From the Stradishall Ops Officers’ log: At 16.45 the adjutant reports:
11 American congressmen Isolationists are coming to see the station & are staying the night. They are not to go to briefing, & are to know nothing about 138 Sqn.
TNA AIR 14/2529
P/O Leo Anderle arrives with his Czech crew from No. 10 OTU, Abingdon. His is the first Czech crew to be allotted to 138 Sqn for Special Duties work. There are also three Polish crews under training for SD work, and they will be converted to the Halifax. Bohemia, the western part of Czechoslovakia, is within the Whitley’s operating range, but Operation ADOLPHUS had shown the impracticability of using a Whitley for Polish operations. In 1939 the western border of Poland was considerably further east than it is now – much of what is now western Poland was then part of Germany.
The AOC No. 3 Group writes that the move to Tempsford will be delayed due to labour shortages.
P/O Austin flies Z6728 for 1hr 30 mins for W/T experiments. He also flies for 1hr 30mins as 2nd pilot to F/O Hockey in Z9159 (though Hockey records it as Z9125) from Base to Farnborough to Hendon. These experiments continue over the following two days. They may be related to either the S-phone or the Rebecca/Eureka systems.
For months, almost as far back as March when the Flight had been forced to add an extra digit for the Canadians’ administrative convenience, several senior officers had been manoeuvring for the creation of a Special Duties unit of squadron strength to service the increasing level of demand by SOE. Air Marshal Harris, who as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS) had effectively blocked any expansion of SD air operations, had departed for the USA in June, leaving his post to AVM Norman Bottomley.
Teddy Knowles had been promoted to Wing Commander on 27 June, and would continue to command the unit, now to become No. 138 Squadron. In the First World War it had been a bomber squadron, disbanded with the peace. Knowles had played a full part in the Flight’s operational schedule. From now he would fly fewer operations, not least because he was running out of operational flying hours.
For those at Newmarket little would change for some time: the squadron was to be operated on an ‘enhanced Flight’ basis. This meant, in effect, that expansion would be gradual, with only one or two additional crews available for operations. Meanwhile, General Sikorski had been agitating for the creation of a Polish SD Flight intended create an ‘air bridge’ to supply the Home Army in Poland. Nor was the Czech government-in-exile to be left out. The joint pressure resulted in Bottomley allocating one Polish and one Czech crew to 138 Squadron. On 11 August two Polish crews had been sent to OTU for conversion, and a Czech crew followed. They would be tasked as all the other members of the squadron, according to the operational needs, not just to targets in eastern Europe.
W/Cdr Knowles writes his report to DDI2 (Deputy Director, Air Intelligence Section 2) on the June moon-period’s operations:
Very bad weather conditions were prevalent during the whole of the period, and it was impossible to complete the programme.
From the 4th June to the 10th, operations were scheduled on all nights bar one, and each time they were cancelled.
Sgt Austin has been despatched to Ringway for a week-long course, where he will learn how to do agent-dropping according to the book. His crew’s determination to carry out operations is recognised in Knowles’s report:
I would like to bring to your notice the conduct of Sergeant Austin’s crew, they carried out three operational flights on three consecutive nights and their conduct has been most praiseworthy in attempting to complete their particular operations under very bad weather conditions.
TNA AIR 20 / 8334, Encl. 26A.