Category Archives: Operations

Tuesday, 27 January 1942

Kabrit to Malta

Since his return to Egypt on 8 January 8th Austin has had to wait for the new moon-period. In the meantime he travelled to Cairo and initially made arrangements to fly the Yugoslav operation from Derna, on the Libyan coast, but on the 21st he learned that the target had been changed for one further north, near Sarajevo. At more than 1,600 miles, this took the target outside the Whitley’s range from Derna. Austin therefore plans to fly the operation from Malta, then to return to either Derna or Martuba.
On the 21st Rommel put a spanner in the works by launching a probing counter-attack that met with poor resistance, the Allies disorganised. Rommel has advanced almost to the the Gazala Line, his old defensive position east of Derna and Partuba, which the Allies now defend. Austin flies to Malta on the night of 27th in order to carry out the operation. but he will need to return to Malta afterwards.

On the 25th Austin takes Z9159 up for a 20 minute Night Flying Training flight with his three crew, and an air test on the 26th. They set off for Malta a 22.25, and land at Luqa at 10.35 the following morning, presumably timed to evade the early morning raids.

Monday, 26 January 1942

Operation TURNIP

P/O Smith takes off at 21.48 in Whitley Z9287 ‘Z’, for a target near Almelo, Holland. At 00.43 the Whitley was over the ‘exact pinpoint’, but both agents refused to jump. This would normally have resulted in a train warrant and an immediate ‘Return to Unit’ (except it would have been to SOE’s ‘cooler’), but their refusal was judged by ‘T’ Section to be justified, for the ground was covered by snow. There was no reception committee arranged to disguise their landing; in Holland the agents’ tracks away from the landing site would soon have been discovered.

‘TURNIP’ is Leonard Andringa, with Jan Molenaar his wireless-operator. Somehow Molenaar appears to have not been given an SOE codename, though otherwise his file is fairly comprehensive.

P/O Smith re-crossed the English coast at 02.27 and landed back at Stradishall at 03.04.

Sources

138 Operational Summary: TNA AIR20/8458=9
TNA HS9/1048/4 Jan Molenaar SOE Personal file

Sunday, 25 January, 1942

Operations DACE, HORNBEAM, CYPRUS

P/O Leo Anderle takes on the operations that P/O Smith was unable to complete on the 10th. Anderle takes off at 19.15, and is over the target areas near Le Mans from 21.40 to 22.35. DACE is dropped two kilometres south of Mulsanne, and the other two are parachuted one kilometre south-west of Vermeil, stated by Anderle as eight kilometres north-west of Vaas. Four canopies are seen from the aircraft, but no-one sees any sign of a reception committee. This is unusual, for the normal procedure at a drop with a reception committee is to abandon and return another night. However we don’t know the orders for this particular sortie; as the previous attempt has failed, the pilot may have asked the agents what they want to do.

Anderle returns to Stradishall and lands at 01.30.

Operation OVERCLOUD II

OVERCLOUD is a Gaullist SOE RF operation to supply its agents in Brittany. The first OVERCLOUD was to drop an agent and some containers in December, first attempted on the 8th but flown successfully by Leo Anderle on the 12th.

Sgt Wilde is the aircraft captain for tonight’s sortie. The ATF indicates that the cargo consists of two packages and four containers. Otherwise, very little is recorded about his sortie: Wilde takes off at 19.20 in Whitley T4166. Poor weather conditions cause the operation to be abandoned, and Wilde lands back at Stradishall at 22.15.

Postings

Pilot Officer W.R. Austin is posted in to 138 Squadron from No. 51 Squadron, Dishforth. He should not be confused with F/Lt J.B. Austin, currently on detachment in Egypt.

Thursday, 22 January 1942

Operation MARMOSET, PERIWIG 1

This is the first sortie for which we have rely almost entirely (on the RAF side) for an operations report recorded in the ORB. A new document comes into play: a summary of operations, with a one-line record per sortie. It appears to have been compiled for the purpose of calculating operations statistics.

The ATF notes that MARMOSET is to be dropped using an ‘A’-type parachute, and to carry two pigeons, just as the first agents did. The target is near Mons.

P/O Smith takes off in Whitley Z9286, aircraft ‘Z’, at 20.05. He crosses the English coast 10 miles east of Beachy Head and sets course for Belgium. He is over the target at 00.35 but he is expecting a reception committee for MARMOSET, and there is no sign of one. Smith abandons the operation and returns to Tangmere, where he lands at 03.00.

The abandonment proves fortunate for MARMOSET, Achille Hottia: On the 28th we shall see why.

Saturday, 10 January 1942

This moon-period has not only been started slightly early, it has been extended slightly to include this sortie slightly after the Last Quarter. The long night allows a relatively short-range sortie to the Le Mans area of northern France, in an attempt to complete several outstanding operations. The urgency may explain why an SIS operation (TENTERHOOK) is flown in the same Whitley as two SOE agents (HORNBEAM and DACE). TRIPOD II is a two-container drop.

Operation TENTERHOOK, HORNBEAM, TRIPOD 2, DACE

P/O Smith takes off in Whitley Z9287 (‘K’) at 01.05, in the early hours of 11 January. After overflying Tangmere at 02.14 Smith climbs to 9,000 ft over the Channel. Encountering thick 6-8/10ths cloud en route, he crosses the French coast at Pte de la Percée at 03.00. He reduces height to 2,000 ft., but there is mist up to about 3,000 ft, giving him horizontal visibility of about 800 yards. He reaches the area of the first target, about 40 km south of Le Mans, at about 03.40.

The first target is for SOE agent HORNBEAM. HORNBEAM was originally intended to go in in October-November, and with another agent, MULBERRY, but he is now to be dropped with Sergeant-chef Bourdat (DACE), the wireless-operator intended for Laverdet (DASTARD). There is also a two-container drop called TRIPOD II.

The target is not identified by the 2nd Pilot, who is map-reading. They fly south to the Loire, where they get a fix at 04.00 and map-read back to the target. Both the 2nd Pilot and HORNBEAM positively identify the target but the expected reception committee is not there.

The precise target for TENTERHOOK is described as being about 1.5 miles ((2.4km) south of Vaas, in the centre of a triangle formed by the larger towns of Le Lude, Château-du-Loir, and Château la Vallière. This operation is unusual in that we have precise instructions on the TENTERHOOK target, reception committee, and signals from the ground. More unusual is that these instructions come from A.I.1(c), so TENTERHOOK is an SIS agent. The ground signal is to be a triangle of red torches, with the Morse letter to be signalled from a lamp at the windward end. But P/O Smith says so little about the second target that it is not clear whether he even makes an attempt to find the second target. Some time after their return to Stradishall, three quarters of an hour after Ron Hockey reports it, a signal is sent to the Air Ministry that TENTERHOOK has been unsuccessful.

P/O Smith writes a report for Operation DACE separate from the others. It is not clear why; it would have been understandable for a separate report to be required for TENTERHOOK, but not DACE.

Sources

TENTERHOOK, HORNBEAM, TRIPOD 2, DACE

TNA AIR 20/8334, Encls. 133A (TENTERHOOK, HORNBEAM, TRIPOD 2) & 134A (DACE)