Authors: Martin Bowman
Tags: #Bisac Code 1: HIS027140
On 9 March the Renault works at Le Mans was bombed by fifteen Mosquitoes of 105 and 139 Squadrons, which were met by a hail of flak that severely damaged one aircraft that nevertheless made it back to crash land at Marham. Another Mosquito flown by Squadron Leader Robert Beck ‘Bob’ Bagguley
DFC
and Flight Lieutenant Charles Hayden
DFC
of 139 Squadron failed to return. No trace of the crew was ever found.
On 12 March twelve Mosquitoes of 105 and 139 Squadrons led by Squadron Leader ‘Reggie’ Reynolds and Pilot Officer ‘Ted’ Sismore were briefed to attack the John Cockerill steel and armament works in the centre of Liège. At briefing, which lasted two and half-hours, the briefing officer stated that two crack fighter units had recently been moved to Woensdrecht, south of Rotterdam and that they had recently been re-equipped with Fw 190s. (II./JG1 at Woensdrecht was equipped with thirty-five Fw 190A-4s of which twenty were serviceable). Allowing for several dog-legs, flight time to target was between 2 and 2½ hours. Attacks of this nature were normally planned for dusk or just before dark so that the Mosquitoes could return to England individually under the cover of half-light or darkness. Bombing had to be carried out very accurately indeed to keep losses to a minimum and this task was given to the shallow dive section led by Squadron Leader John V. Berggren of 139 Squadron with his observer Peter Wright. Berggren had by now completed almost sixty operations. In peacetime Wright was a ‘serious minded’ schoolmaster.
At 15.30 hours all twelve Mosquitoes taxied out onto Marham’s huge expanse of grass and after warming up their engines took off 10 minutes later. They headed south to Romney Marsh and Dungeness before flying across the Channel to France and up and over the cliffs to the west of Cap Gris Nez then on across the heavily defended Pas de Calais at nought feet. Finally, the Mosquitoes, seldom flying at more than 100ft and keeping echelon formation on the leader, picked up the River Meuse which led straight in to the target. At around 5 miles from the target the Mosquitoes of 105 Squadron split from the rest of the formation and each aircraft went straight in at low level to drop their four 500lb, 11-second delayed action bombs. These burst in the target area as Bergrren and his six Mosquitoes hurriedly climbed to 3,000ft and then dived onto the target to release their four 500lb bombs with instantaneous fuses. The Mosquitoes were buffeted by the concussion from the bombs and hit by flying debris, bricks and mortar but every aircraft made it through. Turning away to the north the crews could see a huge mushroom of smoke building up over the main target area. Leaving the target the formation broke into individual aircraft and raced for the Scheldt Estuary at 280 mph in gathering dusk. The Mosquitoes had to climb to 200ft to avoid HT cables, which criss-crossed Belgium and France. Bergrren and another 139 Squadron Mosquito flown by Sergeant Robert McMurray Pace and Pilot Officer George Cook overflew Woensdrecht and were fired on by anti-aircraft guns. Bergrren evaded by squeezing every last modicum of power from his Merlins by pushing the RPM control into the fully forward position, opening the throttle fully and pulling the ‘panic valve’, a lever which when pulled produced full supercharger pressure on both Merlins. Berggren glanced up and saw a flicker of flame emerge from the port engine of Pace and Cook’s Mosquito that quickly became a flaming torch as the tanks in his port engine caught fire. In a long stream of bright light Pace crashed on the runway of Woensdrecht airfield and was smashed to smithereens on impact leaving a stream of burning debris in its wake. Berggren began counting the silhouettes of Fw 190s entering their circuit and was alarmed to see that there were twelve pairs of Focke Wulfs in the sky. Bergrren went even lower down to nought feet and exited the area at high speed with all the anti-aircraft guns that could be brought to bear firing at him. He did not return the ‘panic valve’ to its normal position for several minutes and he did not really relax until they were over the North Sea!
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On 16 March sixteen Mosquitoes led by Bergrren made low level and shallow dive attacks on roundhouses and engine sheds at Paderborn. One Mosquito flown by Flight Sergeant Peter J.D. McGeehan
DFM
and Flying Officer Reginald C. Morris
DFC
was lost. On 17 March Acting Wing Commander John ‘Jack’ de Lacey Wooldridge
DFC
*
DFM RAFVR
took command of 105 Squadron. Wooldridge had joined the RAF in 1938 and flew two tours (seventy-three operations) on heavy bombers prior to taking command of 105 Squadron, including thirty-two ops on Manchesters. For the last three months he had been attached to the tri-service PWD [Political Warfare Department] working on the FIDO (Fog Installation Dispersal 01) system.
