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.

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.