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RAF 624 (Special Duties ) Squadron |
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Our Crew: Pilot : 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 31st 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 11th & 12th 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.
Sgt Al Liea
Our next two ops on 18th & 19th 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 25th 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.
Bob Terry
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 treatmenthe 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 9th 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 5th 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/despatcher 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 despatcher. We never saw them until that time. The procedures for dropping them, (possibly well known) – Red light – Green light – out. Evidently, it was important that they sat on the edge of the “well” and lifted themselves off and out vertically – rolling forward would mean hitting their head on the opposite side. Normally one aircraft was detailed to drop on one target and sometimes we were told not to search for a drop-zone if it was not found first time, but to divert to a secondary drop-zone, presumably to avoid alerting the enemy that might be in that area. On one op to Yugoslavia we were instructed to bring the load back if there was no reception. We often wondered why. The drop was ‘S’. An exception to one aircraft per drop-zone was when all available aircraft were detailed to drop on a drop-zone on a high plateau in an area I believe was to the west of Chamonix. We all had arrival times though this did not appear to be accurately followed. We found three large fires marking the drop-zone. On our first run in, we only got half the load out and had to go round again because we saw another aircraft some 150’ below us, all very hairy indeed – and with other aircraft around on the circuit we had to put our navigation lights on.
We were airborne on an op’ on “D” day, but had no idea of what was going on in Northern France. Our wireless operator did comment that there was a lot radio traffic – but that was all. Though I do not recall any increase in anti-aircraft or searchlight activity.
Continued ——> Click Here |
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624 Squadron - Brindisi & Blida, in the words of Sgt. Brian Snell Flight Engineer |
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