Monthly Archives: January 1942

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.

Friday, 23 January 1942

RAF Kabrit

Austin flies Whitley Z9159 in a 35-minute experiment to use the rear door from 2,000′. The number of passengers (if any) is not recorded, so it’s not clear whether anyone jumped.

It is not known for certain that the rear door was enlarged, but it would have to have been altered to open inwards before they set out from the UK; and the aperture would almost certainly have been enlarged at the same time.

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.

Sunday, 18 January 1942

RAF Kabrit

F/Lt John Austin and 3 crew take Whitley Z9159 up for ‘local flying’; this is likely to be parachuting practice for the ‘7 passengers’ entered in his logbook. The W/Op flies as Rear Gunner; over Egypt the threat of a German fighter incursion cannot be discounted. His logbook records that they take off at 14.20, and the flight lasts 2 hours 10 minutes – Austin’s records the flight lasting 30 minutes longer.

Monday, 12 January 1942

Kabrit – Heliopolis return

F/Lt Austin accompanies P/O Munroe in Whitley Z9146 to RAF Heliopolis, taking 3 passengers for parachute training. They return the same day.

Stradishall

Flight Sergeant Sgt Alvin Wilbert Reimer, RCAF, dies from his injuries at Haverhill hospital. He is buried in the local cemetery. He is twenty-one years old.