Haddocks and the bombing of Northern Italy

   As German forces cut their swathe through northern France a large question mark began to hang over what Italy might do. Italy was neutral at the outset of the War but the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini held similar expansionist ambitions having taken Abyssinia and throughout the 1930s had been drifting into Germany's sphere. It was a consideration that the Allies had planned even before the German attack on the West with it being discussed in conference at Aden, Jerusalem and London. the French proposed a grand scheme that involved the RAF protecting Northern France and releasing the Armee de l'air to bases in the South and Tunisia which would cover Malta and attack Italian targets in Libya and Italy itself. Britain was lukewarm to the plan not wanting to commit the RAF to France on such a scale but promised to reassess should "the most need in war" require Tunisia to be reinforced. On the 3 May 1940 the Director of Plans laid out a strategy involving night attacks or with plenty of cloud cover if a day raid was attempted. Targets in Venice, Genoa, Milan and Turin were selected as the cities would be easily identifiable by the night crews and easier to find. The targets were mostly aviation industry factories such as Fiat in Turin, propeller, engine and frame work component factories around Genoa, Milanese airframe facilities and the main port at Venice which would hamper operations to shore up their positions in Albania. After these targets a list of secondary aeroplane factories was available as well as oil refineries and tank factories. Delayed action bombs were also to be used as the delayed explosions would cause a "powerful moral effect against the Italians, whose psychology was "ill-adapted to war."

   The first seeds of a forward British position in the South of France were laid out by the end of May with the aim of stationing four Wellington squadrons there. RAF strategists were keen to cut the range of their bombers and the range from the French frontier to Genoa, Turin and Milan is only around 150 miles which could equate to about an hour's flight rather than the ten or twelve the bombers based in England would face. Not everyone greeted it with enthusiasm with many in French circles fearing repercussions on French cities like Marseille for British actions. Barratt was also not enthused by the scheme as by 29 May his force had been practically wiped out and what was left was being stretched between defending a new line near Paris and trying to answer the desperate calls for support from the army. He wrote that;

   I recognise the value and possibilities of the plan, but am doubtful as to the weight of the attack that could be maintained against Italy on the slender administrative basis proposed, while I am certain that the introduction of a new force in France at this juncture must add materially to the risks of the present situation ¹

Vickers Wellingtons would make up the Salon based Haddocks 

Wheels were in motion though and the Supreme war council agreed the plan on the 31 May and with the aim of attacking as soon as possible a further meeting of the French and British Air and Naval staffs was convened on the 3 June in Paris. Despite the previous discussions the French were now wavering towards a naval bombardment of Genoa and there was  concern that the simple fact of four squadrons of bombers at the end of a line of communication, a line which could be broken at any time by the Germans in the North leaving them stranded 600 miles from home were hardly going to shatter Italy alone despite the RAF Air staff' s optimistic view that an attack, however small and brief might cause "effects of outstanding importance.” Barratt was given only administrative control over the new force and responsibility for establishing their bases and logistics but not given operational responsibilities.

   Group Captain Field of 71 wing was placed in command of the newly dubbed "Haddock force" and he moved from Nantes, where he had been based following his units withdrawal on 17 May, to the French airfields of Salon and Le Vallon which sat 30 miles away from Marseille and about 250 miles from Turin. Field organised the incoming fuel and ammunition trains and a week later on the 10 June he reported all was ready. Barratt had even been able to donate some of the AASF'S Bofors guns and a battery of thirteen 3 inch guns which had been at Nantes and whose defences were due to be reinforced by more units from Britain though they had not arrived by the 10 June.

     There had of course been a chance of plan as the situation in Northern France deteriorated and the AASF and Air component withdrawing to Nantes, Rennes, and ... whilst the BEF were withdrawing from Dunkirk. The Air staff, presumably not wishing to risk personnel and invaluable aircraft had instead decided to a squadron down for two nights then replace it with another one with operations being escalated if the situation improved. There was also a shortage of fighter aircraft to act as an escort or for protection of the airfields as the three French squadrons who had been in the area on the 3 June were no longer there, three more could be sent if the British sent twenty squadrons to assist in the Northern sector - something Dowding was resisting as he felt that every available fighter would be needed for a German attack on Britain, and Barratt had none available from his command. It wouldn't mean much as RAF tacticians had appraised the weather over Italy as cloudy enough to provide cover for the day bombers and that in any event the Italian fighter force would not be adequate to intercept them.

