Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Found this in my files, and thought people might be interested. I'm not an air buff myself, so I guess it's already well known, but just in case.


http://rommelsriposte.com/2018/05/29...him-marseille/


Happy reading.


All the best


Andreas

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Thank you for posting that. I had not read it before.

Am very surprised at how low Marseille was flying when he bailed out. At 200m, even if he had bailed out successfully, he would have had a very rough landing.

And why fly at such a low height? Leaves almost no chance to react to an emergency.

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

An interesting report, especially regarding the altitude of the incident.

Attached are two Enigma-encoded messages concerning the incident, intercepted by the British...

Cheers

Rod

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Thanks Rod! Do you mind if I add these to the blog entry?


All the best


Andreas

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Hi Andreas,

no problem. The source of the two signals:

The National Archives, DEFE 3/573 - Intelligence from intercepted German, Italian and Japanese radio communications, WWII, CX/MSS/C 1-533, 1942 Sept 16-1945 May 15.

These are the paraphrased versions of the intercepted signals and I presume quoted times are GMT. I thought I had transcripts of the fuller translations, but can't locate them at the moment...


Cheers

Rod

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Hi Rod,

You just answered the question I was about to ask. What's worse is that I downloaded that file in 2012 and never noticed these messages! Can't even remember what I was looking for or whether I found it.

The bit about "neither reported in CX/MSS nor signalled abroad" is fascinating — apparently Bletchley Park kept this material "in the family", so to speak. Some are "Personal to C.S.S." which I take to be "Chief Secret Service" (i.e. Bletchley's ultimate boss).

I have a handful of references to Marseille from ULTRA that I picked up during my Kommando Koch research — CX/MSS items both before and after his death (I'll put them on my website at some point this year) so it's odd that this wasn't issued. On the other hand, his death presumably was publicly announced.

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Hi Nick,

I'm sure there is a corresponding HW 5 file with the source (un-paraphrased) material, but I don't recall the reference. I thought I had the un-paraphrased versions of these messages, but (apparently) don't!

Considering the decrypt was sent to C.S.S. in the U.K. within ca. 14 hours of the crash, I'm not surprised the distribution was limited, especially with regard to transmission to overseas Commands...

Cheers

Rod

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Post updated with the ULTRA messages. Thanks a lot Rob!


All the best


Andreas

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Hello Andreas,

It is Rod, not Rob

Best regards, Marcel

Re: Report on the Crash of Captain Marseille
 

Cheers. Fixed it on the blog, but there's no edit button here.


All the best


Andreas