3(F)121 Operation 7 August 1940

[robert]

Hi,

Peter your translation is OK.
I think you can send Andy also details of Luftwaffe activity (K.Fl.Gr.106) over Thames Estuary (page 1442) because he was also interested in this subject.

Regards

Robert

[Andy Saunders]

Originally Posted by Peter Cornwell

Andy,

According to Heinrich Weiss' narrative for August 7, 1940, 'At 19.30 hours the observer station at Wissant reported a large convoy about 5 sea miles south of Dungeness heading west. This was the English Channel convoy CW9 the first of its kind since the unfortunate CW8 of previous days. It had sailed that afternoon from the Thames with 25 ships mostly colliers. Off Sheerness it collected 9 RN trawlers some of which carried captive barrage balloons for the first time'.

I'm sure that Robert will add to this if my German has let me down. There seems to have been nothing specific picked up by 7 aerial reconnaissance sorties made by Luftflotte 2 that morning but I will send you the details as I suspect that they may refer to ships gathering to form CW9.

An 06.10 start by 3.(F)/121 was a Ju88 tasked with reconnaissance over south-west England and the Bristol Channel especially Falmouth, Milford Haven, and Swansea. Mission was aborted early due to 10/10 cloud cover of the area.

Peter

This was not the first use of barrage balloon ships. They had first been used on Convoy CE8 that sailed from Falmouth on 31 July 1940 at 1900. Fliegerkorps V also noted on 1 August a convoy of merchant ships off Great Yarmouth towing barrage balloons. There are a good many reference to CW9 being the first to employ balloons but this is incorrect.

As a matter of interest, do we know if the "observer station at Wissant" was the Mk1 human eyeball, or Freya?? From the timing (1930 hrs) and with quite reasonable visibility one must assume the convoy to have been plainly visible in any event.

[Peter Cornwell]

Andy,

The times quoted by Weiss are CET/GST whereas I am using GMT/BST in the EOE listings and the reference to 'first use of towed balloons' was a direct quote from Weiss' narrative. My guess is that the observer post at Wissant was just that and that Freya did not figure in the equation though previous commentators may well have assumed so.

[Andy Saunders]

Peter

Thank you for the time clarification.

I agree re Wissant. I believe all previous commentators have assumed the Convoy was picked up by Freya at night when this was not the case at all. In any event, and although ULTRA were picking up references to Freya as early as August I don't think it was fully operational. I need to check R V Jones but I also have a feeling the British had no idea what Freya actually was at this time....but thats another issue!

Yes, I did realise this was Weiss' narrative but you/Larry may wish to correct the error stating that balloons were first employed on CW9.

Thanks as ever for your assistance.