The Secret Battle For Britain

The dramatic story of Franz von Werra, famously the only Axis PoW to succeed in escaping and make it home during the Second World War, is told in the 1957 movie The One That Got Away. The film details von Werra’s interrogation by RAF intelligence in 1940, presenting an enlightening, but compressed, version of his treatment following his capture in the Battle of Britain. The script revealed a little of the tactics of his RAF interrogators, which so impressed von Werra that he was quick to tell the Luftwaffe High Command upon his return to Germany in 1941. Of course, von Werra was just one of many Luftwaffe airmen captured during 1939 and 1940. Many, if not all, were subject to processing and interrogation having been taken prisoner. Information was gleaned through ‘private’ discussions between senior officers and some lower ranks, obtained via covert microphones, as well as interrogation, stool pigeons. However, these tactics had been developed in the first months of the war and with the Battle of Britain producing vast quantities of PoWs, the new tactics were honed on these unsuspecting guinea pigs. The German airmen, most of whom at this stage of the war believed that victory was inevitable, provided Air Intelligence both wittingly and unwittingly, with a treasure trove of information which covered not only technical and tactical intelligence, but also possible war crimes, morale and more. Air Intelligence used tactics that any modern interrogator would recognise. The RAF also built up quite a library of information, much of it coming from what we now call ‘Open source’ material. This included newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts and information from previous prisoners. Carefully collated and analysed, in time, Air Intelligence built up a detailed picture of pilots, aircraft, units and the general social situation around a unit or airfield community. This book examines the development of Air Intelligence and its interrogation of Luftwaffe airmen from 1939 to the end of the 1940, providing a fascinating insight into a little-known part of both the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.