Operation CHEESE/FASTING

Operations to Norway would normally be flown from an RAF station in the far north, such as Wick or Kinloss. But this sortie is well within a Whitley’s range from Stradishall, for the target is near the south-west tip of Norway, a distance of less than 500 miles. The target is near the farm of Gunvald Tomstad at Helle, a small hamlet south of Flekkefjord.

The agents to be dropped are Odd Starheim and a wireless-operator, Andreas Fasting. (The use of the latter’s real surname as his RAF codename is an uncharacteristic lapse, though early codenames were sometimes a laboured pun on some aspect of the agent, perhaps to help desk-officers remember which codename applied to which agent.) Mark Seaman notes that his correct codename was ‘Biscuit’. They are to be dropped with two packages, presumably W/T sets.

Starheim had escaped from Norway to Scotland by sea in August 1940, and had been landed back in December 1940 as Operation Cheese, an intelligence operation by SOE. He recruited Tomstad in early 1941, and warned the British of the Bismarck’s sortie to the Atlantic in April. He escaped via Sweden in June 1941. Now he was to return to Tomstad’s farm.

P/O Smith takes off in Whitley T4166 from Stradishall at 20.25, and crosses the Norfolk coast at Cromer at 20.31. This is his first trip as skipper, and he was fortunate not to have been flying with Sgt Reimer on the 27th. The port airscrew has been giving him trouble, which may be a characteristic failure of the exactor control system for the airscrew pitch. Smith is able to climb to 8,500 feet, rather less than normal, before levelling out above scattered strato-cumulus.

At midnight he makes landfall ten miles south of Flekkefjord. The 2nd Pilot guides Smith to the target area: the agents are dropped at 00.23 from 2,900 feet, which implies that the target is on high ground. Two camouflaged canopies and one white one are seen to open, but the despatcher reports that he has four static lines; there is no repeat of the static-line failure (or failure to be clipped on) that caused the loss of Dr Carl Bruhn in December.

To disguise the aircraft’s purpose, leaflets are dropped over nearby towns Fede and Rôrvig (the latter unidentified). Seventeen minutes after dropping the agents the Whitley crosses the cast south of Flekkefjord, and they set course for base, climbing back to 8,500 feet for the return trip across the North Sea. Unsurprisingly they encounter icing, and gradually descend. They cross the north Norfolk coast at 2,000 feet just after 4 a.m., landing back at Stradishall at 04.45.

Sources

TNA AIR 20/8334, encl. 138A
‘Special Operations Executive: A new instrument of war’, Mark Seaman, p. 80