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On the 20th twelve Mosquitoes carried out low-level attacks on the engine sheds and repair shops at Louvain and another target at Malines in Belgium. The 139 Squadron leader was shot-up by flak over Blankenburg and crashed at Martlesham Heath with the loss of both crew. On 23 March ten Mosquitoes of 139 Squadron, led by Wing Commander Peter Shand
DFC
and five of 139 Squadron led by Flight Lieutenant Bill Blessing
DFC
attacked the Compagnie Génèrale de Construction des Locomotives Batigniolles-Chatillon at St. Joseph two miles north-east of Nantes at low level. The raid was timed to perfection as factory workers finished work. Next day, 24 March, three Mosquitoes of 105 Squadron were sent on a Rover operation to shallow dive-bomb trains and railway lines within specified areas in Germany. Sergeant H.C. ‘Gary’ Herbert
RAAF
in 105 Squadron had the line between Hamm and Bielefeld, a four-track line:
We got a bit of light flak on the way in at the coast and also east of Osnabrück but we weren’t hit. When I reached the line I found plenty of trains and stooged up and down the line dropping one bomb at a time. Stopped two trains; I don’t know whether they were derailed or not and blew about half a dozen trucks of another off the line and down the embankment. We carried a vertical camera and also a cine camera in the nose. Made six runs altogether and then went down to the deck to get photos with the cine. On the way back we passed over a small village and all hell broke loose. Tracer came from all directions. I slammed everything wide open and jinxed all over the sky but they were good gunners and hit us, plenty with cannon shells. Tore a hole a foot across in my port engine fairing. The starboard engine began vibrating badly and I shut it off. I tried it again later and it was OK. At the coast again small cannon and Bofors gave us a hot reception and we hand to jink plenty to dodge getting hit again. Got back to base and found that Squadron Leader Reynolds had done a belly landing on the flarepath, so I had to land at Swanton Morley. ‘Groupie’ [Group Captain Wallace H. ‘Digger’ Kyle
DFC
] was pleased with our effort.
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On 27 March 139 Squadron dispatched six aircraft on another low-level raid on the Stork Diesel Works at Hengelo. The bombing results at debriefing were described as being uncertain; though photographs showed many near misses. On this occasion serious damage was done to the primary target although nearby houses were hit once again. Henk F. van Baaren attended a funeral for the first time in his young life when a 17-year-old boy from his school and a member of the same gymnastic club that he attended, was killed.
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On 28 March seven Mosquitoes led by Flight Lieutenant ‘Flash’ Gordon were despatched to attack the railway marshalling yards at Liège but rainstorms reduced the evening visibility to half a mile and instead he led the aircraft in an attack on a factory north of Valbengit Bridge at Liège. They were spotted by
Unteroffizier
Wilhelm Mayer of 6th
Staffel
JG26 heading towards Dunkirk at low level and
Oberfeldwebel
Adolf ‘Addi’ Glunz and three other Fw 190s of 4./JG26 were sent off from Vitry immediately. They intercepted the Mosquitoes after they had bombed and the Mosquito flown by Flying Officer George Bruce
DFM
and Flying Officer Dick Reilly about 18 miles east of Etaples and Sergeant George Leighton and Sergeant Thomas Chadwick. Glunz was credited with shooting down both the Mosquitoes south of Lille in the space of a minute. All four airmen were later buried in Lille Southern Cemetery. (Glunz finished the war with seventy-one confirmed victories).
On 30 March ten Mosquitoes of 139 Squadron led by Wing Commander Peter Shand
DFC
set off to bomb the Philips Works at Eindhoven which was about ready to begin full production again. The attackers switched back over Holland, dodging flocks of seagulls over the Zuider Zee and tearing over Eindhoven once more at zero feet. Pilot Officer T.M. Mitchell, who brought up the rear of the formation, saw the full effect of the strafing as he banked to turn for home. ‘As we came in to attack I saw the Wing Commander’s bombs, which were timed to go off a short time after impact, fall into the buildings as we skimmed over the roof-tops. Then I let our own bombs go right into the middle of the factory. As I circled after the attack I saw the whole building become enveloped in smoke with huge red flashes as the bombs exploded.’ the Mosquitoes could only hit the corner of the factory. Pilot Officer Hay, a South African from Pretoria, saw V-signs flashing from Dutch homes in the failing light.
