51 The German Airborne Threat to Britain & the Psychological Impact
The WW2 Podcast
Angus Wallace
4.6 ā¢ 1.6K Ratings
šļø 15 September 2017
ā±ļø 48 minutes
šļø Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
I was reading the British Journal for Military History and an article caught my eye titled The Psychological Impact of Airborne Warfare & the British Response to the Airborne Threat by Dr Tim Jenkins.
In 1940 the Germans achieved stunning successes with the use of airborne troops, theĀ FallschirmjƤger. Ā The first recorded attack by parachutists was in Denmark against the fortress atĀ MasnedĆø. The reputed impregnable fortress at Eben Emael in Belgium would surrender to just 78 German airborne troops who had landed on top in Gliders.
Traditionally Britain was safe beyond the English Channel, protected by the Royal Navy, this new threat from the air caught the public imagination. There was a clamour in the press, questions were raised in Parliament... What to do?
The result would beĀ thousands of sign posts removed to confuse enemy parachutists, golf course would be ploughed up to prevent glider landings and of course the Home Guard would be formed.
It's a brilliant article and I suggest you give it a read, you can find it here. Tim agreed to come on the podcast and have a chat.
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Transcript
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| 0:35.0 | I was reading the British Journal of Military History and an article caught my eye |
| 0:39.3 | titled The Psychological Impact of Airborne Warfare and the British response to the Airborne Threat by Dr Tim Jenkins. |
| 0:49.0 | It's a brilliant article and I suggest you give it a read. I'll put a link on the website. |
| 0:53.0 | Anyway I thought I'd shoot Tim an email to see if he'd be willing to join me on the |
| 0:58.0 | podcast. Tim thanks for joining me and to start, shall we begin before the war? I wondered if in the interwar years, |
| 1:07.3 | if the British ever considered that an inversion threat or a strike force could come from the air? |
| 1:14.1 | You know, during the first of all we're actually pretty air-minded, is probably a good way to describe it. |
| 1:19.4 | And there is a lot of cooperation that starts to come through in Mesopotamia between the Royal Air Force and |
| 1:28.6 | the actual Army. |
| 1:29.6 | We're looking at these kind of joint operations they're working quite well. |
| 1:33.0 | That follows through post-war into the 20s and again we're pioneering ways of running bits of the |
| 1:39.4 | empire using aircraft and dropping off forces. They're not parachute forces, but we're actually resupplying by air and |
| 1:46.7 | we're actually ahead of the game, believe it or not, in the 20s. |
| 1:49.7 | What happened? How can we have no airborne forces in 1939? |
| 1:55.0 | It's just one of those classics, isn't it? |
... |
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