Books about Luftwaffe and air war by Olaf Gröhler

[Pawel Burchard]

Originally Posted by Marius

Entwurf: Angriffsbefehl "Wasserkante"
(Dieses Dokument trägt den Vermerk: nicht befohlen CH.
Op 1 aufheben v.W.)

Marius, could you please explain the sentence "CH. Op 1 aufheben v.W."?

Regards,
Pawel

[Marius]

Pawel,

I am not sure now, but Op 1 could mean point 1 of the order or "Operation". The bombing mission was planned for 11.9. and therefore ceased (aufheben).
v.W. is probably Oberstleutnant von Waldau.

Marius

[Ruy Horta]

Marius,

Could this cancellation only refer to point one in the order: the combined operation of Luftfl. 1 & 4?

In which case there is no lie, but only misinterpretation, since the document does proof Groeher's point and differs only on the technicality of joint operations.

Perhaps Op means operationeller Punkt, or something like that?

[Marius]

Ruy,
nobody said it is a lie, but a manipulation. The reader of the books does not know the order was a draft only.
Combined or not combined..., this order was cealed. There was no such attack on Warsaw on 11.9. or later (you can compare it with my book Kampfflieger, where all bombing missions are listed hour after hour and day after day).
"Nicht befohlen" is concerning the whole document.

For the 25.9. exists another order, where you cannot find any intention to bomb purely civilian targets.

It is possible that "Unternehmen Wasserkante" was "Operation 1", planned as a big bombing attack on Warsaw on 1.9.1939.
I will ask someone for it.

Marius

[Marius]

One more note;
Ruy, you wrote about point 1. It is giving the date 11.9. for the mission. But in Gröhler`s articles you cannot find this detail. The author just cut out point 2 from the whole context.
As I read one of the books many years ago, I was convinced this order was generalized for September 1939 and in fact given to Luftwaffe units. But it seems Gröhler had a vision of the things at first and then he was searching for "proper words" in documents.

The very big problem is that the publicity is knowing only Gröhler`s version of the order and it is using it plentiful and as reliable. Ironically you can find it everywhere. And here the question comes up from itself: where are other similar orders? What about the air war history if they did not even existed?

Our speculations concerning Op 1 and the rest are perhaps going much too far. They could be common short-cuts in the German military administration papers.

Marius

[Franek Grabowski]

Warsaw was a target of heavy attack on the previous day and a lot of leaflets were then droped. On 11.09 Heeresgruppe Sued called for immediate air support due to unexpected attack of Polish army (Battle of Bzura). This, combined with Hitler's visit on the front, may have resulted with cancellation of the order.
By the way, why not to ask Groehler himself?

[Marius]

The whole area around Warsaw was bombed on 10.9., not only the city itself. I don`t know anything about leaflets on this day.
In spite of the Bzura battle Luftwaffe was strong enough to carry out such a repression attack on Warsaw. For example also on 13.9. ca. 218 aircraft of Luftflotte 4 attacked military targets in Warsaw.

The order was never cancelled, because it was a draft only. As you will it never left the drawer. Such methods of attacks surely were discussed (as in every other nation`s high commands too). In Poland it was not needed to demoralize civilians, because Poland was too weak and the campaign took a fast end.

I think the reason for cancellation of the draft is going to an international matter. President Roosevelt send a note to the participating governments at the start of the war and everybody of them agreed (as I remember).
The other reason should be the fear of retaliatory attacks by French and RAF bombers.

I can "understand" that later RAF (divided from Germany by the English Channel) sought for any method to win the long war.
Maybe we will not find similar German orders for the period 1940-1941 as well, because Germany was repeatedly searching for peace with England. Such repression attacks against the enemy would make it impossible to gain peace.

Marius

[Pawel Burchard]

Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski

By the way, why not to ask Groehler himself?

If he is the same person as mentioned here http://www.polwiss.fu-berlin.de/fsi/ap/ap5-sedstaat.htm (I believe so), than he passed away lately.

Pozdrowienia,
Pawel