   At 4:30 p.m. (Rome time) on the 10 June a declaration of war was handed to the French ambassador and to the British at 4:45 and Mussolini announced to a crowd from a balcony at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome that he had taken the country to war. The following day twelve Wellingtons were sent to Salon to refuel and arm for a night raid on Turin and would be reinforced by thirty six Whitleys who would fly to the Channel Islands to refuel before setting off. The Wellingtons duly arrived in Salon at 3:30 p.m. and the crews began to recover and rest after the seven hour flight and prepare for the evening's assault. Not more than thirty minutes later a staff officer for General Gama of the 11^th French Bombardment group telephoned a message from the General to say the mission was not to be carried out. Field called his superiors for more information and was told that the operation was indeed on and the Whitleys were already on their way. Further French authorities contacted Field to tell him that the operation must be cancelled and even Barratt was contacted by General Vuillemin requesting it were stopped. Barratt telephoned the Air Ministry and was redirected to speak to Churchill who was at that time in France at Weygand's headquarters and was given the go ahead. When Barratt passed the message to Field he was told that the Deputé de la Marine and General in charge of the region telling him the French Government had forbidden any raid to launch from French soil. Barratt called Ismay and Churchill again and was told that the Whitleys could not be stopped and that the French Government had agreed to the strategy beforehand and now it was too late and at 10:15 p.m. Barratt relayed all of this to Field. The situation was not resolved by this though and for the next two hours the telephone in Field's office continued to ring with protestations from the French including the Naval authority in Toulon and even the Commanding officer of the 3^rd Army, General Houdermon, telephoned personally three times but by twenty-seven minutes past midnight the first Wellington began to rumble along the runway but came to an abrupt stop as French military lorries spilled out of the darkness and dispersed to block the runways. The local air commander had been given orders to stop the raid at all costs. Field could do nothing but use force to deal with the invaders but decided with deteriorating weather and advanced hour that it was best to cancel the operation and let his superiors sort out a solution and his crews retired to bed.

Yorkshire based Whitleys flew through the Alps to the target area

   Meanwhile the Whitleys had reached the Alps and encountered major difficulties with the weather conditions. The bombers of 10, 51, 58, 77 and 102 Squadrons had left their bases in Norfolk in the early afternoon and arrived at Guernsey at 5:00 p.m. After three hours they took off for the Alps but severe icing conditions with many engines failing or extractor controls freezing up leaving the pilot unable to vary the pitch of the engines and gain altitude. There was also a chronic problem with fluid freezing up in the extractors piping and leak out of pin prick holes which veteran crews would refill the tubes with any fluid they had to hand which was normally coffee or urine. S/L Hanafin’s Whitley, having soldiered through the cold and cloud and dodged a barrage of from French flak, plunged headlong into a thunderstorm and was promptly struck by lightning which burnt the navigator, Sgt Green’s hand and causing Sgt Oldridge, who was leaning on his guns in the tail, to be blown into the fuselage and knocked unconscious. Hanafin also saw both engines stop and the aircraft begin to dive under the sheer weight of all of the ice on the airframe. At the last minute Hanafin managed to recover the craft and judging that he didn’t have enough fuel to cross the Alps was forced to retire with twenty three others for Guernsey.

   Those that were able to press on were struck by a combination of the beauty of the Alps below and above them as well as the relentless numbing cold for which there was little protection. The Whilety’s Oxygen system was also inadequate for long distance at high altitude which provided another source of discomfort combined with fatigue for the pilots and navigators who had been furiously concentrating since launching with only a few hours rest and they were only halfway.

   Once through the Alps they faced the new challenge of finding either the primary target of Turin or the clutch of secondary targets including Milan, Genoa, Savona or Maggiore. The target area at Turin was masked by thick cloud banks from 5-2000 feet despite the lack of a blackout. The Italian authorities had not expected any Allied bombing force attacking Italian soil and were caught out by the Whitley’s approach and quickly enforced a blackout in Turin but failed to do so in Genoa. Flak was “indiscriminate” but heavy without support from search lights.

   W/Cmdr Staton of 10 Squadron identified the target at Turin and spent sixty-five minutes over it marking it with flares to confirm his suspicions and to light it up for following bombers before commencing his attack at 1:30 a.m. with all of his bombs striking the southern end of the target building and starting green fires.

   Just ten minutes before F/Sgt Deacon of 51 Squadron attacked at 15,000 feet dripping his “2 500lb bombs and 5 250lb bombs… in one stick” causing explosions “right across the target.” He was followed at 1.44 a.m. by P/O Oettle who hit the north west of the works. F/L Budden spotted a “Self-Illuminated target, thought to be a blast furnace” and dropped a 500lb and three 250lb from 8000 feet before dropping the remainder on the Railway marshalling yards which is where Sgt Denny’s Whitley dropped all of its’ bombload. The only 58 Squadron Whitley to arrive flown by F/O McInnes claimed hitting the Aero engine shed, the railway tracks (“Causing green sparks”) and a building 300 yards away. Two Whitleys of 102 Squadron hit targets causing “Violent explosions” and fires.

   The remaining aircraft to make it as far as the target area dropped their bombs on Genoa where the city lights stayed on and like the raid over Turin put up persistent but accurate light flak which was unaided by search lights. Indeed Italy was ill prepared for an air offensive on its’ cities despite passing laws on preparation for aerial assault some

   In the coming weeks the French, who had been anxious not to provoke Italy into retaliatory strikes or an aggressive war on the ground found to their discomfort that the Italians were intent on crossing the border even if they were not aggressively bombing cities. Grudgingly they accepted Haddock force and no more attempts were made to stop them. On the 15 June, twelve more Wellingtons arrived at Salon and attacked Genoa's Piaggio and Ansaldo factories but their night navigation, which was hit and miss at the best of times, was interfered with by thunderstorms and only one claimed to have hit the target Ansaldo works whilst the rest brought their ordinance home.

   On the 16 June, the day the AASF's Fairey Battles were withdrawn from France and bad conditions kept the British based bombers on the ground, nine intrepid Haddock Wellingtons took to the sky to target Milan. Once over the border four made it through the pitch black and low cloud to hit targets in Milan including the Caproni factory and the Scato San Giovanni, one crew was certain that their bombs on the Caproni works but saw no results. In reality the explosions and fire reported did little damage and one person was killed. One of the other raiders bombed Genoa and the remainder found nothing at all and returned home to the news that Haddock was over and the whole force was to be evacuated and raids on Italy would be carried out exclusively by Britain based bombers.

   Haddock could be seen as a failure as it failed to cause any major damage or alter Italian public perception but the military situation in France dictated the amount of aircraft that could be deployed and even if they took off at all! Sadly the small number of aircraft operating in far from ideal conditions Field's command could not have done more.

   The operations of Haddock force were not the last to target Italy in 1940 with several long distance raids being carried out by Whitleys through the Alps in the Summer with it their bases in England being perversely closer to the industrial targets of northern Italy than if they were based at Malta. The journey was long and arduous with crews suffering even more from the cold and bad weather through the mountains than they had operating over Germany on Nickel missions and it was not uncommon for missions to Turin to be scrubbed at short notice due to the bad weather. It was not until late in 1940 that a squadron of Wellingtons operating from Malta, began to harass Italian ports around the Naples basin and occasionally fly further up to attack the northern industrial powerhouses but their attacks were no more than a nuisance and were soon kept in check by the combined aerial attack on the island and also by the arrival of German anti-aircraft batteries who made it harder for the RAF. A prolonged campaign against Italy would have to wait for better conditions and the availability of more aircraft.

1.         RAF official history France and the Low countries P. 410

The Battle of Heligoland Bight December 1939

The weather at Mildenhall on the 18^th was slightly overcast with a visibility of only four miles when W/Cmdr

Wellington Bombers

Kellett took off at 9.27 a.m. leading the rest of 149 squadron up and awaited the rest of the bomber formation but the delayed 37 sqdn’s Wellingtons were forced to catch up with the others an hour later some 100 miles across the North sea by which time the cloud had cleared allowing visibility of up to fifty miles! It was weather that Oberstleutnant Schumacher, commander of JG. 1, was jubilant to see, it would give his fighters the edge over any British raid, a raid that his adjutant believed the British would be foolish to attempt. Despite the sunshine the crews were aware of the numbing cold and tail gunners registered that the turret’s movements were sluggish as hydraulic fluid started freezing in the tubes combined with drafts blasting through gaps and chilling the crews to the bone.

   Kellett led the formation around the Frisian islands to avoid German early warning messages or unnecessary flak damage. By midday F/lt Duguid was forced to peel off with engine issues with F/Sgt Kelly acting as escort arriving back at Mildenhall some ninety minutes later. By 12:30 p.m. Kellett’s formation sighted Sylt and the dustbin turrets were lowered, their guns tested, and made ready. As they reached 12 miles out from Sylt the Wellingtons wheeled to starboard and made for the coast of Schleswig-Holstein on a detour to come in behind the German defencive lines, hoping to only face the flak line once as they left the area.

    The Germans had already detected their approach with Leutnant Diehl’s Freya radar station at Wangerooge and the Naval Freya on Heligoland itself reporting the British formations. This early warning could have seen the sizable German fighter force take off and engage the British before they approach Wilhelmshaven but a problem arose. The Naval station’s report became lost in the communications network passing from between the two services and arrived twenty minutes later. Diehl’s report was dismissed by an officer at JG. 1’s base at Jever as merely seagulls or interference so instead tried II/ JG. 77’s airfield at Wangerooge only to be told that Major von Bülow was at Jever and no order to scramble could be given. It was not until Naval observers on the ground reported 44 British bombers incoming that action was taken with six of Johannes Steinhoff’s 10/JG 26 taking off but stayed mostly clear despite AFC Coalter claiming a 109 seen spiralling towards the sea billowing black smoke.

   As the Flak grew stronger Kellett ordered the formation to turn for Wilhelmshaven to search for targets with the aid of the Naval observer in his aircraft who had joined them as a resident expert on German battleships. It was in these manoeuvres that problems began to develop with the port side formation losing position and F/Sgt Petts had trouble keeping up with the turn and could not get his formation leader, 9 squadron’s CO Archie Guthrie, to acknowledge his calls all whilst the German land based and naval Flak began to churn up the sky but despite getting the height was trailing behind the formation at first but getting closer. Below them lay the harbour and Germany’s newest battle-cruiser’s KMS Scharnhorst and Gneiesnau were plain to see and orders were passed to open bomb bay doors and prepare for a dive attack by 1000 feet but Kellett called off the attack believing that at the angle of attack there was a severe chance of passing over the warships and hitting civilian targets. With no obvious warships out in the roads or sailing around the Jade estuary the decision was made to turn for home despite one aircraft from 149 sqdn bombing a small group of auxiliaries that were firing at them and 37 Squadron bombing attacking another in Schillig roads.

   The pass over Wilhelmshaven had left 37 and 9 sqdn in a certain amount of disarray whilst Kellett’s 149

Recon picture of Schillig roads and Wilhelmshaven

were still in tight formation. S/ldr Hue-Williams of 37 sqdn, who were flying in a step formation, had accelerated to catch up with Kellett with his formation strung out behind him trying to keep up with him and F/O Lemon’s Wellington even further behind having been involved in an embarrassing accident in which the second pilot’s parachute harness had got caught on the flap leaver and inadvertently deployed them in the down position. Lemon thought he’d been hit by flak and dived for sea level where they were hit by light flak which destroyed the aircraft’s aerials. The formation became easy prey for the Germans with Oberleutnant Gordon Gollob bringing his Bf 110 across the stern of Hue-Williams’ N2904 peppering him with cannon shells sending him spiralling down towards the sea, his starboard wing on fire. The fire on 37 squadron was relentless and F/O Lemon’s crew battled to try and keep the stream of Bf 109s away. Interestingly in his report the following day Lemon makes reference to being attacked by a He 111 bomber but that it was “very probably shot down by the rear gimmer” (Air 27/364). The low altitude of Lemon’s bomber did provide his crew with relief though as two Bf 109s of II/ JG 77 approached firing only for Leutnant Stiegler’s wingtips to graze the surface of the sea and send the hapless German cartwheeling across the water before settling and sinking. Lemon made a break for it at sea level and arrived back at Feltwell at 3:30pm. Lemon would report that:

 When I saw the mass formation heading North, it was intact. One or two of the rear flights , however were straggling behind and would have been an easy target for fighting aircraft.
 
  Oberstleutnant Schumacher personally shot down F/O Lewis whose N2889 ploughed into the mudflats off Spiekeroog leaving no survivors before moving in on F/O Wimberley and heavily damaging his aircraft too. Leutnant Lent then closed in on F/O Wimberley nd fired a coup d’grace into the stricken N2888 which came down onto the sea and promptly sank with only Wimberley himself being picked from the water. Lent also attacked F/Sgt Ruse missing in his first pass but doing serious injuries to the crew. LAC Jones in the rear turret found his guns frozen up by the cold and unable to return fire and wounded in the foot and back he managed to pull himself away where he was treated by the navigator Corporal Fred Taylor who was quickly killed as Lent fired another burst into the Wellington hitting him in the head and back. Sgt Holley in the “dust bin” was killed by a second burst leaving him slumped half out of the turret. Lent left Ruse’s stricken aircraft to pursue and take down F/O Thompson’s Wellington totally obliterating the tail and LAC Stock’s turret and N2935 crashed into the sea beyond Borkum leaving no survivors but with the Observer, Sgt Tilley’s body being recovered later. Ruse managed to bring his shattered aircraft down on Borkum where the aircraft soon burst into flames. Sgt May climbed out of the aircraft nursing his wounded buttock followed by Ruse carrying the wounded Jones over his shoulder where they were soon picked up by a German patrol. With that 37 Squadron had been left with only one surviving aircraft and of those shot down only four surviving crewmen.

   Kellett’s formation had finally cleared the flak barrage by 1:30 p.m. completely unscathed but as they

Bf 110 Zerstorers

passed from it the cloud of Messerschmitts which had formed up descended upon them. It was an impressive formation consisting of II/ JG 77 (Major von Bülow) and III/JG 77 (Hauptman Seliger), I/ ZG 76 the newly arrived Bf 110 formations under Hauptman Reinecke, Major Reichardt’s Jadgruppe 101 and 10/ JG 26 Oberleutnat Steinhoff’s night fighter force. The German crews were keen to get airborne with Leutnant Lent getting so impatient with ZG 76’s armourer that he opened up his twin throttles and began taxing up the field forcing the unfortunate Schwarzman to slide off the wing and roll away from the tail section to avoid injury. Aircraft from 2/ ZG 76 were out over the sea on a familiarisation flight due to their recent arrival.  Staffelkapitän Wolfgang Falck was informed by radio and as soon as they saw the black bursts of smoke from the flak batteries led his formations in a charge towards the enemy. The Germans had learnt from their previous engagements and had studied the weak spots of the Wellington including the beam attack and to avoid stern attacks at all costs unless hitting them with cannon shells out of range of the British 303s and pressing attacks once the gunner was silenced. The biggest weakness was the wings which the attack on the 14^th had revealed where the lack of self-sealing tanks and armour left the possibility of losing precious fuel or worse case exploding. Unteroffizier Heilmayr of II/JG 77 caught one of the British bombers and was swiftly followed by Steinhoff whilst Falck homed in on 9 Squadron’s formation who were flying at full throttle to catch up with Kellett. Falck and his wingman, Fresia, made short work of P/O Lines and F/o Challis’ aircraft one of which burst into flames and disintegrated in mid-air, before moving on to Guthrie’s bomber. As Falck riddled the hapless leader’s Wellington with his four machine guns and two cannon he received mortal return fire from LAC Josias Key in the rear turret. Key’s fire was accurate and caused Falck serious problems;
My Starboard engine jerked to a standstill. Petrol streamed out from the wing, and it was a miracle the plane didn’t catch fire. As it was, Sergeant Waltz and I were hard put to prevent our ammo going up. The whole cabin was full of smoke. (Luftwaffe diaries p.75)


Falck popped the canopy to clear the dense smoke and turned for Jever on the one engine until that too lost power. Trying to avoid an explosion the remaining fuel was jettisoned and all of his ammunition shot away before turning to Wangerooge where he made a forced landing.

