Party Vibe

in UK high school history lessons (at least in the 1980s) even the left wing internationalist pro-European teachers taught kids about World War II and how Britain was superior with radar which was based at Bawdsey, Suffolk. that wasn’t 100% true – I found this map on a Danish military history site and added the location of Bawdsey (those who have seen the 1970s BBC comedy “Dads Army” might recognise the pointer arrow)

Not only did the Germans have way more radar equipment; their boffins often used our signals to track our aircraft. They also reflected some back on themselves to confuse the displays; and put transmitters in Luftwaffe aircrafts that cut across the radars and any other Allied comms with Pfeiftöne

Bundeswehr military intelligence even caught the carrier pigeons sent to the Resistance from Northern Britain/Scotland at Denmark – there were strict instructions to catch them alive if possible. Their message forms were then filled in with false info; and the birds (which were given food and water) taken to the Netherlands or Norway and let free to fly back to the UK….

TBH we were lucky that Hitler was a failed artist who knew jack shit about engineering and was more concerned about his own personality cult and did not address flaws in the millitary such as inter service rivalry and competition amongst private contractors (same mistakes USA is making today)

[img]https://www.partyvibe.org/forums/members/general-lighting-albums-various-pictures-picture154300-ww-ii-radars.png[/img][code name “Dudelsack”!]

Bundeswehr military intelligence even caught the carrier pigeons sent to the Resistance from Northern Britain/Scotland at Denmark – there were strict instructions to catch them alive if possible. Their message forms were then filled in with false info; and the birds (which were given food and water) taken to the Netherlands or Norway and let free to fly back to the UK….

TBH we were lucky that Hitler was a failed artist who knew jack shit about engineering and was more concerned about his own personality cult and did not address flaws in the millitary such as inter service rivalry and competition amongst private contractors (same mistakes USA is making today)

@tryptameanie 971187 wrote:

Interesting. I remember hearing during WW2 the german cryptographers worked in 7 different organisations which apparently even led to punches thrown. The fact they could never work together or accept people different to their ideals screwed them

To be fair when Germany went from “national socialism” to “social democracy” they learned fairly quicky from their mistakes.

I also learned from the Danish website many “USA-Negersoldaten” (probably not a PC term today!) would rather remain in DE than go back to USA – to the point they went around singing the Lutftwaffe radio operators song (Das Funkerlied) in the 1950s]

Life was better for them in Europe – they were allowed in the same churches (both Catholics and Protestants welcomed them as music and singing was becoming a bigger part of church services) and all the buses and trams which wasn’t the case “back home” (a lot of African Americans came to Germany as refugees in the 1960s and 1970s as well).

@tryptameanie 971189 wrote:

Amazing how quickly the world has changed.

although the rest of Europe made peace with Germany from 1945 to 1955; whilst Britain in 2015 still appears to be infested with politicians who are still fighting World War II in their heads….

the quick adoption of Germanic/North European culture by the “negro soldiers” does explain the enduring popularity of Boney M – whose tracks are a surreal combination of Schlager, soul/disco/reggae and Christian music and why Groningen radio pirates particularly like “Going back West” (it gets played every weekend)

Unfortunately Bobby Farrell passed away a few years ago but he was from Aruba but lived in NL.

Exactly where wasn’t disclosed by the media; but if you travel west from Germany you would eventually cross the border and end up in Groningen :laugh_at: