RAF 624 (Special Duties ) Squadron

 

Having survived an air-crash at 26 O.T.U. in February, 1944, I found myself stranded without a crew until May, 1944 when I joined up with a Scottish crew (Pilot F/Sgt. Morrison) at 1657 Con. unit flying Stirling’s, and then at 304 F .T. U. Melton Mowbray where we picked up a brand new MK4 Stirling L.K.179 on 31 July 1944. We left the U.K from St. Morgan's, Cornwall to go to RABAT SALE in Morocco.

On arriving in North Africa we had to be diverted to an American Aerodrome (Port Lyautey) near Casablanca due to early morning mist covering our original destination. Having had a typical American breakfast, we went back to the dispersal area to continue our flight, and to our amazement, the area was surrounded by personnel looking aghast at our ungainly contraption towering over a diminutive flying fortress, which had been placed under its wing! We were, needless to say, subjected to a lot of questions about our capabilities, and of course we made the most of it, comparing our total armament being those four little things stuck out at the back, (.303) to theirs like a bristling porcupine (0.5) facing all directions, also the fact that we could carryover three times the weight of a fortress.

After a brief stay in RABAT SALE we reached our final destination of 624 Sqd. at BLIDA in Algiers on 2nd August 1944. As it is now over 56 years ago when this happened I have great difficulty in trying to remember ~ details of the time. I can remember living in a tent in the middle of the desert with sand and sand everywhere, and during the day time sweating it out under a mosquito net to keep the flies off, and occasional siroccos where we had to get up in the middle of the night to hold the tent down!

According to my log book I had 3 flights as 2nd dispatcher dropping supplies to partisans in France north of the

Pyrenees. One with F/Lt. Garnnet and two with W.O. Paullden. On one of those occasions we dropped an ex

Mayor and 2 other Frenchmen in the target area.

My 4th flight was with my own crew and we took approximately 12 French Foreign Legion chaps to drop over France. I can remember bringing them all up in the fuselage when the time came, and sent them off in line. What I didn't cater for was the gradual acceleration between the first and the last to go, so at the end the last few were running down the fuselage, and unfortunately when the last one jumped there was aloud bang, and I can only assume that with his momentum he must have hit his head on the rear of the escape hatch on the way down. If anyone knows what happened to those French soldiers I should be very interested.

On my last trip on the 1-2 September, 1944 we couldn't get any contact with the partisans and so brought all the cargo back with us. Unfortunately we had spent so much time over the area that we were running short of fuel so I was ordered to drop everything out over the sea. Luckily we just made it landing at MAISON BLANCHE.

After this the two fronts must have met in the Normandy and Marseilles landings and so our efforts were no longer required; 624 Sqd. was therefore disbanded, and we finished up in a transit camp at FORT L'EAUTY outside Algiers. In December the crew was sent back to the U.K. and I alone was posted to 293 A.S.R. in Italy.

Initially I was stationed at POMIGLIANO (Naples) then on detachment to FOGGIA, up to CENCENATICO (North of Rimini) when the war finished. Then to RIVOLTO (west of Udine) where we were flying in Warwick’s with a boat underneath.  Also with this Squadron was 624 A.S.R. Squadron flying Walruses, and I met many of the crews. It is still strange to me how and why 624 changed from 4 engines supply dropping to 1engine seaplanes.

 Finally in March 1946 the Squadron was disbanded.

The rest is another tale!

 

624 Squadron - Brindisi & Blida, in the words of Sgt. Brian Snell Flight Engineer

 

First, Our Crew:

               Pilot :                        W/O Ron Clark                  RAAF

               Navigator:                 F/Sgt. Frank Walker           RAF

               Flight Engineer           Sgt. Brian Snell                   RAF

               Bomb Aimer              F/Sgt George Gibson          RAAF

              Wireless Op.              F/Sgt "Jock" Emaus             RAF

              Rear Gunner               Sgt Al Liea                          RCAF

              Mid-Upper Gunner     Sgt Bob Terry                     RAF

Our crew were posted to 624 Squadron from 102 Squadron 4Group in Autumn 1943, much to the delight of our skipper and bomb aimer, who, as Australians hated our weather.

They were accused by the rest of us as having “wangled” it. Later it was thought that the posting was due to the well known “DR” and “Astro” skill of our navigator.

We positioned at 301 Ferry Transit Unit Lyneham in November 43, with no idea of what the job was to be. We met a crew ex 148 Squadron who were on a shuttle from the Middle East to the UK. They told us nothing except that hurricane lamps & primus stove were a must. My father sent both to us at Lyneham.

We ferried several modified Halifax’s from an airfield west of St Athan to Lyneham, JN960, JN912, & JN958. There was no mid-upper turret and our mid-upper gunner was distraught. But the hole in the floor spoke volumes.

 

After local form flying and a fuel consumption flight, we left Lyneham on 31^st December in JN958 for Hurn, where we were briefed for the flight to Rabat via the Bay of Biscay, arriving on New Years Day 1944. The noise from landing on a PSP runway caused consternation, but the sunshine, oranges & chicken sandwiches from the Malcom Club were well received as were the tinned turkey flying rations.

