The History Page

Important Announcement

The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More

Hi

This raid was among the greatest of the war,

Arnie

Attack on Amiens Prison, 18th February 1944

Mosquitoes running in over the prison Nineteen Mosquito Mk.VI aircraft (6 aircraft of No 487 (RNZAF) Squadron, 6 aircraft of No 464 (RAAF) Squadron, 6 aircraft of No 21 Squadron and one aircraft of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU)) were detailed to attack the north and east walls and buildings of Amiens Prison.

Three Mosquitos of No 487 Squadron attacked the eastern wall at 1203 hours, just clearing the wall on a heading 250 degrees 12 bombs. The leaders were bombs were seen to hit the wall five feet from the ground, while other bursts were seen adjacent to the west wall and overshoot in fields to the north. Two aircraft of no 487 Squadron attacked the northern wall at 1203 hours just clearing the wall on a heading of 150 degrees with 12 bombs. These attacks were directed at places later reported breached by reconnaissance aircraft. One bomb seen to hit the large building, and northern side of the eastern building was also reported hit.

Overhead view of the prison, showing the breaches made in the outer walls Two Mosquitos of No 464 Squadron bombed the eastern wall at 1206 hours from 50 feet heading 150 degrees and 250 degrees with 8 x 500lb bombs. The wall appeared unbreached before the attack. Results were unobserved.

Two Mosquitos of No 464 Squadron bombed the main building at 1206 hours from 100 feet heading 150 and 250 degrees with 8 x 500lb bombs. The north wall appeared to be already damaged. One of these aircraft was seen to bomb and has not returned.

The breach in the Eastern wall One Mosquito of the PRU circled the target three times between 1203 and 1210 hours from 400 to 500 feet using a cine film camera but carrying no bombs. He reported a large breach in the eastern centre of the north wall and considerable damage to the extension building at west of main building as well as damage to western end of main building. A number of men were seen in the courtyard near the separate building which appeared to be workshops and three men running into fields from large breach in northern wall.

The four aircraft of No 21 Squadron received VHF messages from 'F' of No 464 Squadron (Gp Capt Pickard) and PRU aircraft when between 2 and 4 miles from the target, instructing them not to bomb. Target was seen covered with smoke and they brought their bombs back.

The target was obscured by smoke, so later aircraft were instructed not to bomb Two aircraft were missing from this operation; one was last seen circling the target and heard giving VHF messages not to bomb and the other after attacking the target, was seen at Freneuville at 1210 hours at 50 feet leading his formation. It attacked a gun position and shortly afterwards dropped to starboard and was not seen again. One aircraft of No 467 Squadron was hit by light flak near Albert, starboard nacelle holed and starboard wheel collapsed on landing. One aircraft of No 21 Squadron landed at Ford - aircraft damaged. One aircraft of No 487 Squadron abandoned task south of Oisemont - pilot slightly wounded and aircraft damaged. Two aircraft of No 21 Squadron abandoned before leaving English Coast owing to technical failure.

There were 700 prisoners detained at the time of the attack and of this number 102 were killed, 74 wounded and 258 escaped. Among those who escaped were important members of the Resistance movement.

I believe a Group Captain Pickard won the VC. Went to my old school, Framlingham

I heard this was really an attack on an orphange for blind children. This was not a great raid.

And we also hear you can put a bullet throiugh a piece of paper sideways at 800 yards. With iron sights.

You a member of the Sunny congenital lying club.? Or the chief instructor?

But now you jump back and say "I was only joking, boys". Like yer pal Snowbird.

Pickaed was killed on this raid he was never awarded the VC though. It is claimed he was the Best leader of aircrews of the war his unit carried out many successful raid.

I believe he came from Pocklington in Yorkshire, we had a bloke in the KOYLI Assault Pioneers who's brother was in the same Squadron.

PS: Sonny at the weekend we stayed in Calais in France and whilst out walking the dog, I found a museum of WW2 in a Calais park..It was housed in an old German Kriegsmarine Radio Control bunker.. The bunker was captured by the Canadian South Shore Regiment with Flame throwers. But that is getting off the point. In the Museum is the description of an air raid on Calais that killed 127 french people and 4 Canadians. The raid took place after the Germans had surendered. It was carried out by 25 USSAF Mitchel Bombers That had mistaken Calais for Dunkirk down the coast.

That is war arnie. For some reason military target do not mark themselves as such or it could be that cilivians build their town like the military. It is the obligation of the cilivian to stay out of the way. It you make the cilivian a valuable shield then they will be used aganist you. It must be understood that they are to have NO value. then the shield will not work.

This is not a case of the rules of war, ethics or the argument for and against human shields. This was a simple case of gross incompetance. Calais is little more than 22 miles opposite Dover across the English Channel, with Dunkirk approx 20 miles further north up the French coast. From an aircraft with a navigator and chart you can see both ports. Only a drunk, drug addict or a fool can mistake them. Its your guess whish the US fliers were.

On July 11, 1943, on the American held airfield at Farrell, three miles east of Gela in Sicily, preparations were under way for the reception of reinforcements from Colonel Reuben H. Tucker's 504th Parachute Regiment. As the C-47 transports approached the bridgehead and headed for the drop zone, an American machine-gun down below fired a stream of tracers upward at the C-47s. A second machine-gun opened up followed by another and still another. Directly into this storm of 'friendly fire' flew the C-47s. As plane after plane was hit, the paratroopers jumped only to be shot in mid-air or just before they landed. The trigger-happy machine-gunners, thinking they were German paratroops, kept up their deadly fire while General George Patton and General Matthew Ridgeway, the 82nd Airborne commander, awaiting to greet the paratroopers, could only look on with shocked disbelief as the tragedy unfolded before their eyes. Altogether, twenty three of the original 144 troop carrying planes were shot down and thirty-seven others badly damaged. Ninety-seven men were killed and around 400 were wounded in this, the greatest tragedy to befall the US invasion forces. A total of 2,440 US soldiers died in the battle for Sicily and are now buried in the American Cemetery on the Gulf of Salerno. The battle for Sicily (Operation Husky) involved a total of 467,000 men. The Allied forces lost 5,532 men killed and 2,869 missing. German dead amounted to 4,325 and the Italian dead, 4,278.

The following is part of an article on friendly fire from the New Scientist magazine although it discusses these types of incidents across the whole of NATO. It focusus mainly on the US Forces. te following incident was a Friendly fire attack in Iraq. I find the underlined excuse facinating.

As an example, he cites the shooting down of two US Army Black Hawk helicopters by two US Air Force F-15s in the No Fly Zone over northern Iraq in 1994. The incident, which killed 26 servicemen, occurred in part because the jet pilots had no record that the helicopters would be in the area.

When asked why the Black Hawks had not been entered on the mission sheet detailing the aircraft in the air that day, the USAF serviceperson responsible said: "We don't consider helicopters to be aircraft."

The prison was an one built by the Frence. It was not an cover for nazi activities. It did hold both underground fighters and allied POWs. And Gr.Capt.Pickard

and his navigator were killed in the operation.

Important Announcement The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
The History Page	[email protected]