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Against all Odds: The British Empire in World War Two

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TheHyphenated1 said:
No offense taken :D. That whole thing about actually putting yourself into the job wholeheartedly was a memo that they seem to have missed entirely...

Of course Mincemeat was executed so thoroughly and so well that to come down too hard on the Germans for believing it is almost not giving the Brits their due. I mean, ticket stubs for crying out loud!

Excellent updates!
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My trouble with the Abwehr re Mincemeat is that they mistook the body of a drunkard for a relatively well-trained and fit Royal Marine.


And glad you liked it all.
 
But one must 1) allow for decomposition. 2) allow for the fact that he was a major, and therefore not necessarily as fit, which would perhaps be in line with the personality that was created for him. 3) allow that the Abwehr did not, to my knowledge, actually see the body at all.
 
TheHyphenated1 said:
But one must 1) allow for decomposition. 2) allow for the fact that he was a major, and therefore not necessarily as fit, which would perhaps be in line with the personality that was created for him. 3) allow that the Abwehr did not, to my knowledge, actually see the body at all.
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Hmm. Still, I have a hard time believing that ze Germans swallowed it so willingly. I shall endeavour to do better when/if the time comes.
 
trekaddict said:
Hmm. Still, I have a hard time believing that ze Germans swallowed it so willingly.
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It played to the Abwehr's biggest weakness; an inability to question what they were presented with.

With the correct facts, or indeed no facts at all, they were fine. However they were awful at questioning what they received or checking for false intelligence, making them very vulnerable to that sort of intelligence operation. A weakness Britain did it's level best to exploit for most of the war.
 
El Pip said:
It played to the Abwehr's biggest weakness; an inability to question what they were presented with.

With the correct facts, or indeed no facts at all, they were fine. However they were awful at questioning what they received or checking for false intelligence, making them very vulnerable to that sort of intelligence operation. A weakness Britain did it's level best to exploit for most of the war.
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I've long since toyed with the idea of putting in a mincemeat-type operation in some way or another.... I think i will actually do it now.
 
trekaddict said:
humancalculator To be honest I always write these when I need time to plot out the normal narrative.
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They are still fun and interesting to read. :)
 
Nice update about your flying war machines. :p Although I wish you can focus a bit more with the variants used by the fleet air arm. Good work anyways. :D (Though by not mentioning the Dewoitine D.520 you make me a bit upset. :p)
 
gaiasabre11 said:
Nice update about your flying war machines. :p Although I wish you can focus a bit more with the variants used by the fleet air arm. Good work anyways. :D (Though by not mentioning the Dewoitine D.520 you make me a bit upset. :p)
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The Fleet Air Arm will get it's own intermission eventually. I can't write it right now, as I would spoil too much. And I did mention the AdA, did I?
 
No Challenger II tanks?

Booooooooooooo!!!!! :mad:





:D:D:D
 
trekaddict said:
The Fleet Air Arm will get it's own intermission eventually. I can't write it right now, as I would spoil too much. And I did mention the AdA, did I?
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Ok, then I'll wait for the fleet air arm to show up. Hopefully it will be some of your kites versus Japanese Zeros. :p

You did mention the AdA, but not the planes they use. ;) Dewoitine D.520s are a match for the latest axis models at their time of deployment, but there were just too few of them to make a difference.

Kurt_Steiner said:
No Challenger II tanks?

Booooooooooooo!!!!!
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I thought this update is about kites, not tanks, but anyways maybe I should call for some Leclercs to show up.
 
gaiasabre11 said:
Ok, then I'll wait for the fleet air arm to show up. Hopefully it will be some of your kites versus Japanese Zeros. :p

You did mention the AdA, but not the planes they use. ;) Dewoitine D.520s are a match for the latest axis models at their time of deployment, but there were just too few of them to make a difference.
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Indeed. The FAA has a bright future.

As for the AdA, that was my general understanding of the D.520.

gaiasabre11 said:
I thought this update is about kites, not tanks, but anyways maybe I should call for some Leclercs to show up.
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Indeed. One day.
 