   Guthrie fared a lot worse as his Wellington was seen to crash some 20 miles from the Schillig roads but the surviving aircraft from his formation were certain he had destroyed the attacking Bf 110. F/O Allison who had led the second section of 9 Sqdn fell to Fresia before he too peeled away. In only a few moments the two Zerstörers had accounted for four of the six aircraft in Guthrie’s formation with no survivors but it wasn’t over yet for Macrae and Petts as the rest of 2/ ZG 76 began firing. Macrae’s wing fabric was shredded whilst his rear gunner struggled against the cold that had crippled his fingers and bullet wounds. The Starboard wing tank had been pierced as had rudder control and the roller bracket completely shot away leaving rudder control partially jammed. Pett’s fared little better from the attack and his “dustbin” gunner had to be pulled free and propped onto the rest bunk and then the forward gunner had to be pulled free having been wounded in the foot whilst the pilot attempted a manoeuvre that had been practised in drills with fighter command and closed his throttles down so that the approaching Messerschmitts would overshoot their target however it did give the 110’s tail gunners an opportunity to shoot at him. The worse news came when Sgt Robertson in the tail turret reported he was out of ammunition but thankfully there were no more Messerschmitts around them so Petts immediately turned for England at low altitude giving up hope of catching up with Guthrie and completely unable to defend himself.

   The starboard formation led by S/ldr Harris and formed of 149 and 9 squadron bombers held their formation tightly but unfortunately this made them easy targets for the Germans who sat out of range and poured fire into the formation. F/lt Grant would later remark “There was absolutely nothing we could do except sit there being picked off one by one.” (battle of Heligoland p.74) Both his and Sgt Ramshaw’s bombers had their fuel tanks holed and the latter’s turrets had jammed up. With his tail gunner, 21 year old LAC Walter Lilly mortally wounded Ramshaw turned N2983 for home but would never make it. With the fuel tanks leaking and severely damaged the 18 year old forward gunner, AC1 Charles “Ronnie” Driver manned the fuel pump despite burns to his hands gained when his position’s flooring was shot away and from his successful attempts to put out the flames with his bare hands. N2983 soon ran out of fuel and Ramshaw was forced to put the wounded bird down on the sea where Driver managed to free the bomber’s dingy and help the wounded crew into it except for his friend Walter who had died alone in the rear turret. Ramshaw and LAC Connolly were bruised and shocked whilst Sgt Bob Hewitt, the second pilot, had a bullet in his right arm and they were soon picked up by the trawler Erillas. Both Ramshaw and Driver would receive the DFM.
 
     Back in the formation S/Ldr Harris was watching his aircraft fall apart before his eyes with fabric being ripped apart and geodetic structuring breaking apart under the constant barrage and probably shared the same helplessness expressed by Grant. He also watched Oberleutnant Fuhrmann’s 109 make continued beam attacks on Kellett’s four bombers only to abandon them and go for a straight line attack. Kellett’s bombers ripped the 109 apart and sent Fuhrmann seaward belching smoke but at the last moment he managed to nurse his fighter into a sea landing and managed to pull himself free into the sea and began swimming the 200 yards towards Spiekeroog but succumbed to either wounds, cold, the weight of his water filled flying uniform or a combination of all of them after making it half way. Another German fighter lanced past Harris to attack Kellett’s formation and despite Harris’ forward gunner giving him a burst the Bf 110’s fire tore into F/O Spier’s Wellington burst into flames as one of the pressurised oxygen tanks exploded and plunged into the sea only to have F/O Riddlesworth take his position on Kellett’s wing and the survivors of these two formations forced their way through the cloud of Germans and out into the North Sea.

   It was a battle that had cost the RAF ten Wellingtons out of a force of twenty-two with the majority of their

Wolfgang Falck as a Major later in the war

crews killed and four captured and a further two ditching in the sea including F/O Briden’s N2961 which landed on the sea and the crew were seen to be in a dingy and despite S/Ldr Harris flypast and DF fix the search and rescue could find no one. The Germans claimed a total of 38 shot down from a force of 44 but eventually settled for 27 confirmed kills. It seriously rocked the RAF’s confidence in their doctrine despite claims that the Wellingtons had taken down twelve fighters, six of which were Bf 110s, of the forty-four German fighters that engaged them. Other than Fuhrmann and Stiegler’s Bf 109s there were five more which were written off on their return including Feldwebel Hans Troitsch’s which crash landed.

