Night Raid
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The National Archives in Kew contain the core official documents and reports on the raid and all the minutes of the War Cabinet and of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
The Airborne Assault Archive at Duxford contains copies of several documents along with memoirs, photographs and other objects relating to the raid. Also held here are many of the Personal Reports written within a few days of the raid.
The Imperial War Museum holds a collection of interviews with members of C Company of the 2nd Parachute Battalion, as well as the film and photographic records relating to the raid.
The Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge, contains the papers of R.V. Jones.
The Medmenham Collection Archive includes private papers and documents relating to the Central Interpretation Unit at RAF Medmenham. Extracts from documents and photographs from the collection are reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of the Medmenham Collection.
The BBC Written Archives Centre contains records of all BBC radio news bulletins during the war.
All of the above are referenced in the notes.
Primary Sources – Published
E.G. Bowen, Radar Days. Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1987.
Winston Churchill, The Second World War, 6 vols. London: Cassell, 1948–1954.
Major General John Frost, A Drop Too Many. London: Cassell, 1980; republished Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 1994.
Martin Gilbert, The Churchill War Papers, Vol. II, Never Surrender May 1940–December 1940. London: Heinemann, 1994.
Martin Gilbert, The Churchill War Papers, Vol. III, The Ever Widening War 1941. London: Heinemann, 2000.
Harvey Grenville and John Timothy, Tim’s Tale: A Wartime Biography of Major John Timothy. Privately published by Lulu Press.
Guide Rouge de Michelin 1939. Paris: Michelin, 1939.
Robin Hanbury Brown, Boffin: A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics. Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1991.
R.V. Jones, Most Secret War. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978; republished London: Penguin, 2009.
R.V. Jones, Reflections on Intelligence. London: Heinemann, 1989.
Bernard Lovell, Astronomer By Chance. London: Macmillan, 1991.
Gilbert Renault, The Silent Company, translated by Lancelot Shepherd. London: Arthur Barker, 1948.
Gilbert Renault, Bruneval: opération coup de croc. Paris: Editions France Empire, 1968.
A.P. Rowe, One Story of Radar: An Account of the work of the Telecommunications Research Establishment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948.
Sir Robert Watson-Watt, Three Steps to Victory: A Personal Account by Radar’s Greatest Pioneer. London: Odhams Press, 1957.
Solly Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords. London: Harper & Row, 1978.
Secondary Sources
Max Arthur, Men of the Red Beret: Airborne Forces 1940–1990. London: Hutchinson, 1990.
James Phinney Baxter III (Official Historian of the Office of Scientific Research and Development), Scientists Against Time. Boston: Little, Brown, 1946.
Antony Beevor, Crete: The Battle and the Resistance. London: John Murray, 1991.
Lord Birkenhead, The Prof in Two Worlds – The Official Life of Professor F.A. Lindemann, Viscount Cherwell. London: Collins, 1961.
Asa Briggs, The War of Words: The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Vol. III. Oxford: Oxford University Press, revised edition 1995.
William F. Buckingham, Paras: The Untold Story of the Birth of the British Airborne Forces. Stroud: History Press, 2008.
Robert Buderi, The Invention that Changed the World. London: Little, Brown, 1997.
Niall Cherry, Striking Back: Britain’s Airborne and Commando Raids 1940–42. Solihull: Helion, 2009.
Ronald W. Clark, The Rise of the Boffins. London: Phoenix House, 1962.
Ronald W. Clark, Tizard. London: Methuen, 1965.
Colin Dobinson, Building Radar: Forging Britain’s Early-warning Chain 1935–45. London: Methuen, 2010.
Taylor Downing, Churchill’s War Lab – Code Breakers, Boffins and Innovators: The Mavericks Churchill Led to Victory. London: Little, Brown, 2010.
Taylor Downing, Spies in the Sky – The Secret Battle for Aerial Intelligence during World War Two. London: Little, Brown, 2011.
David Edgerton, Britain’s War Machine: Weapons, Resources and Experts in the Second World War. London: Allen Lane, 2011.
M.R.D. Foot, The SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the Special Operations Executive in France 1940–1944. London: HMSO, 1966.
Ken Ford, The Bruneval Raid: Operation Biting 1942. Oxford: Osprey, 2010.
Raymond Foxall, The Guinea Pigs: Britain’s First Paratroop Raid. London: Robert Hale, 1983.
Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill 1939–1941. London: Heinemann, 1983.
Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill 1941–1945. London: Heinemann, 1986.
Christine Halsall, Women of Intelligence: Winning the Second World War with Air Photos. Stroud: History Press, 2012.
Max Hastings, Bomber Command. London: Michael Joseph, 1979.
Richard Havers, Here is the News: The BBC and the Second World War. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2007.
Paddy Heazell, Most Secret: The Hidden History of Orford Ness. London: History Press, 2010.
Colin Latham and Anne Stobbs, Radar – A Wartime Miracle Recalled by the Men and Women who Played their Part in it for the RAF. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1996.
Colin Latham and Anne Stobbs, Pioneers of Radar. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999.
John Lucas, The Silken Canopy: A History of the Parachute. Shrewsbury: Airlife, 1997.
Leo McKinstry, Spitfire – Portrait of a Legend. London: John Murray, 2007.
Richard Mead, General ‘Boy’: The Life of Lieutenant General Frederick Browning. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2010.
George Millar, The Bruneval Raid: Flashpoint of the Radar War. London: Bodley Head, 1974.
Alain Millet (avec la participation de Nicolas Bucourt), Raid de Bruneval et de La Poterie-Cap-d’Antifer: Mystères et Verité. Bayeux: Heimdal, 2012.
G.G. Norton, The Red Devils: The Story of the British Airborne Forces. London: Leo Cooper, 1971.
Lieutenant-Colonel T.B.H. Otway, The Second World War 1939–1945, Army: Airborne Forces. London: Imperial War Museum, 1990 [originally published confidentially by the War Office in 1951 as part of a series of books written to ‘preserve the experience gained during the Second world War’].
James Owen, Commando: Winning World War Two Behind Enemy Lines, London: Little, Brown, 2012.
David Pritchard, The Radar War: Germany’s Pioneering Achievement 1904–45. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens, 1989.
Nicholas Pronay, ‘The Newsreels: The illusion of actuality’ in Paul Smith (ed.), The Historian and Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Hilary St George Saunders, The Red Beret: The Story of the Parachute Regiment at War 1940–1945. London: Michael Joseph, 1950.
Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970.
Graham Storey, Reuters’ Century 1851–1951. London: Max Parrish, 1951.
A.J.P. Taylor, English History 1914–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.
John Terraine, The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten. London: Hutchinson, 1968.
Julian Thompson, Ready for Anything: The Parachute Regiment at War, 1940–1982. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989.
Nicholas Wilkinson, Secrecy and the Media: The Official History of the United Kingdom’s D-Notice System. London: Routledge, 2009.
Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten: The Official Biography. London: Collins, 1985.
Sir Henry Tizard. Although stern in appearance, he was a popular and much-respected figure.
IWM 42365
Robert Watson-Watt. He always remained a bit of an outsider despite being called the ‘father of radar’.
IWM 13862
Radar has been called ‘the invention th
at changed the world’. These are the Orford Ness pioneers. Arnold Wilkins is second from left; Edward ‘Taffy’ Bowen is on the far right.
Orford Ness: Douglas Fisher Collection
A Chain Home radar station with a 350 ft transmitting tower. Twenty such stations were completed along the east coast just before war in September 1939.
IWM 15183
A WAAF operating a radar in 1940. A green line on the rectangular screen moved up and down when aircraft were identified. The goniometer or ‘gonio’ on the left helped to measure direction and height.
Getty Images
Bawdsey Manor, a luxurious and well-appointed mansion. It was the home of British radar research and development from 1936 to 1939.
Getty Images
Reginald Victor Jones, aged only twenty-eight at the start of the war. As part of Scientific Intelligence at the Air Ministry, one of his jobs was to find out how the German radar defence system worked.
Private Collection
Claude Wavell at RAF Medmenham. As a photographic interpreter, he measured tiny objects (sometimes less than a millimetre) on aerial photographs to identify different types of aerials, masts and transmitters.
Medmenham
Tony Hill, looking every inch the glamorous Spitfire reconnaissance pilot. He took the photograph of Bruneval.
Medmenham
Tony Hill’s famous aerial photograph. A small path ran from the strangely shaped Villa Gosset to the Würzburg, on top of the cliffs at Bruneval.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
A Würzburg radar mounted on its portable cabin with Luftwaffe operators behind.
Bundesarchiv
Paratroopers in training at the Central Landing School at Ringway
Paras learning to land from a descending swing.
