IRL did they send out such messages

[tomoose]

You're quite right in assuming that this type of info would not be transmitted. Why risk advertising your mistakes to the enemy?

There's no way in RL they would transmit a message like that particularly regarding problems/failures etc. As an example, the "practice" landing prior to the Normandy invasion was kept under wraps for a long time due to the errors and accidents/deaths that occurred.

[Von Tonner]

No, I'm not playing stock. I have modded to TM, RFW, and RSR. But I am sure you are right Tomoose, it would be foolish if not criminal to put this stuff out on the wires. Think of the lives one is putting at risk.

[seafarer]

:hmm: who knows, certainly more idiotic information was openly given to the enemy. Congressman Andrew J. May gave away the fact that Japanese depth charges were being fused too shallow in a 1943 press conference (the IJN did not believe US subs could dive as deep as they did). That was published in a number of news papers, including papers in Hawaii. Admiral Lockwood later estimated that blunder may have cost the US as many as 10 boats.

Tokyo Rose got a lot of her info by listening to US mainland-based short-wave broadcasts, which some WWII accounts refer to as a leaking sieve of valuable information.

[M. Sarsfield]

Shocker... you'll always have talking heads that need to be the first ones to blab a story, regardless of the consequences.

[Sailor Steve]

If the message was addressed directly to you it would have been coded. If not; well, it might be an intentional fake.

[tomoose]

...they kept the BS messages to a minimum as ANY transmission regardless of content had the potential to be intercepted and pinned down.
I believe that was one of the big blunders of Admiral Lutjens on the Bismarck. He sent off a long-winded message and the Brits were able to locate the signal origin with direction finding. Consequently the Brit fleet, which was actually heading in the wrong direction at the time, were able to turn about and re-acquire the Bismarck.

[seafarer]

True, but the messages sent to the boats did not offer anything for the hunters in terms of location information since the boats are not transmitting anything. The germans were quite prolific in their shore-based traffic, supposedly to keep the boats informed and not thinking that their codes were or could be compromised. The massively powerful low frequency transmitter, Nauen and later Goliath even allowed u-boat reception underwater, so BdU could keep jabbering away at his boats (oblivious to the allies listening in).