   Kellett later reported that “The enemy pressed home their attacks in a splendid manner.”  But it could have been a lot worse. Had the Freya reports been taken seriously and the Germans engaged the formation sooner and had III/ JG 77 been notified of the raid and been airborne then the toll could have been much worse. Captain Reinecke wrote in his report that;
The Me 110 is easily capable of catching and overtaking this English type even with the latter at full boost. This provides cope for a multiple attacks from any quarter, including frontal beam. This attack, can be very effective if the enemy aircraft is allowed to fly into the cone of fire. The Wellington is very inflammable and burns readily. (Luftwaffe diaries p.77)
Whereas Schumacher opined that the Wellington’s tight formation flying and tail defences had caused much damage to his force and been a good defencive tool however that the close proximity had made them easier targets to hit!

   Air Vice Marshal Baldwin, AOC of 3 Group wrote that “Many of our aircraft were observed during and after the combat to have petrol pouring out of their tanks… The vital necessity of fitting self-sealing tanks to all bombers cannot be over emphasised.” (Luftwaffe diaries p.77) something that Bomber Command agreed with and Wellingtons were immediately forbidden from operations over Heligoland until such time as they were fitted and armour plating on all of their fuel tanks. There was also a belated realisation that a beam gun may be required as well as Kellett reporting that the spare ammunition container was not fit for purpose and that the rear facing guns needed fresh clips in their positions.

   Guthrie and Hue-Williams came under criticism for not holding up formation, as Kellett did, which opened up the rest of their formations to attack and Ludlow-Hewitt believed still firmly that “the great and unforgivable crime is for the leader of the formation to fly away from his followers” (Battle of Heligoland p. 97) The warning signs had been there though as 37 Squadron had flown mock battles in November with fighters from Tangmere and the warning had been clear that had the fighters had ammunition they would have decimated the Wellingtons. Neither leader had experience of this sort of raid and the very reason for being over the Bight was to get it. There was also criticism for Kellett for flying to quickly and leaving the other two formations trying to catch up but this was disputed by S/ldr Harris who pointed out that 149 Squadron had kept up.

   The British inexperience was countered by the Germans who had experience of combat flying, engaging Wellingtons and had a well organised defence system in place. Ludlow-Hewiit opined that:

      Up to 14 December our experience was that morale and determination of the fighters in the north – west of Germany was appreciably inferior to that of their fighter units on the Western front. Consequently the vigour and determination of the fighter attacks, particularly on the 18^th certainly came as a surprise to us, and there is no doubt in my mind that it was due to strong reinforcements by crack squadrons from elsewhere. Previous to the 14^th I had hoped that attacks on German warships would provide us with an easy and inexpensive means of getting war experience for our heavy bombers.

   The report from JG 1 summarise the while event:

   The British seemed to regard a tightly closed formation as the best method of defence, but the greater speed of the Me 109 and Me 110 enabled them to select their position of attack. Rigid retention of course and formation considerably facilitated the attack… It was criminal folly on the part of the enemy to fly at 4000 to 5000 metres in a cloudless sky with perfect visibility as after such losses it is assumed that the enemy will not give the geschwader any more opportunities of practice shooting at Wellingtons.

Target Stavanger 11/4/1940

Stavanger being bombed on 17th April 1940

Unternehmen Weserübung - the German invasion of Norway and Denmark began on 9th April 1940 with German planners anxious to secure the Reich's northern flank and more importantly protect their supply of iron ore from Scandinavia.

Sources in the German foreign office were aware of the British attempt to send a force to secure the iron ore under the guise of supporting Finland in her war against Russia. There were also concerns that the British would mine Norwegian coastal waters forcing neutral and German shipping out into international waters where it could be intercepted by the Royal Navy. Worst still the British may just ignore the neutral waters as they had done with the Altmark incident in February.

Iron ore was crucial to the German war effort and with no chance of a pro-German government appearing in the near future the Wehrmacht was sent in with German envoys informing the Danish and Norwegian governments that the Germans were there to protect their neutrality from an Anglo-French invasion.

German troops aboard the Kriegsmarine's surface units pushed up the coast towards their various targets with the first arriving on the 9th April 1940. There were also attacks carried out by Fallscrimjäger (paratroops) on Norwegian airports including Stavanger-Sola on the far west coast of Norway.

The airfield had only been established in 1937 and defences were still under construction with only a scattering of light anti-aircraft guns, sixty soldiers and one bunker. The bomber wing on the airport consisted of obsolete aircraft which were evacuated as the Luftwaffe began its first attack with six BF 110 fighters. At around 09:00 the Fallscrimjäger jumped from their Ju 52s and within an hour the Germans had accepted the surrender of Lt Thor Tang, the garrison commander.

