Syrian Campaign - 260/450 Sqdn - Straffing Mission over Talia

[Jerome Ribeiro]

Dear All,

On 6 July'41, the 260/450 Sqdn took off at dawn to perform a straffing mission over Baalbeck and satellites/looseness airfields. 1 Martin 167F from GBI/39 & 9 LeO451 were damaged.
They followed then the valley and reached the Talia airfield where 4 Hurricanes straffed 5 Potez 25TOE & 1 Amiot143. Sgt Patterson reported damage due to glare of shell during this mission.

• Does anyone knows the name of these 4 pilots (3 in addition to Sgt Pattereson) who performed this straffing mission?
• Which version of Hurricane they used to do this mission?

Thanking you in advance
Cheers
Jerome

[alex crawford]

Hi Jerome,

Dust Clouds in the Middle East by Chris Shores has the following:

"Late on the 5th the Hurricanes of 260/450 Squadrons had flown to Damascus where they stayed overnight, takin goff at first light for another surprise attack on Baalbeck. Little was to be found on the airfield here, although an ambulance was destroyed. They then headed down the valley in line abreast to attack Madjaloun. Here four Aeronavale M-167Fs were just about to take off, to protect the reported incoming shipping (the demise of the Saint-Didier and the recall of the Oued-Yqem had not yet been reported to them). Three of the bombers were damaged to varying degrees, leaving the ill-fated Flotilla 4F with virtually no serviceable aircraft.

Six D520s of Escadrille 1AC had already taken off to escort the Martins, and these sought to intercept the marauding Hurricanes, Premier Maitre Benezet believing he had shot one down: he had in fact inflicted only slight damage on Sgt Patterson's aircraft, which reached base safely. Sgt T W Wilmot's Z4629 was also slightly damaged during this action."

Hope this helps,

Alex

[Steve49]

Not really my area of knowledge, but I want to research the campaign in Syria/Lebanon after I've finished my Dieppe work, so I've been looking at the ORB's online at the National Archives of Australia and noted the following in the 450/260 Sqn ORB;

Six aircraft were involved; A Flt-F/Lt Bandinell (Z9228), Sgt Kilby (ZA564), PO Hall (Z4375), Sgt Paterson (Z4254) and B Flt FO McDougall (Z4580) and Sgt Hindle (Z4706).

They had flown to Damascus on the 5th July and left at 05.30 on the 6th; they attacked BAALBECK at 06.00, sighting '9 Leo bombers' and '1 Glen Martin', claiming hits on '4 Leos' and '1 Glen Martin' and at 06.10 they attacked TALIA, sighting '5 Buffaloes' and '1 High winged twin monoplane'. The ORB states 'own a/c flying in line abreast down valley + only 4 were able to attack the a/c!' (it doesn't identify the four aircraft). Hits were claimed on '1 Buffalo and the monoplane' as well as hangers and 20 MT.

Heavy light flak was reported at BAALBECK; all returned but the aircraft of F/Lt Bandinell, Sgt Kilby, PO Hall and Sgt Hindle all suffered slight damage.

Hope this is of some help.

Regards

Steve Pegge

[alex crawford]

Hi Jerome,

I received an email regarding your query and I am posting it here in its entirity.

Alex

I am unable to post to the 12 O'Clock high board at present (away from normal computer). I noticed the info request on 260/450. here is some addiotnal data, which I hope you can pass on

Flight that attacked the airfields consisted of 7 aircraft as below and took off at 1830hrs

W9228 F/Lt. Bandinell
Z4564 Sgt. Kilby
Z4375 P/O Hall
Z4254 Sgt. Paterson
Z4580 F/O McDougall (B Flight)
Z4706 Sgt. Hindle (B Flight)

The aircraft of B flight (which Wilmot was one of) were attacked by the D.520's. during another patrol and not part of the same formation above.
These aircraft were

Z4493 - Fltlt Bowring
W9143 - Sgt London
Z4567 - SGT Agnew
Z4615 - PltOff Gidman
W4292 - SGT McKay
Z4629 - SGT Wilmot

SGT Wilmot was damaged Cat 1 in the attacks by the D.520, but did not see the type that attacked him

Hope his helps a little

Buz


Regards,

Alex

[Steve49]

I'm affraid Buz has got the information a bit mixed up. If you open the link, look at the digital copy and open page 32 you'll find the details for the 6th July. (The pages are out of order, but page 29 has details for operations the 7th and 8th).

http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Item...?M=0&B=1359188

It shows that the strafing aircraft left Haifa at 18.30 on the 5th, but this is a transfer flight to Damascus, with them arriving at 20.10. At 05.30 on the 6th the six Hurricanes I's set out on their airfield attacks.