IWM 22867
Paras learning to jump through a hole like the hole in the fuselage of a Whitley bomber, but only on to mattresses.
IWM 22891
Squadron Leader Louis Strange, the first man to organise the RAF side of parachute jumping. He was a First World War ace, but he had no experience of parachuting.
Getty Images
Army publicity photographs taken during C Company’s training on Loch Fyne, February 1942
Men embarking on an Assault Landing Craft (ALC). The naval crew are guiding them up the ramp.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Infantry firing off the side of an ALC. They were to provide the fire to enable the Paras to embark. A Bren gun can be seen in the foreground.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the naval hero appointed by Churchill to run Combined Operations; the King’s cousin and an inspiring leader. Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Major-General Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning, the commander of the 1st Airborne Division; a stickler for detail and ambitious for his Paras.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Three of the French underground agents who provided invaluable intelligence about the defences at Bruneval.
Gilbert Renault, known as Rémy, the shadowy leader of the French underground group.
Getty Images
Charles Chauveau known as Charlemagne, the car mechanic from Le Havre.
Nicolas Bucourt
Roger Dumont known as Pol, the agent who covered part of the north French coast.
Nicolas Bucourt
Hotel Beau-Minet and the road down to the beach. M. and Mme Vennier who ran the Hotel gave the French agents useful intelligence. At the time of the raid a German platoon was stationed at the hotel.
Nicolas Bucourt
A pre-war seaside postcard featuring the beach at Bruneval and the imposing villa Stella Maris. Photographs like this helped build up a picture of what the target area was like.
Nicolas Bucourt
The road running down to the beach at Bruneval. The Germans dug defensive positions on the slope above the road on the left, called ‘Beach Fort’ by the British.
Nicolas Bucourt
Inside a Whitley bomber, Paras wait to jump. They had to pack themselves in. It was dark and uncomfortable.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
A Para can be seen here jumping from a Whitley bomber. A static line to the right is pulling a parachute open; another man has just jumped through the hole.
IWM/Getty Images
An exercise in an ALC on the Dorset coast. The approach to the beach at Bruneval would have looked very similar.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Returning heroes. A motor gunboat (MGB) at Portsmouth harbour loaded with Paras coming back from the raid. Major Frost is on the bridge, second from the left.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Infantrymen coming ashore from an ALC at Portsmouth after the raid.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Major John Frost (wearing a helmet), commanding officer of C Company, talking to Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Goschen, the Quartermaster of the Airborne Division at Portsmouth. Frost is still in the smock he had worn during the raid; Goschen wears the new maroon beret that was just coming into use.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Group Captain Sir Nigel Norman talking with Flight Sergeant Charles Cox on the deck of HMS Prinz Albert at Portsmouth. Corporal Jones is next to Cox, on the left.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Donald Preist (in glasses) talking to Captain Peate on the Prinz Albert after the raid. Corporal Jones can be seen in the background.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Two of the German prisoners being searched at Portsmouth harbour. Heller the radar operator is on the right. His Luftwaffe badge was torn off his jacket by Nagel. Tewes (who had been wounded) is on the left.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Wing Commander Percy Charles Pickard surrounded by the Paras he flew to Bruneval. They are admiring some booty, a captured German helmet.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
The Times, Monday 2 March 1942, making good use of the photographs taken of the returning Paras and prisoners.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
A Para reading one of the newspaper reports of the raid. His girlfriend looks over his shoulder. The Paras became famous thanks to the coverage of the raid.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Stanley Morgan (left) and Cyril Tooze (centre) talk with their fellow teammates at Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club after the raid.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Men from C Company pose in front of their wooden barracks at Tilshead camp after the raid; ‘V’ is for Victory.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
The poster for School for Secrets, the 1946 feature film that helped to celebrate the Bruneval story.
ITV Global/The Kobal Collection
Some of the Paras were issued with ten-franc notes in case they were left behind. This one came back with its owner and the other men in his squad signed it. He obviously didn’t think he would be going back to France for a while.
Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
Index
AEG company, 124
Aeronautical Research Committee, 13
Afghanistan conflict, 357
air defence: 1930s debate on, 11, 12, 13–14; lack of German integrated system, 119; night attacks and, 31, 73, 76, 83; over land, 68; Tizard’s Committee for the Scientific Survey of, 14, 16–19, 21; see also radar
Airborne Corps, 349