As soon as the airfield was taken German troops and equipment began landing with some 2-300 aircraft landing on the 9th alone. These newly landed troops quickly took the town of Stavenger and began organising the defences as well as continuing offencive operations.

In London the original force that had been earmarked for operations in Norway had to be hurriedly reassembled and dispatched. In the meanwhile RAF Bomber and coastal command weighed up their options. The only airport in range that the RAF could transfer their bombers too was Stavanger so with no where to land and no hope of getting Wellington's and Whitley's onto Aircraft carriers they decided to attack what they could. The only target within range of their heavy units was this same vital airport which they knew from reconnaissance pictures was being used as a main transport artery by the Germans.

 Vickers Wellington bombers.

115 squadron, on loan to Coastal command, was earmarked for the first bombing raid on an enemy mainland target. On the morning of the 11th April a Blenheim reconnaissance aircraft managed to get some clear shots of the airfield from 40 feet before heading straight back to Britain with its precious cargo. Back at Kinloss airfield the crews of six Wellington bombers gathered for their briefing whilst the ground crews searched for trolleys to carry the bombs from the magazine. This vital piece of equipment was still in transit to the airbase!

At the end of the briefing someone asked the briefing officer;

"You have told us how to evade one fighter, sir. What happens if we meet four?"

The response was optimistic;

"Most unlikely."

The Wellington crews had learnt during operations over Heligoland Bight that if they held formation the formidable rear turrets could scatter individual Luftwaffe fighters but against a numerical force of determined 109s or 110s they could become easy pickings. They were also assured that two Blenheim fighters of 254 squadron would be providing cover for them.

F/o Bain and Sgt Tubbs took off from Bircham Newton and proceeded to the rendezvous point and waited for the bombers but there was no sign of the Wimpys. Soon they received an order to "Hold position." There had been a delay with S/L Boulay's force not taking off until 18:00

Bain's response was "Message not understood."

After scouting the area the two Blenheims dropped down to 4000 feet and at 19:45 passed over the airfield at wingtip to wingtip emptying their magazines into the organised "bombers lined up in Germanic precision" in three lines. They circled around for a second pass catching many Germans who had come out to look at the wreckage presuming it was like the attack they had recieved earlier that day. Both fighters pulled to skip over a bluff before heading back to Britain.

The Germans stepped up security 9. Flakregiment 33 went on standby. The strafing run by the two Blenheims had caught them napping and the had only managed sporadic light machine gun fire any further strikes would have a tougher time of it.

At 21:00, half an hour after Bain and Tubbs had left, 115 squadron arrived and began to attack in two waves returning fire with their turrets as the Germans filled the air with shells. Boulay led his section across the aerodrome at 1000 feet dropping their 500 lb SAP bombs near hangers and the observers thought they saw petrol fires starting. P/o Barber led his section across at between 200 and 300 feet coming under heavy fire. F/Sgt Powell's bomber was struck several times and barely made it back to Kinloss whilst F/o Scott had his navigator Sgt Smith were wounded. Tragedy struck when P/o Barber's Wellington burst into flames and plowed into a school killing two civilians and the crew instantly.

On the return of 115 a summons was dispatched for Bain and Tubbs to report to Kinloss immediately where 115's Commander W/c Mills saw them personally. The loss of Barber and his crew was attributed to fighter interception as well as ground fire. Mills was going to reprimand them for leaving his men alone but was overruled by a senior officer as it was felt the fighter pilots had shown initiative and in a time when heroic actions were needed the two men were celebrated even giving a report on BBC radio.

P/o Barker, P/o Rankin, LAC Westcott, Sgt Pearce, P/o Bull and Sgt Geoffrey Juby are buried in Stavenger cemetery.

F/Sgt Powell was awarded thee DFM for nursing his damaged bomber home whilst wounded.

The following morning at 03:57 a Blenheim flew a reconnaissance mission over Stavanger and bore witness to the damage caused by the wreckage of P9284 to the town and school. The aerodrome itself was barely damaged though the raiders were credited with the destruction of a Do. 17 P of 1 (f)/320.

The attack was considered a success and one to be celebrated  with valuable lessons to be learnt. Over the coming weeks Stavanger was to be attacked several times by Wellingtons and shot up by Blenheims but never put out of action.