The Germans fooling the British
Discussion
Watched 'The Man Who Never Was ' the other day, and thought that there's quite a few true old films like this one , which tell the story of the Allies sneaky plans to fool the Germans. The thing is , I can't think of any examples of the reverse happening. It must have gone on. So, examples please 
>> Edited by bmgm3 on Friday 4th November 20:11
>> Edited by bmgm3 on Friday 4th November 20:11
Another good example was the spoof invasion on Calais, complete with fake supplies build-ups, rubbe rtanks, radio traffic and planes dropping 'window' to simulate an airborne invasion force.
However maybe that kind of thing only works against a brutally logically enemy, eg the Germans...? Or has its origins in the practical jokes of the public school system?
However maybe that kind of thing only works against a brutally logically enemy, eg the Germans...? Or has its origins in the practical jokes of the public school system?
bmgm3 said:
Watched 'The Man Who Never Was ' the other day, and thought that there's quite a few true old films like this one , which tell the story of the Allies sneaky plans to fool the Germans. The thing is , I can't think of any examples of the reverse happening. It must have gone on. So, examples please
>> Edited by bmgm3 on Friday 4th November 20:11
Ah!.....The twist at the end of the tale! I think you'll find that the man "who never was", was not the "man who never was" after all. A case of the British fooling the British.....
>> Edited by 8Pack on Friday 4th November 23:53
I think there biggest tricks where pulled around the treaty of Versailles which mandated that Germany not have more than 100,000 troops, no tanks, no heavy artillery, no poison gas supplies, no aircraft and no airships. Germany was not to be allowed to develop submarines or build vessels over 100,000 tons.
So they had an army of 100,000 men who where extremely well trained and supplied, well able to hold positions above the rank they held which would allow the army to swell quickly if needed, instead of tanks they increased there knowledge of engineering through other vehicles (State sponsored motor sport program any one?), they spend a great deal of time and money funding university research into “pest control” chemicals and the effects of various chemicals on humans, they encouraged civil aviation as much as possible through non-military so they could collect data on aerodynamic design and airframe construction. Crucially they found a way to get around the controls on developing submarines by calling them “pressure tanks” or something (some one else might be able to explain better). Basically they realized that in order to continue to have an effective military power they needed to create a much more efficient method of conducting warfare that did not involve men standing in trenches dieing of preventable diseases. By the time war broke out they where literally years ahead of us technologically in so many ways, we had just squandered that time uselessly on our empire and preparing for more trench warfare.
So they had an army of 100,000 men who where extremely well trained and supplied, well able to hold positions above the rank they held which would allow the army to swell quickly if needed, instead of tanks they increased there knowledge of engineering through other vehicles (State sponsored motor sport program any one?), they spend a great deal of time and money funding university research into “pest control” chemicals and the effects of various chemicals on humans, they encouraged civil aviation as much as possible through non-military so they could collect data on aerodynamic design and airframe construction. Crucially they found a way to get around the controls on developing submarines by calling them “pressure tanks” or something (some one else might be able to explain better). Basically they realized that in order to continue to have an effective military power they needed to create a much more efficient method of conducting warfare that did not involve men standing in trenches dieing of preventable diseases. By the time war broke out they where literally years ahead of us technologically in so many ways, we had just squandered that time uselessly on our empire and preparing for more trench warfare.
In WW2, the Abwehr (Germany's home secrect security service) caught a British SOE agent in holland and turned him under threat of execution. He was then forced to send messages to britain saying that he had to go underground and would not be coming back and that his replacement agent should still be sent out. He was also forced to ask for supplies and such so that when the spies and supplies (radio transmitters, Sten guns, explosives and the like) were sent out, the Germans were waiting for them on the other end.
All of the SOE's recruits were also captured and the Germans put their own men on the system allowing them to access radio traffic of Dutch operations.
Despite the fact that one of Britain's captured SOE agents kept leaving out his security checks (something intended to alert that he had been captured), SOE HQ insisted on telling him that he 'ought to use his security checks'
. In fact one operator event put the letters "C" "A" "U" "G" "H" "T" randomly in his transmission but SOE never cottoned on to it.
The Germans called it Englandspiel or 'England Game'. In the end nearly 50 operators were caught, the Germans got access for 15 months to SOE info on Dutch operation thereby completely undermining the whole operation and access to a lot of SOE equipment (eg. the Silent Sten).
When the Abwehr drew the op to a close, they thanked London for their help!
All of the SOE's recruits were also captured and the Germans put their own men on the system allowing them to access radio traffic of Dutch operations.
Despite the fact that one of Britain's captured SOE agents kept leaving out his security checks (something intended to alert that he had been captured), SOE HQ insisted on telling him that he 'ought to use his security checks'
. In fact one operator event put the letters "C" "A" "U" "G" "H" "T" randomly in his transmission but SOE never cottoned on to it. The Germans called it Englandspiel or 'England Game'. In the end nearly 50 operators were caught, the Germans got access for 15 months to SOE info on Dutch operation thereby completely undermining the whole operation and access to a lot of SOE equipment (eg. the Silent Sten).
When the Abwehr drew the op to a close, they thanked London for their help!
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