Operation Steinbock navigational aids - locations in NW Europe

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Simon Trew

Also the RAF 80 (ECM) Wing History at AIR 41/46, which gives me a headache …

Perhaps inevitable since HEADACHE was the RAF codename for German navigation beams in 1940–41 (British countermeasures were ASPIRIN).

TNA AIR 14/2905: "Headache" progress reports Nos 1–44
TNA AVIA7/131 & /132: "Headache" (1940)

[Simon Trew]

So I should pay closer attention. The appendix II to ADI(K) 103 (I./KG 100 report) specifically states that FF 9 was at Coutances and codenamed 'Kora', while FF 10 was (judging by the coordinates) on the west side of Bordeaux and codenamed 'Toska'. So 'Lisa' doesn't appear to be in the main numbered sequence.

As for 'Fanni' (here 'Fanny'), the same document identifies that as beacon A/3 at Falaise and A/2 (see my original post) turns out to be at Tocqueville, just inland from Barfleur in the NE part of the Cotentin peninsula. It doesn't appear to have had a codename.

[Simon Trew]

Thanks again Nick, I may look at those files when I next visit UKNA.

Ref my first post and the question about whether 'Zange 11 & 12' were the same as 'Messer 11 & 12', despite the slightly different locations mentioned for each, I note that the captured KG 6 diary in ADI(K) 150 contains an entry (4 Feb) referring to 'Zange' (searchlight) at Ostend. Presumably this was 'Hobel 1 & 2'. My deduction is that 'Zange' is a generic term used to describe any directional searchlight(s), rather than a specific alternative codename for the searchlights at St. Valery-en-Caux / Fecamp. I had to look it up, but I see 'Zange' means 'tongs' in German, which is a rather neat way of describing what two converging searchlights would look like from the air - i.e. a pair of tongs.

Does that seem plausible?