"Jericho Trumpets" over London, Kyiv, and Kharkiv: Air Terror and the Dispelled Myth of "Invincibility"...
Blogs | | 253 | Author: Olena Zelenina
Collage by Olena Zelenina.
…At first, in the British September sky, they heard a constantly growing hum, building up from everywhere, as if giant deadly bumblebees were swarming nearby. A moment later, the air was torn apart by the trumpeting wail of countless sirens. It approached, deafening, making ears ring and hearts contract!
These were those very famous "Jericho trumpets" — special sirens attached to Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers to sow panic and paralyze the will of civilians.
For us, Ukrainians, it is not difficult to imagine these feelings today. Over a thousand bombers in the sky over London simultaneously! The "Luftkrieg" or "Blitz" was unfolding at full power.
Luftwaffe aces flew synchronously, maintaining the distance between their wings with jewel-like precision. Their "Jericho trumpets" proclaimed, as it seemed to them, the end of Europe's last free island.
Göring's elite saved this "pleasure" for themselves for last. They flew beautifully and confidently, convinced that the empire, fixated on its navy, simply had nothing to oppose Germany with in the sky. Britain did not yet have an effective warning system for air attacks at that moment.
Bombs tore to pieces vital ports, industrial centers, and densely populated residential areas…
Flight time from captured airfields in France to the Island was no more than 20 minutes… The eternal "moat of the fortress" — the English Channel, which had protected Britain from invaders for centuries, lost its meaning in a single instant.
This was only the beginning of frantic day and night air raids that lasted until May 1941. Later, Hitler would need these bombers for a dash to the east…
But where did Germany, which was strictly forbidden to have a military air force under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, get such devastating air power and pilot training?
Britain and all of Europe paid dearly for carelessness and lulling the autocrat who "rose from his knees" and dreamed of revenge.
British intelligence performed shamefully. If it had worked better, it would have known: back in 1925, the German government and the USSR concluded a secret agreement with a primary focus specifically on the Air Force.
In Lipetsk (Voronezh Oblast), with Stalin's assistance, Major Stahr, one of the best German aces of World War I, created a top-secret aviation center (code-named Wivupal). In Soviet documents, German pilots passed under the touching name "Friends."
Read more in the Ukrainian edition....
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