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.
F/Lt Austin accompanies P/O Munroe in Whitley Z9146 to RAF Heliopolis, taking 3 passengers for parachute training. They return the same day.
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.
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.
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.
TNA AIR 20/8334, Encls. 133A (TENTERHOOK, HORNBEAM, TRIPOD 2) & 134A (DACE)
The 138 Squadron ORB records that P/O B.D.C. Gibson is posted to No. 138 Squadron from RAF Uxbridge on this date. As Sergeant Gibson he flew as John Austin’s 2nd Pilot on several sorties from June to October 1941. He has been commissioned and has flown several operations since November. For the move to Tempsford in March 1942 he is listed as ‘P/O D. Gibson’. Unless there is more than one P/O Gibson at this time the posting-date seems inaccurate. A S/Ldr C.F. Gibson is killed on a Czech operation in March 1943.
With only a couple of nights before the end of the December-January moon period, a poor weather forecast over Yugoslavia for the next few nights rules out any operations until the next moon period. Austin, or rather his Whitley, is not exactly welcome at Malta, for it makes a tempting target for the early-morning air-raids each and every day. Austin’s Whitley is sent back to Kabrit almost as soon as he can be refuelled and dispatched. He has been on the island less than 14 hours.
The Whitley (Z9159) carries five passengers, Yugoslav parachutists, for further training in Egypt. He takes off at five minutes to midnight, and lands in Egypt at 08.30 the next morning.
TNA AIR 20/8504, JBA report dated 16/2/1942.
Logbooks, S/Ldrs Austin and Livingstone
Conversations, S/Ldr Austin