Operation DACE
P/O Gibson has recently received his commission. Whereas it is normal RAF practice to post NCO aircrew to a new unit on receiving their commission, the specialist skills of SD aircrew means that many return directly to their previous squadron and carry on as before. The only appreciable difference is that they eat and drink in a different Mess, have less disposable income, and are more senior on the ground than they had been.
This operation is the second attempt to drop Sergent-chef Bourdat. Same target, different route: in the veteran Whitley T4166, Gibson also flies via Cabourg, but heads further south to pick up the Loire at Beaugency. Pinpointing there, he tracks eastwards to re-cross the Loire at Gien (spelled Gion in Gibson’s report). Continuing eastwards to Auxerre, he finds the town but the river is again mist-covered. Nevertheless the crew finds the target and circles the area for 30 minutes, but they see no sign of the expected reception committee. They take a more direct course to Cabourg, and return to Newmarket via Tangmere (which they never see but overfly) and Stradishall. They land at 03.40, having never flown above 2,000 feet the whole time because of what Gibson calls ‘the inclement weather’.
Operation to Chimay, Belgium
The information for this sortie comes again solely from the logbooks of P/O Austin and F/O Livingstone, his Wireless Operator. Livingstone records a sortie of 7.30 hours, with the aircraft as Whitley Z6728 and the target as Chimay, whereas Austin records the Whitley as Z9288; the flight duration is the same. There is a plausible explanation for the non-recording of these two sorties by Austin. Three nights later Austin and his crew will be despatched to Malta; writing up their recent operations will not have been a priority. They will not reappear until February, so Austin is absent from the customary frenzy of report-writing at the end of the moon period.
Unknown operation
The Stradishall Operation log records three Whitley sorties taking off and landing this night: aircraft ‘J’, ‘B’, and ‘F’. Which was which is unimportant, but it indicates another unrecorded sortie, about which nothing at all is known.
Sources
DACE
TNA AIR 20/8334, Encl. 112A
Operation to Chimay
Logbooks, S/Ldrs Austin & Livingstone
Unknown operation
TNA AIR 14/2529