In article , Peter Twydell
writes
In article , Dave Eadsforth
writes
In article , vincent p.
norris writes
Probably true - I seem to recall reading about a severe shortage of
pickle barrels in Britain from 1942 until the end of the war...

You mean Jerry was able to put 50 percent of his bombs within a
thousand feet of the barrels?

vince norris

Yes indeed. I seem to remember that MI6 got wind of the German coup and
commandeered every pickle barrel south of Hadrian's wall. Numbers of
these were then placed a calculated distance away from important air
bases, and when the German bombers released their load over the
airfields, the bombs would unaccountably veer off in the direction of
the pile of barrels.

Major reason for the development of the V1 and the V2, I believe...

Cheers,

Dave


Does anybody know where these pickle barrels came from? Were they Lend
Lease? AFAIK we didn't make pickle barrels in the UK at that time,

We did, but it was a well-kept secret. If the Germans had got to know
even which towns had factories, the factories would have been bombed -
very accurately...

and
I'm not sure if we do now. You can't get the wood, you know (according
to Henry Crun).


Could there have been some linguistic confusion years ago with the WWI
German helmet, the Pickelhaube? Perhaps Billy Mitchell said he wanted to
be able to drop a bomb on a Pickelhaube, and was misquoted.

Possibly misheard - if he happened to be munching a gherkin at the
time...

Cheers,

Dave

--
Dave Eadsforth