Keith Willshaw wrote:

"robert arndt" wrote in message
om...
"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
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"robert arndt" wrote in message
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Britain won the BoB because Churchill bombed Berlin and spoofed
Adolf
into diverting the the airfield assaults onto London. EOS.

Grantland

Let me add that it was a lone German bomber that ditched its bombs
over London that caused the British reprisal raid on Berlin and change
of tactics that: relieved Fighter Command, enabled the airfields and
manufacturing plants to be repaired, and assured the Brits that the
German battle for air supremacy would fail now that civilian targets
were being hit instead of military ones. EOS indeed!

Rob

This is in fact an urban legend

The decision to switch targets to London was taken at a Luftwaffe
staff meeting in the Hague on 3rd Sept 1940. The idea came
from the Luftwaffe themselves who believeing their own faulty
intel decided that the RAF was down to its last 300 fighters
decided that the way to destroy them was to attack a target
they had to defend , London.

All the senior Luftwaffe staff officers (except Sperrle IRC)
concurred with the decision wihich delighted Fat Hermann
as he could rush off to der Fuhrer and give him the good news.

Keith

A beg to differ. The lone German bomber ditched its bombs over London
while the Fuhrer's own directive forbid it. The German pilots were
reprimanded for their error even while Goering and the Luftwaffe
senior commanders were planning a switch in tactics.
Regardless, the German bomber incident called for a reprisal raid that
only helped Goerings position and solidified in Hitler's mind the need
to attack London. Although it seems Hitler might have been swayed by
Goering and others in the Luftwaffe, it was Hitler's choice alone and
certainly guaranteed by the reprisal raid on Berlin.
Hitler's September 4, 1940 speech to the German people is filled with
rage over the British raid of Aug 25/26 and promised the destruction
of London. Had the German bomber NOT ditched its bombs over London and
hence, NO reprisal raid thereafter, Hitler might not have agreed to
change tactics on Sept 3, 1940.

The minutes of the 3rd September meeting are a matter of record, your
belief not withstanding. At that meeting the date of 7th september was set
for the first raid on London. It was of course presented as a Fuhrer
order but the words used by Goering at that meeting were clear

FWIW, Hough and Richards state the following, after describing Hitler's speech
on 4 September:

"This public intimation of fresh work for the Luftwaffe followed a meeting
between Huitler and Goering on 30 August. There the Fuehrer had withdrawn his
ban on bombing London [Guy note; after several nights of RAF raids on Berlin
on/subsequent to 25/26 August] and expressed an ardent desire for attacks on the
British capital in retaliation for Bomber Command's raids on Berlin. An
appropriate directive from Goering followed." They then discuss the meeting of
3 September.

I'm hesitant to say this is definitely the case, as this is a work for a general
audience and there are several basic errors in it that never should have
appeared. For instance, it claims that the Me-109E-1 (which they write "109E1")
had "four heavy calibre (roughly .5 inch) machine guns . . . To the more popular
twin heavy machine guns augmented by the much more lethal and longer-ranging
20mm cannon, one in each wing ["109E2" according to them]," although they do go
on to say that the most likely armament was two 20mm and 2 x 7.9mm. So at least
they got that right.


Guy