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Aarhus Raid in 1/72: Any decals or references?


Procopius

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I've long been fascinated by the Aarhus Raid, one of, if not the most impressive pin-point attacks carried out by any air force during the Second World War. Does anyone know of any decals in the good scale (1/72) for aircraft involved in the raid? Additionally, if anyone could recommend any books on it, I'd be most grateful. Thanks in advance!

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The three squadrons of 140 wing that contributed aircraft to the raid were 21 sqn RAF, 464 (Australia) sqn & 487 (New Zealand) sqn, all flying Mosquito FB.VIs. My copy of "The Gestapo Hunters" by Mark Lax & leon Kane-Maguire has a chapter on it & a list of the participating aircraft from each sqn.I'd thought DK had done a sheet with Commonwealth squadron Mosquitos but can't see it now so maybe not. Give me a few days & I'll photograph the chapter involved & can email them to you. This is the book but its probably difficult to find or a bit spendy too.

Steve.

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http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/mosquito.html for production numbers and serials. Squadron assignments are listed for many as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._487_Squadron_RNZAF one of the Sqns in the 140 wing, of which the most well known depiction in 1:72 is Tamiya's Mosquito FB.VI (in-box MM417/EG-T).

That should at least help to whittle the list down?

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31.Oct. 1944 raid on Aarhus University / Gestapo Headquarters, by Mosquitos.  A 1,235-mile mission (700 miles over the sea), 5 ½ hours duration.

 

21 Squadron:

HX920         SB*M         W/Co R. W. Reynolds & Sq. Ldr. E. B. Sismore     (raid leader)

PZ306         YH*Y         Sq.Ldr. A.F. Carlisle & F/O N.J. Ingram

PZ316         YH* __         P/O J. H. Robertson & Flt/Sgt. E. F. Sewell

PZ304         YH* __         Flt/Lt. J. Martin & Flt/Sgt. H. Herman

NT200         YH*E         Sq Ldr A. C. Henderson & Flt/Lt. W. A. Moore

NT170         YH*N         Flt/Lt. D. C. McNeil & F/O G. D. Leech

LR353         YH* __         F/O I. Bellis & F/O S. W. Moulds

______            _____            W/Co. B. E. ‘Dick’ Hogan & Alan Crowfoot (RAAF)

______            _____            ‘Dusty' Rhoades & Flt/Lt. Cecil S. Elliot

487 Sq.

PZ332         EG*A         Sq Ldr F. M. Denton & Fl./Off A. J. Coe – badly-damaged tail, returned safely

NS981         EG*B         Flt/Lt. A. S. Anderson & F/O J. W. Taylor

PZ164         EG*K         W/Co. W. L. Thomas & Flt/Lt. P. R. Humphrey-Baker  -- damaged by debris, landed in Sweden

HR182         EG*O         W/Co. R. C. Porteous & Flt/Lt. A.C. Dunn – led the 4th ‘box’ of 487 Sq.

NT171          EG*F         Flt/Sgt. S. Etherington & Flt/Sgt. C. A. Rattray

PZ195         EG*L         Flt/Lt. W. P.Kemp & F/O E. T. Heap

PZ330         EG*V         Fl/Lt. G.D. Thorpe & F/O N. Poultney

NS840         EG*X         W/Co. P.G. Wykeham-Barnes & F/O E.R.G. Jones

______            _____            Flt/Lt. Maxwell N. Sparks & _______________

 

DZ414         O*         B. D. Hanafin & Flg/Off. Leigh Howard      FPU

 

464 Sq.

NS994         SB*F         W/Co A.W. Langton & Fl/Off. D. S. Bedford   – led the 3rd ‘box’

NS896         SB*D         Sq. Ldr. E. H. Dunkley & Fl/Off. L. C. Webb   (deputy leader)

NS890         SB*B         Flt/Lt. W. K. Shrimpton & P/Off. P. R. Lake

NS943         SB*N         Sq. Ldr. S. Clayton & Flt/Sgt. H. V. Morrison

LR256         SB*R         Fl/Off. R. Johnston & Fl/Off. C. J. H. Turner

HR185         SB*Z         Flt/Sgt. J. R. Mulligan & Flt/Sgt. W. Kinloch

HR352         SB*S         Flt/Lt. W. C. Henderson & Fl/Off. R. S. Hawke

 

Hope this helps, GRM

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Bombing a school by mistake killing 86 children and 16 adults and wounding 67 children and 35 adults is the "most impressive pin-point attacks carried out by any air force during the Second World War"?

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44 minutes ago, Orso said:

Bombing a school by mistake killing 86 children and 16 adults and wounding 67 children and 35 adults is the "most impressive pin-point attacks carried out by any air force during the Second World War"?

You're thinking of the wrong raid: that happened on the Copenhagen Shell House raid and was the result of an accident.

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The Oslo Gestapo raid didn't go to plan. 190s intercepted the raid and downed one Mossie and then the bombs intended for the Gestapo HQ hit the building but went through it to explode in a number of residential buildings, killing 80 civilians.

