I had never heard until reading a combat diary of a Shipdham-based airman today that there were fears of a Germaon counter invasion once Overlord was launched.
Seems a bit unlikely, but then hindsight is wonderfully accurate.
MAY 11, 1944
The planes went out today, don’t know where, some place deep in France. Fifteen of us combat fellows were picked out to start a base defense training program. They had so many from each squadron.
We were all moved to a small site near the field, in fact, we have a plane almost in our yard. Every man has to put in ninety days here, either before or after his missions.MAY 12, 1944
Now we started on our first day, didn’t really start, but we were woke up at 6:30, made beds after roll call, then off to breakfast. Upon our return we all pitched in and helped clean the site. I built a bicycle stand, while the other fellows washed the barracks floor and cleaned the grounds. [The commando group was formed on May 12, in expectation of a counter-invasion.]
Moggy
By: Creaking Door - 25th July 2013 at 11:34
Here is the link to the combat diary, I hope you may find it interesting.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bwickham/diary.htm#1
Fascinating stuff although the photograph with the Bielefeld Viaduct mission of 10th March 1945 shows the destruction of the viaduct by RAF Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs inflicted on 13th March 1945.
By: otis - 25th July 2013 at 10:53
With all the sucesses the Brits had while on the back foot, with the use of Commando raids, SAS and LRDG to attack Axis airfields. It seems suprising now , that I have never heard of the Germans trying that tactic on us later on ?
Is anyone aware of German raids of this sort on either the UK , or indeed, anywhere else ?
By: Graham Boak - 25th July 2013 at 09:20
So they were thinking in terms of raids rather than an “invasion”, as generally understood to be comparable with Overlord or Sealion. Seems fair enough in those terms. Remember earlier days in the war, where Churchill was dramatically indignant about the inability of the RAF to defend its own airfields in Crete.
By: T-21 - 25th July 2013 at 09:04
Hi Moggy. From the 92BG at Podington “The Route As Briefed” book Page 106 : “With the formation on May 12th 1944 of a station “Alert detachment” a new security program for the defence of the field was instituted. The possibility of enemy paratroopers seeking to destroy aircraft and disorganize airfields in England as a counter-invasion measure had long been recognized, The detachment consisted of approx 50 men drawn from all squadrons and 2 officers.Also 3 men were assigned from each squadron each night-2 ground personnel-one combat to guard an individual plane. Guards worked 3 hr shifts beginning at 21.15 hrs finishing at 06.15am. Relief guards slept in the aircraft.
By: WZ862 - 25th July 2013 at 08:06
Moggy C,
The reference to a commando group seems editorial rather than original text. Most of the editorial throughout the diary is in bold. As such, maybe it is the editor’s supposition. I do not read elsewhere in this diary that there were any warlike practice events on the ground. Without going through my library for references, it was often on RAF bases, a ploy to occupy active minds of boisterous aircrew, to put on base defence exercises, dingy practice , “home run” cross country orienteering and evade base security. If I remember correctly weapons were issued sometimes.
WZ862
By: Moggy C - 25th July 2013 at 07:29
Apologies for being lax
Here is the link to the combat diary, I hope you may find it interesting.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bwickham/diary.htm#1
Moggy
By: Creaking Door - 25th July 2013 at 00:03
I did wonder if it was a USAAF unit from the (incorrect) spelling of ‘defense’!
Some of the other language such as planes, fellows, ninety days, missions, could also indicate an American author and as such I thought the (more) American meaning of ‘invasion’ may be relevant. Anyway my rough-airfield in France theory is a non-starter so maybe a German counter-invasion was feared…..but it seems unlikely.
By: Bomberboy - 24th July 2013 at 23:00
What sort of squadron was based at Shipdham?
Shipdham was the home of the 44th Bomb Group flying B-24’s and was made up of the 66th, 67th, 68th and 506th Bomb Squadrons. HTH
By: Moggy C - 24th July 2013 at 22:52
Did anyone see the countdown to D-Day program that was on TV on June 6 narrated by Peter Snow?
I did indeed. It was brilliant. It remains on the PVR hard disk.
What sort of squadron was based at Shipdham?
B24. Not a candidate for a move to occupied France. But it was a great theory, 10/10 for lateral thinking
Moggy
By: Creaking Door - 24th July 2013 at 15:56
What sort of squadron was based at Shipdham?
Possibly these airmen were training for squadrons moving to rough-airfields in France following the invasion; cleaning barracks and improvising stuff? Maybe the ‘counter-invasion’ was an exercise in the ‘base defence’ training programme?
A German ‘counter-invasion’ for D-Day would seem, as you say, extremely unlikely!
By: hampden98 - 24th July 2013 at 15:01
Did anyone see the countdown to D-Day program that was on TV on June 6 narrated by Peter Snow?
It featured an historian who had been researching D-Day for the last 25 years. What he was trying to do was
piece together every picture, every cine movie, every document into a comprehensive, blow by blow, minute by minute account.
He even plotted the direction of the sun, the time on soldiers watches to map together the events.
I would really like to see more about this man as the program only touched on him and what he was doing. Would make a great dvd or book.
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July 24, 2013 at 12:22 pm