Navigation.

This is coolbert:

I have mentioned that the night aerial warfare fought in the skies over Europe during World War Two [WW2] was a war of technology, counter-technology, and counter-counter-technology.

And that when sending manned bombers to bomb targets in the countries of the opposition, both sides, the British and the Germans, encountered the same problems.

One problem was that manned bombers, unescorted, in daylight raids, were shot down by fighter-interceptor defending aircraft at a prodigious rate. An unacceptable prodigious rate. Night time bombing became the course of choice for the manned bomber force of both Britain and Germany.

Night bombing missions however, also encountered unique problems as well. Unique problems to which both sides attempted to devise unique solutions.

One problem was just in finding the target. Navigating at night posed all sorts of difficulties, especially in wartime. Just getting to the target was a problem.

The problem of navigation to the target was first encountered by the German bombers during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Finding daylight bombing to be too dangerous for the manned bombers, the Germans, as has been said, resorted to night bombing missions. And as has been said, immediately the problem of navigation cropped up.

To solve the navigation problem, the Germans devised a number of unique solutions, involving radio beacon systems. Attacking bombers could use these beacons to navigate to the target.

Once such beacon systems devised was code named "Benito" by the Germans.

 Benito seems to have been a technological marvel for it's time.

It was a medium wave [500 KHZ-1600 KHZ] beacon transmitting with frequency modulation [FM].

To use FM at this point in time and on these medium wave frequencies was unheard of.

Perhaps the Germans thought this would elude intercept by the British.

Secret German agents on the ground in England would form a line of these beacons on British territory leading to the target and transmit the beacon signals.

German planes, equipped with receivers tuned to the beacon frequencies, could then follow the beacons to the target.

It is reputed that the German agents on the ground could communicate with the aircraft as well, giving them additional navigational instructions.

This system was effective for a time, until the British were able to intercept the communications and beacons themselves and devise an counter-measure to Benito.

This British counter-measure to Benito was code named "Domino".

The Domino counter-measure applied by the British consisted of having German speaking Englishmen intrude into the communications between the German agents on the ground and issue false instructions to the German pilots, leading them off course.

German bombers were induced into bombing false targets by imitative deception, and Benito was rendered while not useless, less than effective by a simple counter-measure. [it may also have been that the British employed false beacons to mimic Benito and further confuse the German pilots, but I cannot find any reference to this].

Now several problems with all this.

One is that Masterman, head [??] of the Double-Cross committee [XX] during WW2, reported that during the war, all German spies and agents residing with England itself had been caught and rounded up.

Were working for the British all along. So what is this, with Benito?

Were there German agents not known to XX during the war, at least up until 1941?? If Benito was used as it seems to have been, Germans were active and about in England even after Masterman says they were not!

In addition, here is some interesting speculation regarding Benito. And I stress speculation.

All throughout WW2, Ireland was a neutral, and did not take sides in the war. Much to the chagrin of the British, who wanted to use Irish territory for bases in the U-boat war. But Eamon De Valera, the PM of the Irish Republic, kept a strict neutral stance throughout the war. [the British did have bases in Ulster throughout the war, but not in the Irish Republic itself].

There was an incident where Irish territory was violated by the Germans.

In 1941, a formation of German bombers bombed Dublin.

The Irish promptly protested and this did not happen again.

And why did these Germans for no apparent reason bomb Dublin?

It seems that the bombers were steered off course by English counter-measures folks using Domino that gave deceptive instructions to the Germans.

Deceptive instructions that led them to think that Dublin was the target they intended to hit.

Domino counter-measures are what led to Dublin being attacked!!

My question would be, was this an accident or did the British want the Germans to bomb Dublin, in the hope that such an attack would bring the Irish Republic into the war on the side of the British??

Perhaps this will never be clarified? Maybe it already has been? But does make for interesting speculation!

coolbert.