The new AARlander is out!

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I am struggling to get the next update out before I start University on Monday. Hold your thumbs!
 
I'm stopping in to tell you I will attempt to undergo the impossible task of catching up with your AAR. *Holds thumbs* for your university start, Good luck!
 
yeah good luck. damned weird time to start university though. my school years coming to an end...
 
trekaddict said:
I am struggling to get the next update out before I start University on Monday. Hold your thumbs!
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So at last your frenetic update pace will slow a bit as the Uni distractions kick in. While I will miss the updates at least you'll stop making the rest of us look bad by updating so regularly! :D
 
volksmarschall Thank you!

BritishImperial Also thanks to you! This is a wierd time indeed, but I am starting in the 'summer' semester, i.e. they enroll new students twice a year, once in March and once in September.

El Pip It will slow down, yes, but again, I will try to update once a week at least. If the timetable is anything like it was last year I should be able to make it and study as much as I need.
 
Chapter 111​

canaris11.jpg


Old Scotland Yard, London

Walpole was once again second to arrive, having stopped at the War Office to communicate their findings so far to his superiors, which was preciously little. They had combed through the room for hours, finding nothing more than an English-Language guide to East Anglia, three-hundred pounds in old, tattered, and probably fake notes and several ticket stubs for cinemas in the Greater London Area. All in all nothing suspicious, though Garside believed that if whoever had killed the poor sod had probably removed all the evidence, and they were waiting for the report on the clothes he had been wearing upon his unfortunate demise anyway. On the other side of the small room Walpole was sitting behind his own desk, sipping tea and reading through another report. “Anything useful?” Garside asked acidly. Walpole shook his head, ignoring the tone and said: “Nothing, only that the notes were indeed fake. Pretty good work though, according to the boffins of the Treasury.” He paused, and stared out of the small window, behind which he could see a barrage balloon rise into the air. “Something about all this bugs me.” “You're being Irish, Walpole.” Garside said, referring to Walpole's ancestry from Belfast. “I don't think so. These guys were different than the lot we normally round up, and something about all this doesn't add up....” “Such as?” “Well, for one, why did whoever it was make such a hash of destroying the wireless? I mean, they stripped out everything else that could have helped us, why not this? And secondly, why did they not even try and hide the body? Stuffing it into a cupboard or smuggling it past the hag on the lower floor?” Graside leaned back in his chair and thought about it. “Now that I think about it, you are right. But what are we to do? The only option we have is good, old-fashioned policework, and that is what we will do, Lieutenant.” Walpole glanced at Garside with a sceptic look on his face and decided not to say anything just for the sake of it, because of course Garside was right. There was just nothing else they could do, and if his hunch was correct, and it usually was, then this case would not be theirs for very much longer. He went back to the papers. Whoever would eventually take this over, would have his work cut out for him, and the least he could do was to make it easier. There were still reports coming in, and the ME would soon have had his look at the body.


