[Bruce Dennis]

Good thread.
The rules to which Peter refers work both ways: if you want the status and protection of a non-combatant then you cannot carry out military tasks. The orders produced by Junker show that the Luftwaffe was following proper procedures in May, but orders are orders and they were changed in July. The existence of the earlier orders adds to my belief that the July orders were in response to the lack of progress.

It isn’t that big a leap to believe that the German forces used this ruse in July, on orders from Berlin. There are several first hand accounts of the ground forces advancing into France during May and June using red-cross marked vehicles ‘inappropriately’.

Brian has quite rightly questioned whether or not the mention of a convoy constitutes ‘spotting’. The allegation is that the red-cross marked aircraft were sent to look for convoys. There were no transcripts of the German R/T conversations that originally raised suspicion among the WAAF Y Service listeners, but their professionalism by this stage was well established. It would be difficult to state that they had misunderstood or over-reacted without casting doubt on every other report they turned in during the same period. This simply was not a factor. Their training and experience ensured that the Y Service reports were taken at face value by the entire Intelligence and Operational structure even at the height of a crisis. The fact that other independent intelligence sources corroborated, and amplified, the suspicions of the listeners should underline the solid nature of the information they passed on.

It seems clear that the RAF shot down these aircraft, and it may be in dispute as to how many were actually marked with red-crosses, but surely we are not discussing who had the moral high ground? The war had claimed all of Britain’s allies and the German thrust was pointless unless Britain surrendered: the stakes were high on both sides and the odd punch ‘below the belt’ should not surprise anyone. I am not justifying either the misuse of rescue aircraft or shooting them down, but in this case I am satisfied that German red-cross marked aircraft were used for convoy spotting and were therefore ‘fair game’.

Regards to all,
Bruce