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Allied and Soviet Air Forces Please use this forum to discuss the Air Forces of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. |
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#51
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Enigma coding machine, ULTRA decrypts
The whole "ULTRA" deciphering activity in Britain, which provided the Allies with incredibly important and useful intelligence, started in Poland thanks to the Polish secret service (I presume) and in particular a young Polish mathematician who was a genius and a member of the team. They had performed all the fundamental and the most important work already when Poland was invaded. They passed the whole thing to the French, who continued the work already 1939 with the help of some Polish experts and kept the British entirely informed, with some British officers taking part in the ongoing work. Numerous German messages were decrypted already albeit they were only a small fraction of the whole coded radio traffic. They probably decrypted some decisive messages on operation "Paula" but I understand at least the French had a well-placed German agent in Luftwaffe headquarters, too (Schmidt; I think he was a relative of LW general Schmidt). Britain certainly had some good agents in Germany too.
When France was invaded too obviously the whole Enigma-business was passed on to the British, who further refined and developed it, hence Bletcheley Park etc. There is no doubt that all this remarkable activity was started by Polish experts. You see, it is fully possible to discuss Poland and France at the same time without wholesale insulting a whole country or a whole air force. That's a relief! |
#52
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Re: Book on French AF 1939-40?
Nick,
We could start a long discussion about it that would be OT. Let me just say that AH did not want to make war on Great-Britain and tried everything to end hostilities against a foe that he respected a lot (more than France). Had not WC moved into 10 Downing Street on the very day of "Fall Gelb", no doubt that Lord Halifax would have opened peace talks with Germany. |
#53
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Air attack?
Ruy, I tried to send you a PM but your box is full. Please do something, thanks.
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#54
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Re: Book on French AF 1939-40?
It certainly happened often that RAF fighters did not take off when German formations were flying overhead and even bombing nearby places.
Any evidence? |
#55
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RAF tactics in the BoB
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To sum up, Dowding and Park were obviously right when they didn't want to engage all their fighter squadrons at the same time, which would have meant that they would have been back on the ground, refuelling and rearming, all at the same time too and the Huns would have had an excellent opportunity to catch and hit them on the ground in spite of AAA. Besides, it was similar within the Armée de l'Air in May-June : the last serviceable 2, 3 , 4 or 5 fighters of a Groupe de chasse, if the rest were not, were kept for protecting their own airfield (above all the precious aircraft, even undergoing repairs). Don't infer from this that French fighters were wiped out for it would be a serious error, but this situation did exist sometimes. The neighbouring Groupes de chasse were generally all right. I think it happened only once during the BoB that there were no reserves left - within 11 Group but 10 and 12 Groups nearby also totalled hundreds of fighters, part of which could have been used in an emergency : on one occasion all 11 Group-squadrons were airborne, as can be seen in the film on the BoB*. Nevertheless they had not taken off all at the same minute but with differences of up to 30 minutes in certain cases I guess, so that some sqns were able to land, refuel and rearm before the others did, and take off again if necessary. * This was on August 18 or September 15 I think. |
#56
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Re: Air attack?
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This is in perfect agreement with the situation at Villacoublay. I suggest you to look further for French airmen at both Etampes and Villacoublay, instead of suggesting that Zumbach had no knowledge about fighter tactics. The latter makes you just ridiculous. |
#57
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Re: Book on French AF 1939-40?
Actually Zumbach didn`t take part in air combats in September 1939 so I doubt in his combat experience at this stage.
Robert |
#58
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Re: Book on French AF 1939-40?
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#59
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Re: Book on French AF 1939-40?
So I must say that you are just ridiculous because every pilot in French Campaign has had some experience unless you mean cooking experience.
Robert |
#60
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Re: Book on French AF 1939-40?
Well, turn back to lesson one.
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