WW2 RAF Signal Message Form 96A D-Day Last Great Battle &Advance East

WW2 RAF Signal Message Form 96A D-Day Last Great Battle &Advance East

Code: 11169

SOLD

For sale is a very rare WW2 RAF Form 96 (A) Message Form. This is a hugely important historical document with huge historical significance. With the following code at the bottom left hand side: (GV712) Wt. 33428/2812. 11/44. B. & S. Ltd. 51-5321.

 

Message in centre: 

“From AOC INC. To all ranks second TAF. Best wishes to you all for this last great battle and the advance to the east. In association with the great air force now operating on Germany you have prepared the way for our armies in a truly magnificent manner. Now comes the final flurry and I know you will do even better. I want you to go all out but be calm and efficient. Congratulations warm thanks and again Best wishes. Message ends. The air officer commanding-in-chief wishes the above message to be brought to the attention of all ranks.”

 

The message is from HQ: Second TAF MAIN. In which this message is being sent out to the following units; Lists A,B, C, D, 2 RCP E, F, G, H, K,L,N,O,P, Adv COC.” No of Groups: GR. 

 

The Air officer commanding-in-chief responsible for his role in D-Day was Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet. And this is the person that would have produced the speech. With the leadup to the D-Day invasions in 1944, Harris was ordered to switch targets for the French rail network, a switch he protested because he felt it compromised the continuing pressure on German industry and it was using Bomber Command for a purpose it was not designed or suited for. By September the Allied forces were well inland; at the Quebec Conference it was agreed that the Chief of the Air Staff, Royal Air Force (Portal), and the Commanding General, U.S. Army Air Forces (Arnold), should exercise control of all strategic bomber forces in Europe. Harris received a new directive to ensure continuation of a broad strategic bombing program as well as adequate bomber support for General Eisenhower's ground operations. The over-all mission of the strategic air forces remained "the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial and economic systems and the direct support of Land and Naval forces". The several months of rest and refit had been useful to Bomber Command, and they were now able to put up well over 1,000 aircraft per raid.

 

After D-Day (6 June 1944), with the resumption of the strategic bomber campaign over Germany, Harris remained wedded to area bombardment. Historian Frederick Taylor argues that, because Harris lacked the necessary security clearance to know about ULTRA, he had been given some information gleaned from Enigma, but not informed where it had come from. According to Taylor, this directly affected Harris's attitude concerning the effectiveness of the post-D-Day 1944 directives (orders) to target oil installations, as Harris did not know the Allied High Command was using high-level German sources to assess exactly how much Allied operations were impairing the German war effort. As a consequence Harris tended to see the directives to bomb specific oil and munitions targets as a high level command "panacea" (his word), and a distraction from the real task of making the rubble bounce in every large German city.


 

AOC INC = Air Officer Commanding 

Second TAF= The RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) was one of three tactical air forces within the Royal Air Force (RAF) during and after the Second World War. It was made up of squadrons and personnel from the RAF, other British Commonwealth air forces, and exiles from German-occupied Europe. Renamed as British Air Forces of Occupation in 1945, 2TAF was recreated in 1951 and became Royal Air Force Germany in 1959.

 

This is an original signal message dictated to his secretary, then handwritten by a secretary then dictated to radio operator who then types it out on a signal message pad and send to all the recipients on the to section.

 

This will be sent via special delivery and dispatched within two to three working days. This document holds huge historic significance and a true piece of history. This is guaranteed originality money back guaranteed. This is the first time this historic document has been on the market in 76 years, since it’s creating on the 6th June 1944.