From there we went on to Maison Blanche, where we were introduced to bedbugs and then on to El Aovina. On descending there I suffered a dreadful ear/head pains. I went to the M.I. Room and was sent to an Army Major who stuck tubes in my nose and ear with blessed relief.  I was grounded for 7 days – inhalations twice a day. This meant that the crew and aircraft were non-operational. After 4 days we had all had enough, so we just did a pre-flight check and left for Brindisi, I didn’t dare report to the M.O.

My ops started on the 11^th & 12^th January 44 with Flt/Sgt Ferguson RCAF who did not appear to have an established crew, both times we failed to find the Drop-Zone in Yugoslavia.

Our first op as a crew was to drop 4 Italians somewhere north of the Po Valley in Italy, but we lost an engine in icing conditions near Capri, restarting an engine after failure was not permitted and to go down and drop at low level in a mountainous DZ and climb out on 3was not on. Our dispatcher attempted to explain in sign language, but I often wonder what they made of it all.

Our next two ops on 18^th & 19^th Jan to Yugoslavia in JN962 were successful, during the latter we saw what we realised to be a whole village on fire. On de-brief the Intelligence Officer told us that it was due to open warfare between Makovlouich And Tito’s partisans. After two more “S” ops to Yugoslavia, we made a 5 hour ‘S’ trip to Bulgaria on 25^th Jan.

Ops to Yugoslavia were short, 3-4.30 but the terrain was mountainous and we never seemed to get any help from the moon. Getting in and out of the Drop-Zones in the valleys was taxing to say the least. On one occasion our rear-gunner shouted out “ I can see the trees level with us on the port side”, not helpful when we were already on an adrenalin rush during a run-in.

Brindisi town seemed to be a poor run-down place. It was reached by crossing the only runway and taking a ferry across the river. The airfield was knocked about – one ashfelt runway ending in the sea and which always seemed to have a crosswind. Once we swung on landing, ending up on the grass where one undercarriage sank into a deep hole believed to be an old well. No damage but it was a problem to recover the aircraft.

 

One particular event comes to mind. The Killing Of the Pig. We were alerted to this by gunshots to see two men on top of the pen. Apparently Neilly, an RCAF pilot, jumped down with a knife to bleed the dead pig, but it moved and the knife went through his hand, severing a ligament. After treatment he ended up with two fingers strapped together, but returned to operational flying.

The toilets were in a shack, with buckets and wooden seats. One night our bomb-aimer returned from there with a story – he said from the CO that we would be moving out tomorrow. We retorted – typcal s**t house gem, but it turned out to be correct. Good to get away from rat infested huts & poor rations.

The move to Blida was complete by early February. Our crew were billeted in a small wooden ‘bungalow’ and off duty was relatively comfortable, we even had a shower, though the water supply was spasmodic.

The town was close by, in a Middle East way. Presumably it was a French Military garrison town. There were two café’s and a small hotel. There was also a communal washhouse where you could get a hot bath. There was a brothel too, which (I was told) sold beer to clients, charges for beer or services were unknown to me.

The airfield itself was reasonable, one runway & peri track. 624 Squadron aircraft were well dispersed. It was obviously ex-French airforce – there was one antiquated twin-engined bomber and of all things a French “Flying Flea” which someone flew and it crashed damaging a parked aircraft. I remember one, if not two, large tall steel hangers, and various permanent buildings spread over the camp area.

I made my first op from Blida with Flt/Sgt Ferguson on 9^th February 1944, after about one hour I was told we were returning to base, I do not know the reason why.

As a crew we started ops to the South of France on 5^th March in JN 962. We got a good pin-point on the coast and did a dummy run to the drop-zone. The three torches were there with a single torch giving a morse code flash and also being at the end of the row, giving the direction to run. We had been told not to go round again, or do a second run, but to get everything away first time. We managed this – just. The gunner/dispatcher helped by the wireless operator ( who always moved back to help get the internal load out) both did a good job, though the internal load was small this trip.

With the long leg across the ‘med’, all ops to Southern France took between 7hrs and 8hrs 40mins so this meant over 3 hours over the sea. We very soon realised that there was a lighthouse on the Spanish island of Mallorca and this became a most valuable pin point. We also crossed the Spanish coast into France more than once. We were told that it was forbidden to fly over neutral territory, but never knew if this was said tongue in cheek.

It must be remembered that we only had estimated barometric pressures for the drop-zone therefore the altimeter readings were not dependable and visual references were vital. It sounds like a ‘line shoot’, but one night during a dummy run, low level to the drop zone, I saw a rectangular lit window, 45 degrees down on starboard side and two arms reached up to presumably draw the curtains.

There was a procedure for loading the parachutists. They would wait in a tilly well clear of the aircraft and after we had completed pre flight checks including engine ‘mag drops’ we would flash navigation lights – they would then be led to the aircraft by an army officer, climb on board, and be strapped in by the dispatcher. We never saw them until that time.

 

                                                                              Continued ——> Click Here

MEMORIES 624 SQUADRON –1893930   W.O. KEN  PIERCE.

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