What code names did the British give to the jamming…

What code names did the British give to the jamming against Knickebein and to the system itself?

Short answer

The British gave the Knickebein system the code name Headache, which the RAF also applied to its beams, and called Aspirin both the efforts to jam it and the transmitters that mimicked its signal. The name Knickebein itself means "bent leg," after the shape of the antennas.

Published: November 4, 2026 · Updated: November 4, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

What code names did the British give to the jamming against Knickebein and to the system itself?

Bernhard antenna at Bredstedt 1945

"Headache", the system

The British gave the German system the code name Headache, and the RAF applied that same name to the beams. The German name, Knickebein, means "crooked leg", and it owed that name to the shape of the antennas.

"Aspirin", the jamming

The work to block the Knickebein was given the code name Aspirin. Under that same name, transmitters were built that imitated the beam signal. "Aspirins" was the name of the first jammers, simple jamming equipment used against the Knickebein beams. The founding commander of No. 80 Wing was Wing Commander Edward Addison, a signals specialist who had just returned from the Middle East.

The names of the other systems

British intelligence officers knew as "Ruffians" the system that used the X-Gerät apparatus, based on laying a main beam over the target, cut by two cross beams at points separated from each other and from the target by fixed intervals. The other system, the one that used the Y-Gerät apparatus, was known in the United Kingdom as "BENITO".