Gentleman:
I hope you can clarify an issue that I have wondered about for some time. I have read that increases in radio traffic provided a very good advance warning to the LW of forthcoming 8AF raids and hence was a valuable source of intelligence e.g. Caldwell's
JG 26 War Diary, Vol One: 'Any major increase in activity on the American radio frequecies foretold a genuine raid.' IIRC the increase in radio traffic was caused by testing the radios in the B17s and B24s.
If this was the situation, several questions come to mind:
- was the increase in radio traffic actually caused by testing radios in individual bombers?
- was the 8 AF aware of the potential SIGINT being provided to the LW?
- why weren't countermeasures, such as generating false traffic when raids weren't occurring, carried out?
I have never come across any discussion of the above questions, so I hope you can enlighten me.
Thanks
Boomerang