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15 Aug 1940

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USSR	Reference: 3/PPDT/T35

PRESS REPORTS ABOUT THE LUFTWAFFE AND USE OF GAS IN FRANCE (1940)

From:	LONDON
To:	MOSCOW
No:	887	15th Aug. 40

To JOHN [DZhON][i].

The press reports the following [1 group unidentified] Germans.

1. Before the main air-raid small groups of aircraft travelling ahead lay a screen of white smoke. Large groups bomb a few minutes later under cover of the smoke.

2. Single aircraft and small groups have the job of shooting up barrage balloons.

3. Ju-88's are equipped with an instrument for bringing the aircraft out of a dive and releasing bombs at the same time. The instrument operates on the aneroid principle.

4. After the German airmen from shot-down aircraft get down on the water they release a green smoke cloud which can be seen by an aircraft at a distance of about five miles.

5. The daytime raids by the dive-bombers are allegedly mounted in most cases at a height of 2,500-3,000 metres. They peel off from this height down to 1,500 metres and go into a dive.

6. The German Commandatures used small amounts of colourless and odourless gas on the MAGINOT LINE and at LIEGE. A medical man who has been treating soldiers suggests that this gas was of the araine type [MYShYaKOVO-VODORODNOGO SOSTAVA].

No. 226

DICK [DIK][ii]

Comments:	[i]	JOHN: Unidentified MOSCOW addresssee 6th July 1940 - 16th September 1940.
	[ii]	DICK: Covername of unidentified LONDON signatory and addressee between 6th July 1940 and 11th October 1940.

ww2dbase

Source(s):
United States National Security Agency

Added By:
C. Peter Chen

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