Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum - Whirlwinds, shipping reccos & BC minelaying

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Whirlwinds, shipping reccos & BC minelaying

Good evening all, hopefully this query isn't too far in left field.

With the roadsteads and shipping reccos carried out by 263 and 137 Squadrons in particular, does anyone know if they were carried out to directly follow up a gardening operation by BC in an attempt to catch the German minesweepers in a known location.

Alternatively were they in response to information supplied by the French and Dutch resistance movements?

Or were they just regular patrols carried out at times likely to catch German shipping in the open?

TYIA.

Paul

Re: Whirlwinds, shipping reccos & BC minelaying

Hi Paul

My sense of this is that most Whirlwind anti-shipping sorties were Armed Shipping Reccos rather than Roadsteads. i.e they were speculative and no particular target was in mind, although the the areas searched were thought to be promising, whereas a Roadstead always (?) had a briefed target.

Looking at those Whirlwind Roadstead ops where a specific target had been indentified, most seem to have been based on Sigint, PR (either by PRU or by routine Jim Crow patrols) or Chain Home Low radar plots.

So for example, Eddie Musgrave's single-handed disabling of the Coronel (or Togo or Schiff 14 if you prefer) on February 10th 1943 was based on Sigint that indicated increased minesweeping activity (that was assumed to indicate a major ship movement) and then radar contact with Coronel as she moved down-Channel.

Just as an aside: were not Bomber Command's "Gardening" ops largely further afield than Fighter Command's "Channel Stop" ops? Not really my area, but I'm sure someone else here will know.

Niall

Re: Whirlwinds, shipping reccos & BC minelaying

Paul and Niall,

I've just bought and read the mervellous book from Cdr. Robert Peverell Hichens, DSO, DSC tittled "We fought them in gunboats".

What I read suggests that there was, at least in some actions, some kinf of support from the RAF for the RN missions, particularly when those MTB or MGBs were late and probably would be in mid-Channel at daylight ( returning from a night operation damaged, for example ). On this case, the fighters would cover the safe return of those fast ships. Cdr. Hichens do mention one mission when he was afraid of being caught in mid-channel by Fw 190 ( well armed ), in daylight.

I remember another occasion ( on his book ) where it seems the MGB and MTB telegraphed and asked RAF support to hunt down some E-Boats that were damaged on a night mission and escaped to Holland at day break...

Particularly, I do not have documents or files to prove that there was some kind of cooperation between the RN and RAF on these E-Boat huntings; although I believe that there was.

Yours

Adriano

Re: Whirlwinds, shipping reccos & BC minelaying

Thanks for that Adriano.

Paul