Operation Bergbang - 6 Sep 1944 - paradrop Belgian SAS

[Leendert]

During Operation Bergbang, paradrops of Belgian SAS teams over E. Belgium, a small group was dropped inside Germany on 6 Sep 1944. This more by coincidence than on purpose.

According text in first half of page 33 of following link https://covgelderland.nl/files/20200...S_in_WW_II.pdf
, the aircraft the men were in was attacked by a German fighter. Evasive action by the transport pilot caused a different drop location than planned.

I wonder who can point to which (special duties?) squadron was involved in this particular drop? A lead to a LW unit is equally welcome.

Thanks for info.

Regards,
Leendert

[Zoran Petek]

Hello,
Check orbs for Stirling IV Sqns 190, 196, 295 and 299, as these operated en masse over Belgium and France during the night 5/6 September 1944.
For example LJ919 of 299 Sqn noticed single engine aircraft at 46 30 N, 01 20E (France).
Zoran

[SteveR]

I checked the ORBs of the four squadrons Zoran listed and the only aircraft that stood out to me as a possibility is 299 Squadron 5GF serial EF323.

From the F541:
Captain: F/O J.E. Nichol J. 24271.
Duty: Licencee 1 S.O.E.
Time Up: 21.50
Time Down: 02.30
Details: France. Successfully dropped 24 Containers and 3 Packages on D.Z. used Map reading to identify target Not an accurate drop, because of single engines Aircraft overhead with Nav. lights burning. Weather poor no action.

(Spelling/grammar/punctuation as in F541.)

[Leendert]

Thanks, I had focused on No. 138 (SD) and No. 161 (SD) Squadron too much.
The ORB of No. 190 Squadron for 5/6 Sep 1944 stands out as well, for it here it specifically says "Belgium" and "troops" too.
Will dig deeper from there.

Regards,
Leendert

[RSwank]

There is an account of Operation Bergbang (in French) here:

https://www.chemin-de-memoire-parach...ang-sas-belges

Google gives a somewhat fractured translation.

You can scroll down to where the operation starts in September 1944.

The group (11 men) that landed in Germany was under the command of a
lieutenant Raymond Van der Heyden (code name Captain John ??).

The account seems to be based or extracted from a book "Acrobates Sans Importance, Les paras Belges en avant-garde des combats de la libération" by Temmerman. I don't know if the book would provide more details, particularly regarding the squadron transporting the men.

[Leendert]

French text speaks of RAF Fairford, where No. 190 squadron was based, but apparently a take off from RAF Tarrant Rushton, the station of No. 295 Squadron...
However, latter ORB tells of S.O.E. droppings at unspecified places and E. France only, so No. 190 Squadron stays the most likely candidate.
But that Stirling transports were involved is confirmed.

Regards,
Leendert

[RSwank]

Leendert,

From this site: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/...oks-1939-1945/

I downloaded the 190 Squadron records for:

1. Records of Events for September, 1944
2. Summary of Events for September 1944 and the
3. Appendices for September, 1944 (which contains the detail reports of the individual pilots/planes). (note, when you select the option to download all the appendices, the site splits the file into thirds, so you only need to download the middle third).


There is a gap in the detail (Appendix) records for the 5/6 September missions. The Summary of Events lists a 14 plane mission for 5/6 September which went to Belgium and France, carrying 294 Containers, 3 Bundles, 1 Package, 29 Panniers and 41 troops. All sorties were successful except for a plane flown by Matheson, who had to return owing to non-reception at the D.Z. The Records of Events lists crew info on the 14 planes but does not give the drop zones. However, there are no detail records in the Appendices for this mission. There are detail records for other missions flown in September, but not for the 5/6 mission. I don’t know if the detail mission reports are lost or miss-filed, but I suspect those reports might be the records for the Bergbang mission. The detail records jump from a mission flown on 8/9 August to a mission flown on 6/7 September (which went to France).

[Leendert]

Rolland,
Thanks. I (also) had noticed that something was missing. However, there's a repetition of "41 troops" which concurs with the 41 Belgian SAS commandos who were dropped from 2 September 1944 onwards in the Aachen-Liège-Maastricht area for several operations with different code names. This must have included the 11 men detailed for Operation Bergbang in the night of 5/6 Sept 1944.
It indeed looks like that any droppings in the first days of Sep 1944 by No. 190 Squadron ORB are not listed in the same, provided that this squadron was involved in these earlier ones.

Regards,
Leendert