December 8, 2003 No 9 I need your help AGAIN! Could you please explain what "Nickel Sorties" were? I understand they dropped leaflets, but what was written in the leaflets? I just KNOW you will have the answer!! Cheers Shirley
Er - I hope I'm not intruding here ! ( ) 'Nickelling' was the dropping of propaganda leaflets over Germany and Occupied Europe and was carried out throughout the duration of the war. You can see two such leaflets at ; - http://www.revolver66.freeserve.co.uk/pic_leaflet_1.jpg http://www.revolver66.freeserve.co.uk/pic_leaflet_3.jpg This task was often given to crews in training to give them experience of flying over enemy-held territory. For other crews, especially in Bomber Command, the duty was much derided. The comments of Sir Arthur Harris himself, in his memoir 'Bomber Offensive' , perhaps sum this up ; - 'My personal view is that the only thing achieved was largely to supply the Continent's requirements of toilet paper for the five long years of war' ( 1947 edn., p.36 ) 'I was entirely uninterested in the whole thing ; I have consistently regarded such methods of warfare as wholly ridiculous and a complete waste of time' ( ibid, p.116 ).
December 8, 2003 Hi Martin: Thank you so much for your speedy and interesting reply. Now I know. And, thank you No 9, also. Cheers Shirley
What a facrinating & usefull discussion thread. I cant offer a website, but 'Between Silk & Cyanide' by Marks was a interesting read on SOE. Marks was a cryptanalyst trained for Bletchly Park(Ultra & all that), but instead sent to SOE to assist in training agents in encoding messages and to "break" messages they had botched the encryption of (a very common problem). Although I have no idea of the veracity of Marks account his memorys of the various agents and leaders of SOE looks to be a very usefull look at SOE from the inside to supplement other sources.