Convoy reconnaissance

[edwest2]

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


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

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

Way beyond the range of German recce ac which at this stage were still based in Germany. Fw 200s were the only ac capable & there were too few of them & in any case they were operating from the north of Germany

On the other hand they derived a lot of intelligence on convoys from their Y-Service. I don't know any specifics for 1939 however.

[Richard Aigner]

Did the British run convoys that early in the war?
Richard

[Andy Mitchell]

Hi,

To answer the question regarding running convoys early in the war take a look at http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/index.html and use the convoy finder

Attached is a sample for 1 Oct 1939

[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.