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Re: Loss of 138 Sqn Halifax V9976 20-21/4/1942
Many thanks Theo and Black6.
Your research tallies with information provided by Dr Michael Heim and published in Bernard O'Connor's book about 'Operation PICKAXE', the programme of RAF flights to insert NKVD agents. Tonight is the 70th anniversary of Operation WHISKEY, the attempt to drop two NKVD agents.
The German equivalent of the Royal Observer Corps appears to have followed the aircraft by sound-location in its transit eastwards across southern Bavaria, but there is no mention of the aircraft being intercepted. However, the following day, a German broadcast claimed that: "A single British aircraft which undertook a harrassing flight last night into the Ruhr territory, was shot down in southern Germany." This now looks like mere propaganda. Black6's 'explosive mix' looks a more likely cause of the loss, though it could simply have been weather.
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