A Special Duty (23 page)

I would really like to come to Poland and see you all but unfortunately I am not a rich man so I doubt if I can ever be able to do it.

I have to say thank you to you and your comrades for all the happy moments we shared, despite being constantly under threat from the Germans.

Signed Tom Storey

Transcript of a letter written by Tom Storey to Stanislaw Mikolajczyk in November 1947

Unicorn Hotel

Corve Street

Ludlow

Salop

4 – 11 – 47

Dear Mr Mikolajczyk,

I wish to offer my congratulations to you on your escape from Poland. I also sympathise with you for having to escape twice from your own country in the space of a few years.

Perhaps you will remember me as the RAF pilot who was shot down in Poland and lived for a while with your partisans. On my escape to this country I was ordered up to London to meet you at the Polish Embassy and at the same time I met the Polish C in C.

Being an escaper from enemy territory myself I can understand the mental and physical strain you have undergone, and I am happy that you have sought refuge in this country as I did with your people.

I have recently written an article which has been accepted for publication in the near future, on what I know of Russia, in the hope that is will put this country on guard against them and also help Poland and other occupied countries in their struggle for freedom.

I trust a good rest will be granted you and I reiterate I am glad you got away. If I could be of any help to you at all I would be happy to try to reciprocate your kindness to me.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant

Signed T. Storey

Chapter 1:

Crew of Halifax JN888 of 148 Squadron, lost 26
th
November 1943

Sgt Peter Crosland RAFVR

Crew of Halifax EB140 of 624 Squadron, lost 1
st
December 1943

F/Sgt Dennis John Howlett RAFVR

F/Sgt Raymond Percival Atkinson RAFVR

Cpl Sidney George Cleland RAFVR

F/Sgt Arthur Ernest Edwards RAFVR

F/Sgt John Kenneth Hughes RAFVR

F/Sgt Vernon Leslie Miller RCAF

F/Sgt James Kenneth Shewring RAFVR

SOE Mission Personnel, lost 1
st
December 1943

Major Ian Smart

Captain Jack Stephenson

Lieutenant Alan Toley

George McKenna

Corporal Ian Kesterton

Crew of Liberator AL509 of 148 Squadron, lost 3
rd
December 1943

F/Lt Maurice Passmore RAFVR

WO James Herbert Stevenson Clarke RCAF

F/Lt Eldon Burke Elliott RCAF

F/Lt Harry James Crawford RNZAF

F/Sgt Edwin Archibald Toole RCAF

WO Ralph Edward Hawken RCAF

F/Sgt William Joseph Dowle RAFVR

Chapter 2:

Crew of Halifax JN888 of 624 Squadron, lost 14
th
July 1944

P/O Leslie Arthur Peers RCAF

F/O Albert John Baythorp RAFVR

Sgt Jack Brooke RAFVR

Sgt Harry Clarke RAFVR

F/O Charles Spencer Goble RAFVR

Sgt James Edward Walsh RAFVR

Sgt William Ronald Wharmby RAFVR

Crew of Halifax HR674 of 148 Squadron, lost 19
th
October 1943

F/Lt William Ross Forester RAFVR

F/Sgt James Clement Cole RAFVR

F/O Peter Raymond Flyte RAFVR

F/O Francis Jack Hunter RNZAF

F/O Edward Frank Myers RAFVR

Sgt Peter Twiddy RAFVR

F/Sgt Harold Williams RAFVR

SOE Personnel lost 19
th
October 1943

Captain Alfred Careless RAC

Signalman David William Rockingham RCS

Chapter 3:

