Monthly Archives: February 1941

Monday, 10 February 1941

Operation SAVANNA is cancelled at 1110, and at 1315 3 Group agrees to allow W/Cdr Mulholland to fly tonight with 419 Flight.

At 1315 F/Lt Keast warns the Ops Office that a Whitley is going up to drop containers in ten minutes.
Stradishall has asked Dishforth if P5029 can operate from there tomorrow (11th). Dishforth answers: OK for the 11th only.

Stradishall

According to the Ken Merrick’s record from the Stradishall Watch Office, Whitley T4264 takes off at 2105 and returns at 0156. There is no other record of this sortie, or of the target. The pilot is F/O Oettle.

Stradishall – Fontainebleau

F/Lt Keast, with W/Cdr Mulholland as Second Pilot, takes off in P5029 at 00.40 (i.e. in the early hours of the 11th) and his route is to Caen via Abingdon and Selsey Bill. The weather is clear, but as they approach the French coast at 10,000 ft they can see cloud forming ahead. From there they fly on ETA towards Chartres. Approaching the city they descend through cloud, which extends from 6,000 ft down to 2,000 ft, and they are engaged by light flak and picked up by searchlights while they try to confirm their position. They then set course for Fontainebleau; on the way they are picked up by another searchlight at Etampes. Visibility deteriorates over the forest surrounding Fontainebleau. The cloud comes right down to the ground in places, and map-reading is impossible. They search the area for about 30 minutes before abandoning the operation. They set course for Stradishall, landing at 0645.

Monday, 10 February 1941

Stradishall

At 1110 Keast informs the Ops Office that Operation SAVANNA is cancelled for today.

At 1315 3 Group agrees that Wing Commander Mulholland should go tonight with 419 Flight. The Flight Commander is to go over to 3 Group at Exning (just outside Newmarket) to explain why he is unable to make up his crews.

The Flight is always operating on a shoestring, with barely two crews for two aircraft. One of the pilots on the Flight’s strength, F/O Ron Hockey, is recovering from ‘exhaustion’ and is still non-operational. Jack Oettle is with the other Whitley and its crew at Dishforth, waiting to operate. Keast has to scrounge a Second Pilot in order to carry out an operation tonight.

Wing Commander Mulholland, DFC, has recently completed a tour with 115 Squadron at Marham, another 3 Group Wellington squadron. A 32-year-old Australian who flew with Imperial Airways before the war, Mulholland was recently awarded the DFC for a raid in January, in which he made repeated runs over the Kiel Canal in the face of heavy flak before dropping his bombs. He has been given command of 3 Group’s Training Flight.

At 1357 F/Lt Keast informs the Ops Office that a Whitley is going up to drop containers in 10 mins time.

At 1510 Dishforth calls to ask if a/c can operate tomorrow. Presumably this means Jack Oettle. Dishforth is given the OK for the 11th only: Keast is informed.

Saturday, 8 February 1941

Stradishall

At 1200 F/Lt Keast informs W/Cdr Cameron (2 Group) that Operation SAVANNA has been cancelled for tonight.

At 1210 F/Lt Keast states that two aircraft will be operating tonight, but at 1905 the operations are cancelled.

Friday, 7 February 1941

Stradishall

At 1015 the Ops officer asks S/Ldr Knowles about 419 Flight and Blenheim operations. Operation SAVANNA has been planned so that a squadron of Blenheims from No. 2 Group, No. 107 Sqn, will bomb the port of Vannes as diversionary cover while 419 Flight drop the SOE/Free-French assassination team in the countryside nearby. The Blenheims will operate from Newmarket, presumably to aid coordination. The Ops Officer informs 3 Group that the operation is off.

Stradishall – ‘Brussels’

At 1105 the Station Commander states that two 419 Flight operations may be flown tonight, one of five hours’ duration, the other of six; weather permitting. (Stradishall has only one runway operational.)
At 0011 an unidentified Whitley takes off for Belgium, but the operation is abandoned early, presumably due to poor weather; the Whitley lands back at Stradishall at 0335. Keast’s logbook shows no record of such a flight, so this sortie was probably flown by Jack Oettle and his crew.