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Old 04-20-08, 05:43 PM   #5
Von Manteuffel
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I don't think comspiracy, rather the necessity to maintain public and military morale and the need to keep preparations for the pending invasion of Europe as secret as possible. After all, if the Germans became aware of the concentration on amphibious operations, landing troops via landing-craft, it significantly narrowed down the locations where such an invasion on the necessary scale could take place. There were alternatives: a large-scale operation to capture and exploit one, or more French Channel ports, supported by massive airborne landings to name just one. The infamous Dieppe Raid was a "rehearsal" for the idea of seizing a working seaport.

Re. Slapton Sands, what no-one has ever answered definitively is why 9 e-boats were detailed to be so close inshore on that exact date. The naval piquet line across Lyme Bay was inadequate, but why did 9 e-boats appear there at all? IMHO it wasn't coincidence. Somehow ( cypher-breaking? Reconnaissance by U-Boat? agents - although the latter is very unlikely at that stage of the War) the Kriegsmarine knew that something was happening and sent the e-boats as a "reconnaisance in force." E-boats were the best choice of vessel for this. Very fast, difficult to spot in the dark, but packing enough punch to sink many kinds of ship.

It was a tragedy which cost 749 allied lives. There would have been an official, internal enquiry, but, as far as I know, the findings have not been made public.

There were many other things which were censored durng the War. The true scope of the defeat of the BEF in 1940, which led to the Dunkirk evacuation, was hidden for fear of fostering defeatist feelings in Britain. ( The fear was that, having been so badly beaten, if the full story became known a demoralised British public, a defeated British military and elements of the British parliament would see sueing for peace as the only viable option.)

Was a german invasion force incinerated off the Suffolk Coast by the Petroleum Warfare Dept's flame barrages, or was it "black propaganda" aimed at demoralising the Germans?

And, because inadequate and insufficient reconnaissance of the landing-beaches was carried out in the run up to Operation Torch, just how many allied soldiers - especially in the Eastern Task Force - drowned because they charged out of landing craft which had grounded on sand-bars, rather than the shore, and found themselves in full battle-kit in deep water? An uncle of mine who was with the Royal Engineers there, said that it was "hundreds."

the catalogue of mistakes, errors and set-backs suffered by the alies, but kept secret for the sake of national and military morale is long. And doubtless things happened of which, even over 60 years later, no-one is fully aware. Just consider for how long after 1945, the war-time role of Bletchley Park was kept a secret.
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