Bill Steadman - Military Intelligence - 29th October 2019

A talk on military intelligence in the build up to the D-Day landings by Bill Steadman, curator of the Military Intelligence Museum JFC Chicksands.

Vote of Thanks....

Bill served in the Army for over 39 years travelling to many countries retiring six years ago having reached the rank of Major.
D-Day was a momentous day and had been in the planning for four years.  The Germans were noted for their strong defence ,with  their Generals Rommel and von Runstedt who did not agree on their strategy   The German soldiers were not all well trained, there were Battalions consisting of old and sick soldiers and manning was low in places.  Mobility was slow and still dependant upon horses into the 40s.  French railways were vulnerable to sabotage
The ally armies were commanded by Eisenhower and Montgommery, and much was learnt from past conflicts ie. mistakes made at Gallipoli.  Having landed on a beach get off as soon as possible as the boats and men were vulnerable.  Avoid Peninsulas and don`t take a port.  Air supremacy was critical .  Intelligence was the key.  Pas de Calais was thought to be the area for the invasion.  Intelligence made use of this and fed in false information to the Germans reinforcing their view and strong defences were made along the coast around Calais, very little on the Normandy coast The Germans did not realise that the enigma code had been broken and we were able to feed in false information.
We only had one chance to invade France in 1944, we had to have air supremacy and Normandy was chosen.  We had to protect our secrets, and discover enemy secrets, deceive and confuse the enemy, with the use of S.O.E. knowledge of local situations abroad, German morale, use of double agents such as Agent Garbo, dummy soldiers parachuted into France, natural size rubber tanks in fields around Dover, metal ribbons released over France to confuse rada etc.

Bill`s talk was fascinating from start to finish and we all enjoyed the evening, Thank you Bill.

Vote of thanks given by David Monks.