SOE SPILLWAY mission personnel lost 1
st
February 1944

Major G.E. Layzell, South Lancashire Regiment

Crew of Halifax JN959 of 148 Squadron, lost 11
th
February 1944

F/Sgt Ian McGugan RAAF

F/Sgt Bernard Austin Hough RAAF

F/Sgt Percy Garfield Mann RAAF

F/Sgt Edward George Lee RAAF

F/Sgt Nairne Edwin Plaxton DFM RAF

Sgt James Palmer RAFVR

Sgt Frederick Moses Cyril Henry Harris RAFVR

Crew of Halifax JP292 of 148 Squadron, lost 3/4 July 1944

W/O Charles Thomas Fairweather RAF

F/O John Stanley Brown RCAF

F/Sgt John Easton RAFVR

P/O Allen Haigh RAFVR

F/Sgt Ronald Frederick Houghton RAFVR

F/Sgt Richard Jacques RAFVR

F/Sgt Leonard James Smith RAFVR

Crew of Halifax JP286 of 148 Squadron lost3/4 July 1944

Sqdn Ldr Surray Philip Victor Bird RAFVR

F/O Kenneth Peter Mcleod Cran RAFVR

F/Sgt Peter Lake RAFVR

F/Sgt Arthur Archer Lee RAFVR

P/O Harold Pearson RAF

F/Sgt Ronald Radford RAFVR

W/O Donal David Charles Stewart RCAF

F/Sgt Marcel Tilmont RAFVR

SOE personnel lost December 1944

2
^nd
Lt Alexander Francis Vass

Major Richard Moncrieff Wright R.T.R

Crew of Halifax JP247 of 148 Squadron lost 3/4 July 1944

F/Lt George Raymond Wood RAFVR

F/Sgt James William Hern RAF

Crew of Halifax JP179 of 148 Squadron lost 3/5 July 1944

F/Sgt Evan Ffoulkes Jones RAFVR

F/Sgt John Kennedy RAF

W/O John Phillip Harrison RAFVR

Sgt Thomas William Hugh Tomlinson RAFVR

SOE MULLIGATAWNY mission personnel lost March-July 1944

Maj Mostyn Davies

Sgt J. Walker

Sgt N. Munro

Cpl J.R. Shannon

Sig R.G. Watts

SOE CLARIDGE mission personnel lost July 1944

Maj W.F. Thompson

Crew of Halifax BB444 of 624 Squadron lost 1
st
February 1944

F/Sgt E.D.S. Tennant RAAF

F/O Stanley RAFVR

Sgt J.L. Devine RAFVR

F/Sgt D.H. Potter RAAF

Sgt F.C.R. Burlefinger RAFVR

Sgt G.Gardner RAFVR

Chapter 4:

Crew of Halifax HR660 of 148 Squadron, lost 3
rd
March, 1944

F/Lt James Harold Botham RAFVR

F/Sgt John Walter Sole RAFVR

W/O John Caldwell Calhoun RCAF

F/O Henry George Lancaster RAFVR

Sgt William Ernest Thurnall RAFVR

Chapter 8:

Crew of Halifax JP162 of 148 Squadron, lost 4/5 August, 1944

F/Lt James Girvan McCall RAFVR

Sgt Clifford Aspinall RAFVR

Sgt John Frederick Cairney Rae RAFVR

The following crewmembers flew at least one operational sortie with the Storey crew:

The crew flew almost all their early sorties in Halifax JN888, the aircraft they had flown to North Africa from the United Kingdom. They personalised the nose of this aircraft with artwork and the name RITA. After the move to Brindisi in January 1944, they flew a variety of aircraft, including JN888, until she went to Algeria for an engine change at the end of March 1944. The following is a list of aircraft flown by the Storey crew with 148 Squadron:

JN888

BB445

JN925

JN896

BB381

BB318

HR671

BB431

BB338

JP224 (final flight)

I
owe a huge debt of gratitude to Eddie Elkington-Smith, Second Pilot and Navigator, for the written accounts and logbook pages which he gave to the family and to Charles Keen, Flight Engineer, who travelled from Brighton to Lancaster in 2003 to talk to my family about the crew and their time with 148 Special Duty Squadron. Wireless Operator Walter Davis, who I had the privilege to meet in 2013, his daughter Anne Black and granddaughter Sharon Spencer contributed a wealth of interesting material to my project, including a memoir, photographs, M.I.9 Reports and access to Walter’s Flying logbook. Mike Bedford-Stradling, son of Patrick Stradling, Air Gunner and Despatcher, has been enormously helpful and generous with his father’s archive of material and lastly my mother, Rita, who preserved letters, photographs and memories over the years, which have been of great value to me.

