In order to boost my campaign to get the Mosquito FB.VI Series 2 added to AH in 1.08 I have decided to post a series historical Mosquito actions.
This is the first of those. It takes place in March, 1944 in Denmark.
Enjoy!
The Shellhaus Raid
In March, SOE in London received intelligence that twenty-six resistance and political prisoners held captive in the Gestapo HQ Shellhaus building in Copenhagen were to be shot on 21 March. The Free Danish Resistance movement had made repeated requests that the RAF should attack the building, even though most of the prisoners were being held in the top storey to thwart any attempt to bomb the HQ. Their possible death by bombing, as far as the Resistance was concerned, was not even a consideration as the situation was desperate. A message sent by Svend Truelson, the Danish Resistance leader, confirmed the worst: 'Military leaders arrested and plans in German hands. Situation never before so desperate. Remaining leaders known by Hun. We are regrouping, but need help. Bombing of S.D. Copenhagen will give us breathing space. If any importance at all to Danish Resistance you must help us irrespective of cost. We will never forget RAF if you come.' The Resistance members held in the attic would prefer to die by RAF bombs rather than be shot by the Gestapo.
Once resolved, Operation Carthage, as it was code-named, was a job for the low level experts in 140 Wing. To minimize the risks of flying over enemy territory, on 20 March Basil Embry detached eighteen FB.VIs of 140 Wing from Rosières-en-Santerre, to Fersfield, Suffolk, about 500 miles from the target. They would be escorted on the raid by thirty-one Mustang IIIs from 64, 126 and 234 Squadrons at Bentwaters, which joined the FB.VIs at Fersfield. The attack would be made at minimum height in three waves of seven, six, seven led by G/C R.N. 'Bob' Bateson DSO DFC AFC and S/L Ted Sismore DSO DFC, the leading tactical navigator.
Crews studied a model of the Shellhaus and were thoroughly briefed by Batesone and Svend Truelson. At 0855 on 21 March, the eighteen FB.VIs, each loaded with 11-second delayed action bombs, and two Film Photographic Unit Mosquitoes took off from Fersfield, followed a little later by the Mustangs. The weather was stormy with surface winds of 50 knots. Salt spray reduced visibility on the windshields. Landfall was made at Hvide Sand at 1020, and over Jutland the formation began to attract the attention of the German fighter controllers. They flew on, across the Great Belt and to the circular lake at Tisso on the island of Zealand where the formation split into their three waves. Sismore set course and Bateson led his wave of seven FB.VIs to Copenhagen with Embry and Clapham flying on his left. The FPU Mosquito and four FB.VIs of 21 Squadron followed. The leading aircraft in the second flight being flown by the CO, W/C Peter Kleboe, DSO DFC AFC, who had succeeded W/C V.R. Oates after he failed to return from a raid on 21 March. The Other waves circled to give 9 miles distance between them. The second wave of six 464 Squadron FB.VIs was being led by W/C Bob Iredale DFC with his navigator F/O B.J. Standish, and the third wave, comprising six FB.VIs of 487 Squadron (and an FPU Mosquito), was being led by their CO, W/C F.H. Denton DFC, who had flown the Aarnhus raid.
The first wave began their run-in as the flak guns opened up and one Mustang immediately went down. Peter Kleboe hit a 130ft high floodlight pylon in the marshalling yards 800yd from the target and went into a vertical dive. Three of his bombs struck a building and eight civilians were killed. The FB.VI finally crashed near the Jeanne d'Arc school in a pall of black smoke killing Kleboe and his Canadian navigator instantly. At 1114 Bateson's bombs hit the first ans second floors of the Shellhaus. Embry and Clapham, and then S/L Tony Carlisle, the deputy leader, got their bombs away. The last two FB.VIs, flown by S/L A.C. Henderson and F/L T.M. 'Mac' Hetherington, put their bombs through the roof of the Shellhaus before they scattered and exited the city at roof top height. Henderson was so low that Embry, below him, was forced down into the streets and they missed collision by only a few feet.
The leading three crews in the second wave were attracted by the smoke of Kleboe's wrecked aircraft. The other three FB.VIs, led by F/L Archie Smith DFC, realized the mistake and located the Shellhaus to the right of their track. Confusion reigned. Iredale decided not to attack and circled to come in again with Smith and they got their bombs away. One aircraft accidently bombed the school area and only a few of the remaining aircraft were close enough to the Shellhaus to bomb the target. F/L W.K. Shrimpton and F/O P.R. Lake RAAF had to orbit twice but the third wave was now coming in and they had to abandon their final run to avoid collision. They took their bombs home. Two other FB.VIs, crewed by F/O 'Shorty' Dawson and F/O F.T. Murray, and F/O J.H. 'Spike' Palmer and his Norwegian navigator, S/L H.H. Becker, were hit by flak and were forced to ditch in the sea. There were no survivors.
The third wave had navigation problems and approached the target area from the wrong direction. All but 1 of the FB.VIs bombed the Jeane d'Arc school by mistake. W/C Denton located the target, but saw so much damage that hw aborted his attack and jettisoned his bombs in the sea. F/L D.V. Pattison and F/Sgt F. Pygram's Mosquito was hit and they ditched in the sea close to the Swedish island of Hveen. They were seen standing on a wing, but they later drowned, as no bodies were recovered. W/C Denton nursed his flak damaged FB.VI back and belly landed in England. F/L R.J. Dempsey flew home on one engine and the second FPU aircraft, flown by American F/O R.E. 'Bob' Kirkpatrick with Sgt R. Hearne, of 21 Squadron, badly flak damaged, crash-landed at Rackheath, Norfolk.
When the results were known it made chilling reading. The Jeanne d'Arc school had been destroyed and eighty-six of the 482 children were dead, sixty-seven were wounded, and sixteen adults too were killed, another thirty-five wounded. Several others died around the target. Of the twenty-six prisoners in the Shellhaus, eighteen escaped, the remainder being killed in the building. If all of the aircraft had bombed the target, it is unlikely any of the prisoners would have survived. Four Mosquitoes and two Mustangs were lost for the loss of nine aircrew. The raid was deemed a success, not just by the RAF, but by the Danish Freedom Council who that night radioed SOE headquarters in Baker Street that the Shellhaus had been completely destroyed. The Gestapo records were destroyed and twenty-six Nazis and thirty Danish collaborators and sixteen civilians were killed. After the war a memorial was raised to the children and adults killed and to the Resistance.
De Haviland Mosquito by Martin W. Bowman, Pages 88-90
StSanta,
Do you have any comments to add about this event?
Thanks
EDIT: Made the text more readable and added the source info.
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We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother
Bring the Mosquito FB.MkVI Series 2 to Aces High!!!
Sisu
-Karnak
[This message has been edited by Karnak (edited 06-05-2001).]
