🙂 Listening to Dave Homewoods Dambusters link [well worth it ] i did wonder whether the enemy at the time ever attempted to assassinate the brains behind the ideas,not just Barnes Wallis but all the others that designed aircraft,radar,radios ,the test pilots etc or were they not really deemed to be targets.
Were any plans ever considered about kidnapping them for the information.
Nowadays everything is so security concious regardless of where you work,pin numbers,id cards etc.
By: Papa Lima - 26th January 2011 at 13:35
The bombing of Peenemunde must be the classic example.
By: Dave Homewood - 26th January 2011 at 13:29
I think the story of Norwegian resistance workers and comandoes attacking a German laboratory to stop them making heavy water for atomic weaponry seen in the film The Heroes of Telemark is based on a true story, isn’t it?
The bombing of the rocket sites and other secret and unusual bunkers by No. 617 Squadron could be considered going after the German boffins I guess, and their work.
By: trumper - 26th January 2011 at 13:01
🙂 Looking at it from the other point of view did the allies ever take seriously doing nasty things to the Axis boffins.
You do hear about daring raids on secret installations and possibly with an occupied country you had means and methods more available.
Was this more fiction than fact?
By: Creaking Door - 25th January 2011 at 20:18
It seems the staff of the TRE weren’t that keen on moving following the Bruneval Raid so IIRC Dr R.V.Jones, author of ‘Most Secret War’, made sure that whenever he visited he always wore his revolver in a holster on his belt and carried his helmet and gas-mask at all times; he and his staff always acted as if they were uncomfortable about spending any length of time there and under no circumstances would they be persuaded to stay overnight.
It seems that the TRE staff were persuaded to move to a ‘safer’ location! 😉
By: D1566 - 25th January 2011 at 09:18
The TRE was the Telecommunications Reasearch Establishment, initially based near Swanage in Dorset but later moved to Malvern when the possibilty of an enemy raid on their coastal location was realised.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Research_Establishment
The ‘trophies’ would have been the items recovered from the German radars at Bruneval during the raid of 28 Feb 1942:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Biting
By: Dave Homewood - 25th January 2011 at 07:42
What was TRE? And what trophies?
By: Moggy C - 25th January 2011 at 00:23
After the Bruneval raid it was realised that the TRE ? was fairly close to the coast, and it had to be moved in case the Germans got the same idea.
Yes, the trophies were taken to TRE on the S Coast and then they realised it wasn’t the brightest of places so they shifted the lot to Malvern.
Moggy
By: Rocketeer - 24th January 2011 at 21:34
A&AEE was moved from Martlesham Heath to Boscombe Down to keep it safe from Bombing in 1939…it was bombed at BD but not badly as it were
By: Jimbo27 - 24th January 2011 at 19:35
I seem to remember in “Most Secret War” that there was something about this. After the Bruneval raid it was realised that the TRE ? was fairly close to the coast, and it had to be moved in case the Germans got the same idea.
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January 24, 2011 at 4:10 pm