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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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In Foreign Office terms, Munich is a curious place for Brown to find himself in. By 1939 it had a small importance in terms of either party or government but it was the centre of the German aircraft industry, both air frames and aeroengines. This suggests that Brown was really on a mission for the Air Ministry and would suggest that we are dealing with that old bugaboo of intelligence/security services (and armed services): fighting one another is always more important than fighting the enemy. Then the question would be: whose intelligence services?
more later
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Autumn 1939 is remembered by most people as the start of the war but for the higher echelons of the German Nazi Party it was when the long battle for control of the Secret State reached its climax. Throughout the thirties Goering had gradually been losing control over the Security side to Himmler but had retained primacy on the Intelligence side (mainly through his control of the Post Office, of all things). The Brown episode was presumably early shots in that war, which Himmler did not finally win until 1944.
On the British side there was something simmler going on. With war imminent, the Services were growing restive over the Foreign Office (i.e. MI6) being in control. Maybe (though I don’t really believe it) Brown was hung out to dry to teach Air Intelligence a lesson. 
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| (mainly through his control of the Post Office, of all things) |
Rather badly put. Post Offices have of course always been at the heart of intelligence gathering. However by the twentieth century the letter-opening part had been augmented with new electronic media -- ie telegraph, telephone and wireless. In statist countries telegraph and telephone were put under the control of the Post Office but wireless posed a problem since this was soon more for entertainment than communication. The Post Office in control of soap opera? Couldn't be done, had to be done.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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In Britain, a semi-statist nation, the solution was the creation of those two very mysterious entities, the BBC and Cable & Wireless. But oddly it was the Post Office, in the guise of Tommy Flowers and the Cricklewood PO research department, who made the major contribution to intelligence gathering in the Second World War by inventing the computer, for code-breaking. But what’s any of this got to do with Eric ('Winkle') Brown? Or to put it in conspiracy theory terms, why has he been so reticent (or misleading or ignorant) about this part of his life, such an open book otherwise? Let’s pop over to Germany and find out.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| The Air Ministry’s Research Department - Forschungsamt -- was one of the major intelligence organizations of Nazi Germany. During the period 1933-45 the Forschungsamt monitored telegrams, mail and telephone traffic in Germany and also intercepted and decoded foreign radio traffic. |
Pretty much the equivalent of GCHQ or the NSA, and it was in the hands of Goering from day one.
| The Forschungsamt was created by Hermann Goering as his personal intelligence agency in 1933 and it originally included many former members of OKW/Chi, the codebreaking department of the Wehrmacht High Command. |
Imagine GCHQ being the personal fiefdom of, say, Philip Hammond. But now imagine that Boris Johnson (aka Heinrich Himmler) is moving heaven and earth to get all this into his own grasp. No wonder poor old Winkle Brown got caught up in the machinations. But Brown was pretty well connected so why didn't he -- after the war -- find out what it was all about. He must have been curious about how his stellar career didn't get derailed before it had even started. Maybe this is why
| So in 1945 the Anglo-Americans had managed to arrest and interrogate several of the Forschungsamt higher-ups. This should have given them major insights into the work and successes of the Forschungsamt. Yet the relevant study ‘European Axis signals intelligence vol 7 – Goering’s Research Bureau’ released in 1946 is poorly written and filled with generalities. |
How can this be explained logically?
| How can this be explained logically? It is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps some of the important reports written by the Forschungsamt.higher-ups were not passed on to TICOM (Target Intelligence Committee) authorities. It could be a case of bureaucratic infighting/ mismanagement. Alternatively the Forschungsamt.could have had some successes that we don’t know about. Was it in the interests of the US and UK to keep these a secret? |
Yes, all right, but surely it would all come out eventually. Blimey, ol' Winkle was soldiering on until just the other day and was majorly connected all that time. Uh-oh....
We know that much later in 1950-51 several reports were written by Kroeger (one of the top cryptanalysts), Kurzbach (head of Department 11 - Foreign policy evaluation) and Hupperstsberg (head of Department 14 – Development of technical equipment used in monitoring) under the titles DF-240, DF-241. I’ve asked the NSA for the release of these documents but it seems this will take a long time.
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So he went to his grave not knowing. Or not telling.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Since Eric Brown was held for three days in an SS jail, isn't it assumed he'd have been interrogated? If he talked, he'd be unlikely to advertise the fact. He might have deliberately downplayed the RAF's strength (or he may have told the truth!) but either way German intelligence under-estimated enemy forces, strikingly so before the attempted invasion of Britain and also the following year with Russia.
German intelligence seems to have poor on the whole but even so such a serious miscalculation would need some explaining.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Up to a point, Lord Vered. It is true German intelligence was astonishingly poor when it came to anything ‘big picture’ but Brown was only nineteen at the time so his knowledge of the RAF’s battle strength would surely be limited. As was the RAF’s battle strength in 1939. Of course Brown being nineteen and, according to his own testimony, being employed as a spy says something about the strength of British intelligence in 1939.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| As was the RAF’s battle strength in 1939. |
This needs elaboration. The British, by 1939, were out-producing the Germans in terms of aircraft numbers. In terms of quality of aircraft, training of pilots, competence of higher command and so forth, it was roughly equal -- or at any rate arguable. It is true each’s air force was designed for different purposes so the Germans were better when it came to tactical support of ground forces and the British were better when it came to strategic control of airspace but that’s about all. Any notions featuring plucky RAF and Luftwaffe hordes are entirely fanciful.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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What are we to make of this new 'pulled pork' that's suddenly infesting the supermarket shelves? Apart from anything else the name has masturbatory connotations that detracts from the eating experience. I mainly buy it because it comes with a sachet of Toffee Apple flavour barbecue sauce I can't get anywhere else. Mmm, delicious.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The heat! This damned heat. Already in the pubs and clubs of Fitzrovia we are talking of nothing but the good old days of the Beast from the East.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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A word of advice for those of you doing the final run-through of your new book's index. If you clean your computer screen you won't spend ten minutes trying to get rid of a dash that wasn't there.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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If you can stop rolling round the floor for a minute, how do you get Times New Roman into six-point? Word only seems to go down to eight.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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You know that sense of paralysis you get when you want a Tesco custard doughnut, possibly two, but you know there are no clean plates left? Do the sodding dishes. It's not rocket science.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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I sent an email about this. Click into the font size box, type 6, hit enter.
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