Operation Crossbow.

Caught an amazing documentary last night on BBC 2 about Operation Crossbow. It's a story I had never real heard before, but was instrumental in the Allies winning the 2nd WW.

The heroic tales of World War II are legendary, but Operation Crossbow is a little known story that deserves to join the hall of fame: how the Allies used 3D photos to thwart the Nazis' weapons of mass destruction before they could obliterate Britain.

This film brings together the heroic Spitfire pilots who took the photographs and the brilliant minds of RAF Medmenham that made sense of the jigsaw of clues hidden in the photos. Hitler was pumping a fortune into his new-fangled V weapons in the hope they could win him the war. But Medmenham had a secret weapon of its own, a simple stereoscope which brought to life every contour of the enemy landscape in perfect 3D.

The devil was truly in the detail and, together with extraordinary personal testimonies, the film uses modern computer graphics on the original wartime photographs to show just how the photo interpreters were able to uncover Hitler's nastiest secrets.

It's great to see these unarmed spitfires traveling as far over enemy lines as far as Berlin, to take highly detailed 3D photographs of German installations.

www.bbc.co.uk...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.bbc.co.uk...

Hitler had pilotless drones?

Shoooooot.

I never knew. S&F

Briton was never in any real danger from the V-weapons. They were used to scare the populace more than anything.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


bbc video wont play in USA..
aww
I wanted to see it... i'll check youtube later.


that old Doctor Who conundrum...again..!


"next on BBC 2,, a little story of crime and passion behind the sceens at "who wants to be king for a day"

reply to post by kro32


According to that documentary, the rockets posed a massive threat not jut to London , but the D Day landings too. If Operation Crossbow hadnt been successful many more rockets would have rained down on London and delayed D day by months.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Thats quite interesting! I read about this before but not in massive detail. I think I may revisit!!

Some years ago I met with a man called Herr Lansprecht.
He was a jet pilot in the second world war and was part of an operation called 'Bienenstock'.

Basically they used the jets, without weapons, and attacked the allied fighters. (like that scene at the end of Hot Shots!)
He told me that if Hitler had have put more thought/effort in to furthering the jet technology a different outcome in the war may have been possible-and I believed him

Anyway, thought you might be interested in it if you hadnt heard about it already.

Originally posted by darrman
reply to post by woodwardjnr

 

bbc video wont play in USA..
aww
I wanted to see it... i'll check youtube later.


that old Doctor Who conundrum...again..!

I tried to find a youtube copy for our American viewers, for this was a joint Anglo/American operation, in fact the creator of Pirates of the Caribbean was part of the team analysing photo's and Humphrey Boggart in the Army section.

reply to post by soundofathousandbirds


Apparently,if Hitler had not interfered in Messerschmitt Me 262 development,he wanted it to be capable of carrying bombs,that particular jet could have entered Luftwaffe service in 1943,effectively it could have spelled an end to US Daylight raids on German targets,and as a night fighter could have had a devastating effect on the RAF night raids.