the American rocket development. The Russians did the same, with other German scientists-war criminals.
I had to spell the name Werner von Braun and she wrote it down to ask for further information to her chiefs, she promised...That tall odd Belgian...(very broad smile)
It can be that it happens with younsters in Belgium too, I guess.
Kind regards,
Paul. -
Message 4
Posted by TonyG (U1830405) on Sunday, 4th September 2005
Dear Paul,
A sad, but all too common, experience of how little people know about even recent history. Well done for getting her to do som einvestigations of her own.
All the best,
Tony. -
Message 5
Posted by priscilla (U1793779) on Monday, 5th September 2005
My thanks to Tony G and Paul.
To Tony If they were redirected then the northern surburbs suffered as I had heard. Which is what started my investigating the facts.
Yes, Paul I know of them in the strange history patches of my mind. I cannot comment on the rocket designer; I do however have strong contention with anyone who sells weapons including machetes. See you on another site.
However, Paul why were the Belgians bombarded? I mean your being an occupied country.
Regards P. -
Message 6
Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Monday, 5th September 2005
Re: message 5.
Priscilla,
Belgium was already freed essentially by English and Canadians in the North, so Antwerp wasn't occupied anymore. Not to say that we hadn't many casualties during the occupation from allied bombing too, but that wasn't so sour, while it was for the case of freedom.
BTW. I was nearly killed one year old in 1944 in the afternoon by the bomb of a Lockheed Lightning on 30 yards near...
Regards,
Paul. -
Message 7
Posted by clankylad (U1778100) on Monday, 5th September 2005
There was an intelligence attack on the V1 campaign - although the news media would not report the location of V1 strikes, fake obituary notices were placed in newspapers for people supposedly from northern London. As the German aiming point for V1s was Tower Bridge, it was hoped that they'd see this information, think they were overshooting and shorten their range.
Obviously, this would mean south London getting a greater share of the missiles fired, but presumably the authorities would prefer this to missiles falling around the London docks and potentially disrupting the flow of supplies and reinforcements moving into Normandy. -
Message 8
Posted by Gilgamesh of Uruk (U211168) on Thursday, 8th September 2005
It was more complicated than that. The times of "short" V1s were associated with the time of fall of "overs" in the death notices. Since the Germans were unable by then to carry out air recce over London, they do seem to have shortened the range of the bombardment. The argument seems to have been that the casualties would be no heavier than if they fell where they were falling, and that the damage to war industries would be much less.
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Message 9
Posted by clankylad (U1778100) on Friday, 9th September 2005
You're right - I'd forgotten that part of it.
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