The man who was running down the road in the small town in Buckinghamshire was no unusual sight in this part of the country. These skinny men and women were also usually white-skinned, indicating that they did not see much sunlight. He was however not a usual one, but no one knew, and no one was to know. He slowed down when he pup where he would meet his contact. It had been said that the best hiding place was a crowd, and he knew that to be true. He entered the pup, and made an effort not to look as if he was actually looking for someone in the packed room. He knew that the person he was to meet would be at a certain spot, and all he allowed himself was his eyes lighting up briefly when he saw the person he was looking for sitting at a table. At the same time in a manor house north-east of Bremen in Germany, long rows of men were hunched over the best wireless sets money could buy. The Abwehr's Interception and Communications section was using equipment worth almost 700.000 Reichsmark in this facility alone, not counting the second one near Hamburg. On the top it was disguised as a school for aspiring Heer and Luftwaffe wireless operators, in order to explain the huge masts that were hidden away behind the house. The real 'action' however went on below the house, in a Bunker that had been constructed out of a long series of wine cellars. Here the operators were listening for all sorts of signals, from the British Navy's top-secret communications to the ordinary daily news from the BBC that someone higher in the food chain wanted without incriminating himself. To their duties also belonged the communication with the few remaining German agents in Britain, while the network in France was handled by a station near Stuttgart. One of the men was now intently listening to his set, monitoring the same frequency and looking for the same code as he had in the last weeks, ever since he had received standing orders to do so. He did not know what it was, or what sort of code was used, he had just been trained in what to look for and to notify the duty officer immediately if he did so. Unknown to him, several others, in many other stations were doing the same. He was bored out of his mind, and decided to sacrifice another one of his precious pre-war cigarettes that his aunt had brought with her when she had left England shortly before the outbreak of the war. Yes, he would do that, once he was off duty, for this was a non-smoking room, as the smoke would be harmful to the sets. He would go out and....hello, what was that? He scrambled back into position and intently copied down the code words. When the message was over, or at least when he was sure that it was repeated, he switched off his set and notified the duty officer of it. The duty Officer then took the message form to decoding, or at least he attempted to do so. He was intercepted half-way by someone decidedly more senior. The young-ish Luftwaffe Lieutenant who could not fly because of his eyes snapped to attention when he saw who it was. “Admiral, Sir, there was...” “Yes, Lieutenant, I know. Carry on.” Admiral Canaris said. He had decided to visit the station to once more drum it into everyone's heads: The identity of the source was to remain the strictest secret. By far too many people knew about it already, and the chance that a secret was revealed, accidentally or not, increased exponentially in relation to the number of people that knew about it.

He walked silently back to the Office that he was using while he was here and sat back down in the Armchair. There the head of the intercept station and the only man in the facility who knew the entire extent of Englandspiel, and who, unlike Canaris, was not entirely convinced about it's merits and about how it was handled. “Are you sure this is wise, Admiral? Spreading out all the knowledge about the operation? If the British ever notice something is amiss, they might uncover it all.” Canaris held up three fingers of his left hand.“Pah. They will never find out, as they do not know that a, what to look for,” he ticked off one finger, “b, even if they did, they would have to know first that anything is amiss, which they don't and c, they will not be willing to believe what is actually happening if they do. They will be more than content with the picture we are presenting them, as it will fit nicely with what they expect and with what they want to see.” Third Finger down. “Besides,” Canaris continued, “we all know that they won't find out if we handle this carefully, as we must, Herman, we must. This is the best source in England we have had for years, and we mustn't jeopardize it.” Herman did not reply. This was exactly why he was unsure about Englandspiel in the first place, but if Admiral Canaris deemed the security measures to be sufficient, then there was nothing he could do, and he had to admit, the measures were impressive. No one, except Canaris himself saw the all of the material, and the Admiral also decided how it was to be distributed. The operators that were this end of Englandspiel were scattered in Abwehr facilities all over Germany, each listening in to a given set of frequencies without knowing what it actually was, and from what little he himself saw, it was indeed a virtual intelligence gold mine, incomparably better than anything they had had before. Alas, it was not his place to decide, and he would most certainly not openly question the authority of the leadership, something that was decidedly unhealthy in Germany these days, especially so in the military. No, he would keep his reservations for himself, and bide his time. When, or rather IF anything happened, something that he, despite it all, was not entirely convinced of, then he would come forward, saying that he had been against it all all along, and therefore saving his own skin, job and perhaps even live. The SD was more than keen to thin out the Abwehr at any opportunity, and he decided that he did not want to be a scapegoat for Himmler's goons.



[Game Notes: Somewhat short, but the end fits it I think. I honestly do not know when I will be able to finish, or even start the next one, but I will try to make it sometime next week.]
 
Canaris is quite popular lately, it seems...
 
Indeed the old fox is getting around a bit. But then if you want competent German intelligence ops then the field of choice is a bit thin so it's hardly surprising he crops up alot.

Interesting operation, I'll be interested to see where this all goes (though I have my suspicions :D )
 
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