The Biggest Intelligence Blunder of the War?

I have just finished a new documentary called the "The Spies Who Lost the Battle of Britain". It tells the story of the development of British radar and crucially how the Germans nearly discovered it.

Over the last ten years I have interviewed some of the surviving pioneers of British radar. They paint a colourful picture of the frantic race to develop the Chain Home radar network. Watson Watt was forced to adopt "third best" technology to have any chance of making a working system in the shortest timeframe.

The account of boffin Ned Fennessy is most revealing. In 1950 he met General Wolfgang Martini Head of Luftwaffe Signals and they discussed the Zeppelin spy mission of 3rd August 1939. It suddenly dawned on Fennessy that Martini's top wireless experts had failed to conclude that the signals blaring from their headphones was British radar. Surely the biggest intelligence blunder of the war? The huge irony was that had Watson Watt aimed any higher than "third best" the Germans would have been onto it immediately.

Read more and see some clips at Boffins TV | The Spies Who Lost The Battle of Britain

Brian

 

Ahhh.. good man... Perhaps you can tell me how Bredon Hill straight accross from Malvern..Above RAF Defford..and Pershore...Meacons not far away and home to a secret wireless station in 39 as well as auxillery unit and battle training area..radio links to BBC wood norton monitoring and Droitwitch masts fitted into the picture??? Well Im sort of hoping you have found something I cant..I do know its presently a WTBS and NAWS site and has links via Defford and Wood Norton to Corsham still as well as microwave to Birdlip and Birmingham hopping from Cheltenham to Menwith...But its ww2 use apart from BBC links has me baffled..Being that Malvern and radar..ttu and Defford are all in spitting distance.. Does Bredon come up anywhere in your research?

 

A facinatining new twist to the Battle of Britain story. What happened onboard the Zeppelin spy mission sent to find British radar in August 1939 was to change the course of the war to come.

Read more and see some clips at www.boffinstv.co.uk
Brian

 

I'm just making people aware of the story in various sections of the forum and following up some of the shaky facts in the Graff(sic) Zeppelin thread. If anyone wants to discuss any aspects of the role radar played during the Battle of Britain and any of the what ifs I would be only too pleased to do so. Thanks Brian

 

Brian

Have you seen this thread: http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/battle-specifics/28105-dieppe-raid-19th-august-1942-a.html concerning Jack Nissenthal's contribution to Britain's insight into German Radar ? (See thread article No.30)

He story was also told here, by Martin Sugarman of AJEX: BBC - WW2 People's War - Jack Nissenthall - The VC Hero Who Never Was (Part 1a)

Ron

 

Thanks for pointing out the story Ron. I would be fascinated to know how much of the consequences of Jacks heroic act were know to him at the time. I will try and find out how much of the radio traffic was decrypted next time I see my Bletchley expert.

Bernard Lovell tells a great story about the Bruneval raid a few months earlier. He played a regular tennis match every Saturday morning with fellow TRE boffin Donald Priest. Donald as a radar expert had been secretly selected to go on the raid and given a military indentity. Challenging Donald on his non appearance one Saturday Donald replied "terribly sorry old boy I had to pop over to France".