19 Jan
1999
19 Jan
'99
12:45 p.m.
At 09:46 PM 1/18/99 -0500, you wrote:
On-board instrumentation on German aircraft was not that good (as it was
also not that good on English or American planes early in the War) during
the Blitzkrieg. Landmarks were often crucial. Stonehenge _may_ have been
a landmark, but there weren't that many targets (none that I can think of)
beyond it for bombing raids from the usual directions -- at most, it would
have clued the navigator to tell the pilot to turn around.
Stonehenge was definitely neither bulldozed nor bombed. It would show, and
too many people have examined it since then. (And a number of groups held
ceremonies there during the war, not always with the permission of the
government despite the fact that they were on the same side).
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram@cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
WARNING: The Attorney General has determined that Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms can be hazardous to your health -- and get away with it.
On the contrary, German aircraft during the Blitz used two fairly
sophisticated systems of radio navigation called Knickebein and X-Geraet.
The former used overlapping Lorenz beams to guide bombers along the
flightpath to their targets, using super-sensitive versions of their
blind-landing receivers. The latter used radio beams that intersected over
the target; one beam provided flightpath direction, the second announced
when the target was reached. The British expended a lot of time and energy
locating and jamming the signals, and later copied the system when Bomber
Command went on the offensive (called Oboe, I think). My apologies if the
details above are inaccurate; it's been a long time since I read R.V.
Jones' Most Secret War (great book, BTW).
Mark Gregory.