Warning to looters, 1940. Although no looters were executed, the maximum penalty on summary conviction was increased from six months to one year. (Author’s collection)
‘Trekkers’ from Southampton, December 1940. (Author’s collection)
First World War atrocity propaganda is echoed in this British magazine cover from May 1940. (Author’s collection)
Rudolf Hess pictured at home (left) (© Wolf Rudiger Hess) in 1939/40 and at Nuremberg in 1946 (After the Battle). Even allowing for five years in captivity it is hard to believe that the later photograph is of a different man.
This Heinkel III brought down in Dorset in May 1941 is equipped with a cumbersome balloon fender. In fact four times as many Allied aircraft fell victim to barrage balloons than did German. (After the Battle)
A cloth swastika laid out by German paratroops near the Moerdijk Bridge in Holland, 10 May 1940. Markers of this kind were mistakenly identified as the work of the fifth column. (Author’s collection)
The two skulls found in Berlin in December 1972. The more photogenic ‘Bormann skull’ on the left is in fact that of Dr Ludwig Stumpfegger, Hitler’s doctor. (After the Battle)
Gunther Prien dines with Hitler following the sinking of the Royal Oak at Scapa Flow in October 1939. (After the Battle)
A propulsion unit from one of Prien’s torpedoes, recovered from the sea bed some years later. This relic disproves allegations that the Royal Oak was sabotaged, and that Prien never entered Scapa Flow. (After the Battle)
Police examine one of the bogus sabotage sets dropped over England in August 1940. (Author’s collection)
The myth of Hitler’s supposed doubles is reflected in this French newspaper clipping from 1944. (Author’s collection)
A camp caricature of Hitler by Thomas Theodor Heine, printed in the left-wing journal Tage-Buch in 1930. (Author’s collection).
This suggestive report from the Daily Express in September 1934 prompted a libel writ from Hitler’s ‘Putzy’, Dr Ernst Hanfstaengl.
A mischievous German take on the death of General Sikorski from the magazine Das Reich in 1943. The original caption reads: ‘I’ll put my cards on the table, General. I am from the British Secret Service. You don’t fit with Britain’s plans any more – Will you take tea, or do you prefer an aeroplane?’ (Author’s collection)
The original Foo Fighter headline, 13 December 1944.
A speculative illustration (published in 1959) of a supposed German ‘flying disc’. (Author’s collection)
A remarkable photograph of searchlights and anti-aircraft fire during the phantom air raid on Los Angeles in February 1942. (Author’s collection)
A facsimile death certificate for Heinrich Poncke, one of several dozen German soldiers washed ashore on the south coast of Britain in the autumn of 1940. (Courtesy of the County Registrar of Sussex)
A sea flame barrage in action at Studland Bay, Dorset. (Author’s collection)
In 1954 the German film biography Canaris suggested that Operation Sealion was cancelled after the Abwehr chief revealed the existence of British flame weapons to the German High Command. (Author’s collection)
In 1939 Polish cavalry fought as dismounted troops, rather than charging tanks. (Author’s collection)
A selection of headlines detailing the Invasion That Never Was.
The silliest myth of the war? From the Daily Mirror, April 1941.
Two titles from 1940 which fuelled the fifth column myth. (Author’s collection)
Copyright
First published in 2003
First published in paperback 2004
This edition first published in 2009
Reprinted 2013
The History Press
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This ebook edition first published in 2014
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© James Hayward, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2014
The right of James Hayward to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9553 8
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Myths & Legends of the Second World War Page 34
