enigma
09-14-2006, 09:57 PM
HMS Barham after being struck by a German Uboat. (http://www.hmsbarham.com/images/ship/hmsbarhamcom-barham.wmv)
Now the "Strange but true" part:
Realizing an opportunity to mislead the Germans, and to protect British morale, the Admiralty censored all news of Barham’s sinking and the loss of 861 British seamen.
After a delay of several weeks, the War Office decided to notify the next of kin of Barham’s dead, but they added a special request for secrecy. The notification letters included a warning not to discuss the loss of the ship with anyone but close relatives, stating it was "most essential that information of the event which led to the loss of your husband's life should not find its way to the enemy until such time as it is announced officially..."
By late January 1942, the German High Command had realized Barham had been lost. The British Admiralty informed the press on January 27, 1942 and explained the rationale for withholding the news.
There is an interesting footnote to this story; At a seance in Portsmouth in late November 1941, Helen Duncan, a Spiritualist medium from Edinburgh, Scotland, announced that she had contacted a dead sailor who had told her that his ship, HMS Barham, had recently been sunk. Helen Duncan was not arrested in the aftermath of the Barham incident but later, when superstitious intelligence officers learned of the event, they feared that Duncan might reveal plans for the D-Day landings. She was convicted under the British Witchcraft Act of 1735 and sentenced to 9 months in prison.
Now the "Strange but true" part:
Realizing an opportunity to mislead the Germans, and to protect British morale, the Admiralty censored all news of Barham’s sinking and the loss of 861 British seamen.
After a delay of several weeks, the War Office decided to notify the next of kin of Barham’s dead, but they added a special request for secrecy. The notification letters included a warning not to discuss the loss of the ship with anyone but close relatives, stating it was "most essential that information of the event which led to the loss of your husband's life should not find its way to the enemy until such time as it is announced officially..."
By late January 1942, the German High Command had realized Barham had been lost. The British Admiralty informed the press on January 27, 1942 and explained the rationale for withholding the news.
There is an interesting footnote to this story; At a seance in Portsmouth in late November 1941, Helen Duncan, a Spiritualist medium from Edinburgh, Scotland, announced that she had contacted a dead sailor who had told her that his ship, HMS Barham, had recently been sunk. Helen Duncan was not arrested in the aftermath of the Barham incident but later, when superstitious intelligence officers learned of the event, they feared that Duncan might reveal plans for the D-Day landings. She was convicted under the British Witchcraft Act of 1735 and sentenced to 9 months in prison.