The next day, 1 April, six Mosquitoes of 105 Squadron led by Wing Commander Roy Ralston and four of 139 Squadron led by Squadron Leader John V. Bergrren, bombed a power station and railway yards at Trier and engine sheds at Ehrang respectively from 50-400ft. Bombs from the first formation were seen to fall in the middle of the railway workshops, throwing up large quantities of debris followed by showers of green sparks. Bomb bursts were also observed on the power station followed by a sheet of flame, which rose to a height of 100ft. The attack by the second formation on Ehrang resulted in a huge explosion and a red flash from a coal container. One bomb was seen to bounce off railway tracks into a house, which was blown to pieces. On leaving the target area smoke was seen rising to about 1,500ft. No aircraft were lost although a Mosquito of 139 Squadron, which was hit by blast from bomb bursts and also by flak returned on one engine with gyro artificial horizon and turn-and-bank indicator out of action and landed safely at Manston. Another 139 Squadron Mosquito, which was hit by flak on crossing the enemy coast lost its hydraulics and was unable to open its bomb-bay doors to bomb and abandoned the strike.
Two days later on Saturday 3 April, a warm spring day, Wing Commander Wooldridge led his first 105 Squadron operation and eight Mosquitoes carried out Rover attacks on railway targets in Belgium and France. All three of 105 Squadron’s Mosquitoes returned safely from attacks on locomotive repair sheds shops at Malines and engine sheds at Namur but a Mosquito of 139 Squadron was lost. Flying Officer W.O. Peacock and his observer, Sergeant R.C. Saunders, were shot down by
Oberfeldwebel
Wilhelm Mackenstedt of 6./JG26 3 kilometres south of Beauvais for the German pilot’s sixth and final victory.
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Jean Hallade, a French Resistance leader, witnessed one of 139 Squadron’s Mosquitoes flown by Canadian Flying Officer A.B. ‘Smokey Joe’ Stovel and Sergeant W.A. Nutter attack the Tergnier marshalling yards after a second aircraft had been forced to return shortly after take-off with faulty instruments. Hallade remembers:
It was 7.30pm and, while people were enjoying the cool of the evening, a twin-engine aircraft flying at low altitude and high speed suddenly appeared from the south of Chauny. It banked left over Chauny level with the poplars along the River Oise. The Mosquito made another vertical right-bank and returned at full speed. Confused by the darkness and the landscape the Mosquito crew missed Tergnier, which is 5 kilometres away from Chauny. Catching sight of tracks going in and out of some warehouses stacked with fertiliser, the Mosquito crew thought it was Tergnier’s locomotive sheds. On his second pass they dropped four 500lb bombs. Two hit the chemical warehouse belonging to Saint-Gobain Cie but only one of them exploded, destroying one of the warehouse wings and creating a huge cloud of dust. The third fell into the silt of the River Oise and the fourth landed in a garden where it partially demolished a house a few metres away from the Saint-Quentin canal. There were no victims, although one of the bedrooms of the house belonging to the Arnoulds was damaged. Fortunately, a few minutes before the bombardment, Simone, their 20-year old daughter had left that room where she was having a rest, not feeling well that day. She could have been badly wounded. On 15 April the unexploded bomb was found in a heap of fertiliser, creating panic among the staff who were in charge of packing. The German Army Ordnance later defused the bomb. Four months later Simone Arnould married Jean Martin, who had been a bomber pilot in June 1940 when the defeat of France occurred.
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On 11 April four Mosquitoes of 105 Squadron led by Squadron Leader Bill Blessing
DFC
and his navigator Flight Sergeant A.J.W. ‘Jock’ Heggie ventured to Hengelo to bomb the Stork Works. This was the tenth and final low-level attack by 2 Group Mosquito IVs on the long-suffering town. Light was failing and visibility about 3 miles with 10/10ths cloud at 3,000ft when the formation was intercepted at 50ft by two formations of three Fw 190s before reaching the target. One section of Fw 190s fired a burst of two seconds and then they broke off to starboard to attack two of the Mosquitoes. Flying Officer Norman Hull
RCAF
and Sergeant Philip Brown, No.3 in the formation, were intercepted by four Fw 190s who came in from starboard and opened fire for about fifteen seconds at a range of 350 yards. The Mosquitoes carried out evasive action by turning into the attack, weaving and gaining and losing height between 150-200ft and increasing speed. After making one attack, the enemy aircraft broke off and wheeled round to attack Z-Zebra flown by Flying Officer David Polgase
RNZAF
and his observer Flight Sergeant Leslie Lampen.
Z-Zebra
was shot down by
Unteroffizier
Gerhard Wiegand of 2./JG1 and crashed in a wood near Bentheim, Germany with the loss of both crew. Flying Officer F.M. ‘Bud’ Fisher, an American pilot from Pennsylvania and Flight Sergeant Les Hogan were unable to bomb the primary target and attacked a train in the area instead. Blessing pressed home his attack from 50ft and he dropped his bomb load directly onto the Stork Works causing severe damage to the plant. The Resistance seems to have signalled London that the Stork and Dikkers factories should no longer be considered targets, as production of war machinery had stopped.
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