Convoy reconnaissance

[Stig Jarlevik]

Originally Posted by sidney

I believe that in October 1939 the Germans had more pressing things to worry about than the British ship movement in the Mediterranean area.

Indeed

But that is not how intelligence works.
Britain was an Empire in 1939 and if you start a war with an Empire you also need to keep track of what the Empire can do and will do, not only its Motherland.

That is how I would have done it, and I don't think anyone back in the 1930s would have thought otherwise.

Cheers
Stig

[sidney]

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

Indeed

...Britain was an Empire in 1939 and if you start a war with an Empire you also need to keep track of what the Empire can do and will do, not only its Motherland...

Cheers
Stig

Well, it is the Empire which declared the war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and not the other way around.

As for the state of German Intelligence, the picture was really mixed - some notable successes, and some dismal failures. I read somewhere, must have been here https://books.google.ie/books/about/...AJ&redir_esc=y, that Milch ordered a couple of books from English bookstores, which told him more about Britain that he could learn from his own intelligence. Anyway...

[edwest2]

In the run up to the war, aerial reconnaissance over Great Britain occurred in 1939.


http://www.hitlersukpictures.co.uk/

[Bruce Dennis]

Hello James,
Do you have a specific convoy in mind?

Bruce

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi,

A couple of relevant entries from the KTB of the German Seekriegsleitung. First, from 3 October 1939: "Since 1 Sept. 24 convoys, 7 of which entered Gibraltar (5 from the west, 2 from the east), 10 left Gibraltar (5 westbound, 2 eastbound, 1 southbound for Casablanca or Dakar, 2 destination unknown) and 7 passed the Strait of Gibraltar (3 westbound, 2 eastbound, 2 destination unknown). Figures given represent minimum numbers."

From 12 October 1939: "Radio monitoring reports: The cruisers Shropshire and Sussex left Aden for Zanzibar on 6 Oct. presumably en route to the Cape. The Glorious, Malaya, and Bulldog passed Port Said southbound on 9 Oct."

From 18 October 1939: "On 15 Oct. a convoy, destroyer escort, and auxiliary cruiser coming from the west put into Gibraltar."

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

[Graham Boak]

It's worth remembering that the Germans had raiders and their support ships at sea, so tracking what the RN was doing would be a priority, as evidenced by Andrew's post. However that would not necessarily include sending non-existent long-range recce aircraft into distant neutral air bases. Keeping track of what went into and out of the Med via radio monitoring and using agents in Spain at one end with agents in the Arab world at the other would be sufficient.