The other operations flown by the squadron were three patrol missions covering naval vessels. Six aircraft (F/Lt BOWRING (Z4493), Sgt LONDON (W9143), Sgt AGNEW (Z4567), PO GIDMAN (Z4615), Sgt MCKAY (W9292) and Sgt WILLMOTT (Z4629)) were flown to Haifa satelite airfield to receive instructions. According to the ORB the following patrols were flown;

0900-1100 by 4 aircraft
1300-1515 by 7 aircraft
1710-1915 by 8 aircraft

It does not make clear which aircraft/pilots flew on which mission or when Sgt WILLMOTT's aircraft was damaged, but at a guess it may have been on the last mission because he returned earlier than the rest.

Regards

Steve Pegge

[Jerome Ribeiro]

Originally Posted by Steve49

at 06.10 they attacked TALIA, sighting '5 Buffaloes' and '1 High winged twin monoplane'. The ORB states 'own a/c flying in line abreast down valley + only 4 were able to attack the a/c!' (it doesn't identify the four aircraft). Hits were claimed on '1 Buffalo and the monoplane' as well as hangers and 20 MT.
Steve Pegge

Hi Steve,

This is coherent what was reported from the french side although confusion was done on A/C type; Indeed there were parked 5 Potez 25TOE from EO 594 (TBC) & 1 Amiot143 from GTI/15 (TBC) in Talia airfield.

• Could you please explain the sentence said by the ORB "'own a/c flying in line abreast down valley + only 4 were able to attack the a/c!?
• What do you mean by 20 MT?

Thanks you
Regards
Jerome

[Steve49]

Jerome,

It's a quote from the ORB, but at a guess I think it means due to the layout of the valley whilst flying in line abreast, only four of the six aircraft were actually able to strafe the airfield, with the remaining two being prevented from firing due to a fear of hitting the other Hurricane's.

MT is an abreviation of 'Motor Transport' which would generally mean, cars, lorries or a combination of both.

Regards

Steve Pegge

[Jerome Ribeiro]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for the tips re MT and understanding of the ORB.

To end this post, please find my last couple of questions about the composite sqn:

• could you please indicate which version of the Hurricane the 450/260 Composite Sqn especially the 6 aircraft involved in this straffing?
• Could you also confirm which Squadron these pilots initially belonged to in this composite sqn 450/260 or this current sqn was the result of the fusion of both 450 & 260 Sqn when this mission was done?

The A/C from Flt-F/Lt Bandinell (Z922), Sgt Kilby (ZA564), PO Hall
(Z4375), Sgt Paterson (Z4254) and B Flt FO McDougall (Z4580) &
Sgt Hindle (Z4706).

It was also reported that the 208 Sqn send the FO Waymark to a recce mission over Damour around 9:40 am where he was surprised by 2 D520 from GC II/3. they damaged slightly the Hurricane.

Cheers

Jerome

[Steve49]

Jerome,

All the ORB says is that the aircraft were Hurricane I's.

As for the pilots my understanding is that with the exception of its Commanding Officer (F/Lt G.H. Steege DFC), at the time of the fighting over Syrian and Lebanon 450 Sqn RAAF didn't have any pilots, and with 260 Sqn not having any ground personnel the decision was taken to use the ground personnel of 450 Sqn to service the 260 Sqn aircraft. With the combined 260/450 Sqn being commanded by S/Ldr C.J. Mount, A Flt lead by F/Lt H. Bandinel and B Flt by F/Lt B.H. Bowring (all 260 Sqn pilots) I guess this appears to be the case. A look through the 450 Sqn ORB appears to confirm this, with the merger taking place on the 23rd June.

The attack on the 208 Sqn Hurricane is mentioned in 'Dust clouds over the Middle East' but I've got no more information on that.

Regards

Steve Pegge

[Jerome Ribeiro]

Good Morning Steve,

Thank you so much to provide complete information on this subject - and those taking part in the explanation. Now, it's clear for me.

Subsidiary question:

• Do you have the official ref of the ORB related to this event?
• How I can access to the ORB to find particular WW2 event such you mentioned?
• Are the ORB accessible on website?

I guess the ORB are the apreciated and interesting source of info. Basis od construction.

Best regards

Jerome