Whilst researching the material for this book, I found my way to the Operation Dark of the Moon website, which was set up by Terry Maker for the research of 148 Squadron, and other Special Duty Squadrons, during the Second World War. Members of this forum have provided me with material, given me an insight into the activities of the Squadron and perhaps most of all, provided tremendous support and encouragement. In particular I would like to mention Terry Maker, Steve Andrews, Bill Pogson, Rosemary Edmeads, Steve Alves, Adriano Silva Baumgartner, Julie Fairweather, Pat Atkins, Kleon Ionnidis, Steven Horsfield, Piotr Hodyra and Larry Toft. Larry has been guide and mentor to me throughout the process of this book and his familiarity with the technique of flying a Halifax and knowledge of 148 Squadron has given authenticity to the flight sections. His wealth of experience as a World War II Special Duty Pilot has been both practically invaluable and emotionally inspirational.
Rosemary Edmeads and I have been on a parallel course with our writing projects and she has supported and helped me unreservedly. Don Kaiser was particularly helpful when I needed an authentic photograph of the 1944 eruption of Vesuvius and allowed me to use one from his website. A further source of invaluable information has been the Carpetbagger Aviation Museum and in particular the database of Aircraft lost on Allied Force’s Special Duty Operations & Associated Roll of Honour kept and updated by Roy Tebbutt.

I must thank The National Archives at Kew for providing such an excellent research facility. Some of the most productive and enjoyable days were spent in the Reader’s room, at a comfortable desk by the window, working my way through files. The joy of finding a piece of paper linking one of my father’s flights to the SOE personnel he carried, cannot be described. The research process opened my eyes to the amount of work that goes into producing a factual, historical account and my gratitude to the authors of some of the books I relied on heavily, is boundless. In some cases, the books provided ‘scene-setting’ information or historical context and in other cases, very specific information which allowed me to make the link between operations in the air and groups on the ground. I met Graham Pitchfork, author of Shot Down and on the Run shortly before I began to write this story and found his book invaluable and his enthusiasm motivational to the point that I wanted to do something myself. I am also particularly grateful to David Stafford for responding to my plea for information on Italian drop zones and to Richard Clogg for information on the Allied Military Mission in Greece. Jonathan Walker gave me very useful information on the Polish Resistance Groups and Alan Ogden steered me towards some relevant TNA files and also gave me sound advice on taking photographs of the pages after my disastrous first attempts. Roderick Bailey, whose book The Wildest Province became a ‘bible’ for me when writing about Albanian Operations not only helped enormously but was very supportive at a time when I needed it! Towards the end of this project, I was delighted to be able to make contact with Stanislaw Jankowski, author of Ostatni Lot Halifaxa, the definitive work on the loss of Halifax JP224, and he not only offered to check my ‘Polish’ Chapters for me, which has given me great peace of mind, but wrote an Afterword for this book. I am immensely grateful to him and the authors of the above-mentioned books who took the time to help me.

I found the Air Historical Branch of the RAF particularly helpful and I would like to thank Mike Hatch and Flight Lieutenant Hudson for taking the time to find specific information which was important for my story. Irena Czernichowska of Stanford University Hoover Institute managed to find a letter my father had written to Stanislaw Mikolajczyk in 1947 amongst the Mikolajczyk papers, held by the Institute and I am very grateful to her for that. Svetlana Kostyleva, also of Stanford, copied the diary of Brigadier Hill for me and Grzyna Wadas of the Bibliotek, Nowa Sarzyna provided me with archive material pertaining to the Halifax crash. Thank you Alison McCulloch of Carlisle Grammar School for not only unearthing Tom Storey’s school report with its credit in ‘German’, but also for finding a photograph of young Tom in the School Cricket Team! Greg Kusiak managed to pinpoint for me the exact spot where Halifax JP224 crashed and also gave me links to a Polish television documentary based on the last flight of this aircraft, all of which enabled me to ‘home in’ on the relevant area to research. It was Greg who put me in touch with Edward Kak from the village of Tarnogora, which resulted in our visit there in 2013. I would also like to thank Dawid Sowa for alerting me to the fact that a diary existed, written by Bronislaw Kaminski, detailing events as they happened on the ground at the time of the Halifax crash. Pawel Cholewa, the grandson of Kaminski, subsequently copied all the relevant pages for me and I am immensely grateful for that priceless information. Thanks also to Jakub Kędzior, Project Manager of the VeroLing Agency for translating those thirty five handwritten pages so perfectly and to Renata Elgalal for assistance with Polish documents.