 

Lots of these mistakes happen during wartime and add to the calamity and tragedy of war. My wife's old landlord was a child at the school which was hit in Bergen during the raid on the U-boat bunkers there. He hadn't felt well that morning and so he had very luckily stayed home. I remember talking to him about it and asking whether he was angry with the RAF, and he replied not at all. He said they were frightened men, doing a very dangerous job and trying to liberate Norway from Nazi occupation. As he simply said, these things sadly happen in war.

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Bill Kinloch, the navigator in 464RAAF's HR185 "Z", was a mate of my father's in Leeton, NSW, before the war. Our two families were close because the Kinlochs came from the same part of Scotland as did my mother's parents. Sadly, Bill and FltSgt Mulligan were killed while taking part in a raid on the night of 12 January 1945 in another Mosquito, PZ350 (by which time Mulligan had been promoted to P/O and Kinloch to W/O). I've been trying to identify that aircraft's individual letter for some time now, as I want to build the Airfix 1:24 kit in those markings, but so far I've come up with nothing. The loss is noted on p.101 of David Vincent's seminal Mosquito Monograph, without the aircraft being identified other than by its serial. I presume from that that the aircraft probably can't be identified, but if anyone has any further information I'd be glad to hear from them.

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The loss is mentioned in "The Gestapo Hunters" but similarly, PZ350 is identified by serial only, no individual code letter. I think I'm correct in saying that a lot of 464s records have been digitalised by the RAAF Museum or AWM. It might be worth looking into that.

Steve.

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Admiral Puff,

 

Steve is right that the best first thing to do is to access what is available through online archives to see if anything comes up. Unfortunately most squadron ORBs and other squadron level information sources use the serial rather than the code. Yes some ORBs do list the code but these are the exception rather than the rule.

 

If you can't find anything by that route and no photos turn up of the airframe in question, then your only other option is to track down logbooks, either for the men in question or for members from the same flight. Airmen in logbooks often list the aircraft code and therefore by matching the logbook code letter with the ORB entry for a particular sortie you can match codes with serials. Because aircraft were usually used in instances by differing crews from the same flight, there is an excellent possibility that you'll be able to find a match for PZ350.

 

The logbook for one of my relatives is missing and I used the same method by getting in touch with a fellow who had a logbook from the same flight. As a result I was able to put codes to a number of aircraft that my relative flew.

 

HTH,

 

Tim

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@Admiral Puff Whilst looking around the internet, I came upon the thread where we discussed this nearly 10 years ago. You have been trying to solve this puzzle for a long time & apologies for mindlessly repeating what I posted back then. I was going to suggest contacting Marl Lax who co-authored "The Gestapo Hunters" with Leon Kane-Maguire who passed aware some years ago, thinking maybe Mark had access to Leons research notes but I do feel that if it was known the info would have been included. I fear this may be one of those unsolvable things lost to the mists of time but in 10 years, new info has come to light as have previously undiscovered photos. Any avenue is worth checking up on again.

Steve.

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Thanks, Steve - I thought that I'd been down this path before! Has it been ten years? The joys of getting old ...

 

I have The Gestapo Hunters; it doesn't take my search any further. I suspect that you're right, and that if Marl had had the information he would have published it. It may be that PZ350 was a new arrival on the Squadron and hadn't been allocated an individual letter before being lost. Certainly the Squadron's ORB gives no indication of a letter. I may have to default to the Aarhus aircraft for want of better information.

 

@Smithy, I've been down that track too. Bill's logbooks have gone missing, and in any event he may not have recorded details of PZ350 before he was lost. His family felt his death quite deeply (he was the eldest son, and was being groomed to take over the family business when Mr Hitler pulled the lanyard), and his time in service was not a subject that could be pursued in any depth with them for fear of opening old wounds.

 

And @Procopius, my apologies for taking over your thread!

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7 minutes ago, Admiral Puff said:

 

@Smithy, I've been down that track too. Bill's logbooks have gone missing, and in any event he may not have recorded details of PZ350 before he was lost. His family felt his death quite deeply (he was the eldest son, and was being groomed to take over the family business when Mr Hitler pulled the lanyard), and his time in service was not a subject that could be pursued in any depth with them for fear of opening old wounds.

 

If that's the case then get in touch with the squadron association (if there is one, there should be, or should have been). Your next step is to try and track down logbooks of others in the same flight (I imagine they were B Flight?) because almost certainly PZ350 will have been flown by other members of the flight who very probably recorded the code number for the sorties they flew in her. If you have information regarding 464 at this time you should be able to make a list of those flying in the same flight. After this it is a matter of tracking down the logbooks via family via the squadron association, via specialised fora such as RAF Commands, 12 o'clock High, genealogy websites. Sounds daunting but it's actually not as awful as it sounds. I was able to hunt down a lot of information and documents for a fellow who flew with the AFC during WWI (which is an even trickier proposition). You also want to get in touch with the RAAF History and Heritage Branch and their Heritage centres at several RAAF bases around Oz as they will be able to help as well.

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Thanks for that. I have a mate (ex GrpCpt, RAAF) who now works for RAAF H&H Branch - I should have thought of him a long time ago! Will also chase up the Squadron association, if there is one - I seem to remember when I last kicked this boat out into the stream that there used to be one, but no longer active.

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