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Operation Corona was a Royal Air Force (RAF) initiative to confuse German nightfighter defences during RAF bomber raids on German cities during World War II.
The RAF used both native speakers and people who could speak German to a standard where they could be taken for a native speaker to impersonate German air defence officers. They initiated communications via radio with German night fighter pilots and countermanded previously given orders, thus reducing the efficiency of German air defence.
Operation Corona was made possible because before the war many people, mostly Jews, had fled Nazi Germany and some of them had settled in the United Kingdom. These people were very valuable to
OPERATION CORONA - Claire's story
Conflicts in 1943 World War II aerial operations and battles of the Western European Theatre History of the Royal Air Force during World War II Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom World War II deception operations {{RAF-stub
Operation Corona was a Royal Air Force (RAF) initiative to confuse German nightfighter defences during RAF bomber raids on German cities during World War II.
The RAF used both native speakers and people who could speak German to a standard where they could be taken for a native speaker to impersonate German air defence officers. They initiated communications via radio with German night fighter pilots and countermanded previously given orders, thus reducing the efficiency of German air defence.
Operation Corona was made possible because before the war many people, mostly Jews, had fled Nazi Germany and some of them had settled in the United Kingdom. These people were very valuable to RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...
, since between them they natively spoke any German accent and hence were capable of countermanding the orders given from the senior German officers in the Air Defence headquarters, and so could redirect the nightfighters to other targets or give them orders to land immediately at an airbase.
The first use of Corona was during a bombing raid on the German industrial centre of Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
on the night of 22 to 23 October 1943.
In response to ''Corona'' the ''Luftwaffe'' replaced male fighter controllers with females. The RAF countered this by using German-speaking personnel from the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
See also
*Aspidistra (transmitter)
Aspidistra was a British medium wave radio transmitter used for black propaganda and military deception purposes against Nazi Germany during World War II. At times in its history it was the most powerful broadcast transmitter in the world. Its ...
* List of World War II electronic warfare equipment
Notes and references
External links
OPERATION CORONA - Claire's story
Conflicts in 1943 World War II aerial operations and battles of the Western European Theatre History of the Royal Air Force during World War II Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom World War II deception operations {{RAF-stub