Quote:
Originally Posted by tcolvin
On further reflection I agree it's unlikely the Catford School was bombed due to XX. Probably it was the revenge (Vergeltung) or Terror attack as argued by Austin, Brian and Chris.
The change of mind is due to the following reasons.
1.The London barrage was hauled down on January 20, 1943 'for essential maintenance' (according to a statement in the HofC). According to Eric Brady, this turned out years later to have been a cover story for calibration of new gun laying radar that required clear sky from London to the coast. The GAF could not have known about this in advance, but took advantage of the operational freedom it gave them to bomb the school from 80 m.
2.The full flowering of the fashion for Jabo occurred in early 1943. A skit by Monty Python, or the Goons (I can't remember), appears to have become actual GAF strategy. The skit had a pilot officer being ordered by a Wingco to fly to Berlin at tree-top height, to bomb the Chancery and to return to base, “because we need a useless gesture at this stage of the war”. Fighter aircraft were first ordered to perform Close Air Support in Poland in the 'exceptional circumstances' foreseen in the Air Manual. Kesselring preempted von Bock's attempt to gain operational control over the LW by ordering Bf109s and Bf110s to support the Heer on the Tucheler Heath and at the Bzura with mg and cannon fire performing Tiefangriff. The next development was Goering's face-saving order that fighters fitted with bomb-racks be used to replace day bombers over England. Finally there occurred the strange case of Frank Liesendahl, who having developed a taste for shooting Polish soldiers on the Bzura and British troops at Dunkirk, and having mulled it over for some time in hospital, persuaded first himself and then Oesau to let him shoot up British troops or, in their absence, British shipping. His reward for sinking a 3,000-ton ship was the formation of 10 (Jabo)./JG 2 which together with 10./JG26 under Erwin Busch became a dumping ground for the undisciplined and insubordinate. The analysis by Chris Goss of the tip-and-run campaign from March 1942 to June 1943, which included the Catford bombing, showed that 68 out of 118 Jabos were lost in achieving what Galland had said in 1940 “had little of any military value”. Jabo attacks did, however, fulfill the psychological need for revenge against Bomber Command's campaign to burn out 100 German cities. The Jabo was therefore the V0, to be replaced by the V1 and V2. This comes across clearly in Eric Brady's book, “Class War”. Eric was severely wounded by the V0, but escaped narrowly from both V1 and V2, so in the end he could say to Hitler's shade, “Yah – missed me!”.
3.In discussion this evening with a distinguished military historian, it was said that in Britain during the war it was commonplace to believe that schools were targeted, to such an extent that a German historian once asked why British people believed Hitler deliberately attacked their education. It seems likely, therefore, that Eric Brady's hearsay evidence that six schools were attacked on January 20, 1943 was part of this urban myth.
Tony
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Tony
Phew - glad to see the Masterman, 6 schools, aircraft design plans etc have gone for a burton and you have seen the light! **wink**
You will be surprised to hear that, in that posting at least, I agree with all the theories you have put forward, with the slight proviso/exception of describing the Jabos as a 'useless gesture': although they had a high Luftwaffe attrition rate and did no lasting/great military/economic damage, proportionally they were worth it because:
a) they made the maximum use of the limited forces available to the Luftwaffe's Western Front force: with the KG units moved to the Eastern Front, there was little other offensive operations against Britain the Luftwaffe could do, so the Jabos were the only alternative.
b) disproportionately achieved front page headlines all round the world for the limited number of aircraft used (e.g. 30 Luftwaffe a/c achieved a front page headline, the same as 1000 RAF Bomber Command a/c),
c) tied up RAF Fighter Command a/c, fuel, resources, AA defences etc in Britain that could otherwise have been moving onto the offensive.
Incidentally, the sketch was Beyond the Fringe's cutting 'Aftermyth of War' with Peter Cook & Jonathan Miller and voted 9th in C4's Top 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches.
http://www.channel4.com/entertainmen...ches/1-25.html
Austin