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C00036554
| “ | made to appear like atmospherics. Every day the length of the jamming increased slightly. By February British radar operators were wearily accustomed to this interference. They reported it as caused by atmospheric conditions. | ” |
Nor did the Germans have any monopoly on the concept. It was frequently employed by the RAF for feints or diversionary operations. One significant example was in the British attack on Peenemunde on 17 August 1943. As Irving (28) recounted:
| “ | The ... series of minor attacks on Berlin demonstrated the thought and preparation which had gone into the attack on Peenemunde. Sir Arthur Harcis had been dispatching seven or eight Mosquitoes almost every night to attack Berlin... each night the Mosquitoes followed the same northerly track into Berlin; each night the sirens at Peenemunde howled; and each night the hundreds of scientists and engineers clambered frenziedly into their shelters. This was what bomber command intended. | ” |
This ruse was singularly successful. At the cost of one aircraft lost to a German fighter, the eight Mosquito bombers used in the diversion lured 203 enemy fighters to Berlin. Of 597 British bombers dispatched to Peenemunde, 40 (6.7%) were lost and 32 damaged and all but 26 managed to attack the target. Except for faulty timing by the last bomber wave, few would have been lost over the target itself, a saving of almost
