No.138 Sqdn Polish Loss 7/8th Nov 1941 ?

[Smudger Smith]

Hoping someone can confirm the date of loss on the following.

H.P Halifax L9612 FTR from a SOE operation to Poland. I checked the No.138 Squadron ORB and found that no operational losses were recorded for the above date, or was there any record of operations flown from Linton.

I refered to the No.3 Group HQ Records Book and found the following,

H.P.Halifax L9612 Linton

F/O Jasinski (No.300 Sqdn)
Sgt Sobkowiak (No.300 Sqdn )
F/O Krol (No.301 Sqdn)
W/Cdr Roman Rudkoski (No.301 Sqdn)
Sgt Chodvrs (No.301 Sqdn)
Sgt Moll (No.301 Sqdn)
Sgt Wasilewski (No.301 Sqdn)
Sgt Soltysiak (No.301 Sqdn)

At 0100hrs this aircraft sent "Operation Completed am returning with undercarriage down". At 0350hrs "Landed Sweden".

However , The Halifax File records L9612 as FTR November 1st 1941, this is also the date recorded in Agents By Moonlight. ?

There is no Loss Card and the Escape & Evasion report records the date of loss as 7/8th Nov 1941, again however Chorley in BCL Vol 2 records the date as Nov 1st 1941.

Can anyone please confirm.

Thanks


Steve

[Linzee]

Hi Smudge,

Have you tried Bob Body for info re this? Might be worth a try if you haven't already as he has quite a bit of 138 and 161 gen and is an exceptionally good egg

Rgds
Linzee

[Franek Grabowski]

The date is 7/8.11.1941.
The crew (correct spelling) was:
F/O Tadeusz Jasiński (No.300 Sqdn),
Sgt Franciszek Sobkowiak (No.300 Sqdn ),
F/O Stanisław Król (No.301 Sqdn),
W/Cdr Roman Rudkowski (No.301 Sqdn),
Sgt Józef Chodyra (No.301 Sqdn),
Sgt Rudolf Mol (No.301 Sqdn),
Sgt Walenty Wasilewski (No.301 Sqdn),
Sgt Jerzy Sołtysiak (No.301 Sqdn).
The incident was widely covered and there were some photos of the wreck published, eg. in Making for Sweden by Air Research.

[Smudger Smith]

Dear Linzee & Franek,Linzee, firstly Heelllloooo. I tried Bob last night but my email bounced back, I may have the wrong address, can you forward please.Franek, thank you for the complete crew listing. I am I must confess bewildered, Chorley states that a reliable source gives the date of the operation as 1/2nd November 1941. Reliable source.?I will on my next visit to the NA check Linton's Station Record Book. Lastly do you have an agent list.?Thank you both once again.Smudger

[Franek Grabowski]

Agents were:
Ziege - kpt. Niemir Bidziński,
Ponury - por. Jan Piwnik,
Wera - ppor. Napoleon Segieda.
Code of operation was Ruction and target - Ugór.
There is plenty of documents confirming the date, so I am surprised hearing of reliable sources!

[Linzee]

Helloooo again Smudge from the big smoke!

No probs, have mailed you Bobs e-mail addy. I had a wee check through the Additions and Amendments for Chorleys BCL's. Checked Vol's 3 & 4. In Vol 4 there is the addition of the full crew list from Halifax L9612 plus it has them as Internees rather than Escapers or Evaders. That might put a slightly different tack on where you look next?

I also checked in Vol 6 but nothing there. I don't have Vol 5 (it's on order) but it might be worth looking at in case Chorley has noted that the date was wrong?

Cheers
Linzee

[Alex Smart]

Hi,

I have "Making for Sweden vol1" and there is a photo of the burned out Halifax L9612on page 25.
As this a/c and crew had carried out the op and was on the home run, does anyone know the eventual fate of the three agents , did they survive the war ?
Also noted in the book is that the crew were quickly repatriated to Britain the last was Sobkowiak on the 22nd January 1942.
and that the N Krol and WO Jasinski had also other given names Wilga and Wajdowski. Why would this be ?

Alex