Operation FRESHMAN November 1942
The Task Force and their Final Resting Places (Compiled by Tony Dunlop, October 2010)
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This document was prepared from the many articles that have been written about Operation Freshman. My Aunt’s first husband was Ernest Pendlebury, who was killed when Glider HS114 crash landed. He died four years before I was born Tony Dunlop October 2010 ATnC.Dunlop@Hotmail.co.uk and www.issuu.com/investigate4fun
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Operation FRESHMAN At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, scientists throughout the world were aware that it was theoretically possible to develop a nuclear weapon which would have devastating effect. Heavy water (deuterium oxide) was essential for nuclear research. The only source of heavy water in Europe was the Norsk Hydro factory at Vemork near Rjukan in Telemark and following the occupation of Norway this heavy water was available to German scientists. In 1942 the Allies decided to destroy the heavy water plant at the Norsk Hydro factory to prevent Germany developing a nuclear weapon. Various options for an attack were examined; bombing, use of the Norwegian resistance, use of the Norwegian Kompani Linge or British airborne troops. It was decided to use glider borne troops from the British 1st Airborne Division in a small scale, commando-style operation. The attack would be carried out at night in November 1942 when moonlight and weather conditions were suitable. A small team of 4 Norwegians were dropped by parachute on the Hardangervidda in October 1942 and made their way to mark the landing area which was on frozen marshes to the west of Vemork. This team (known as Operation Grouse) consisted of Jens Anton Poulsson, Arne Kjelstrup Knut Haugland and Claus Helberg. Two Horsa assault gliders would be used for the attack; each glider would carry a section of 15 airborne troops in addition to the 2 pilots. The gliders would be towed to the target area by Halifax 4-engined bombers. The 2 attack sections would operate independently to give a greater chance of success. They were to take off 30 minutes apart. When the landing area was in sight, the gliders would be released to make a silent landing. After landing the troops would move rapidly down the road to Vemork and attack the Norsk Hydro factory. After the attack the troops would disperse and attempt to reach Sweden. The mission was a disaster. One of the Halifax planes and both Gliders crashed. This document records what happened to those who took part in what became known as Operation FRESHMAN
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Eiganes Churchyard, Stavanger
Eiganes Churchyard lies about half a kilometre west of the town centre, and the Commonwealth War Graves Plot occupies a prominent position at the head of the main avenue. There are no Commonwealth war cemeteries in Norway, those who died there being buried in civil cemeteries and churchyards. In November 1942, an attempt was made to destroy the hydroelectric power station at Vermork, in Telemark, where heavy water was produced for German atomic research. Two gliders and an aircraft engaged in the raid crashed in southern Norway. All those aboard, Royal Engineers of the 1st Airborne Division and members of the Commonwealth air forces, were either killed in the crash or died later, at the hands of their German captors. The heavy water plant was eventually destroyed by a party of six Norwegians dropped by parachute in 1943. Stavanger (Eiganes) Churchyard contains the graves of 25 servicemen who died in the raid. In all, the cemetery contains 44 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War.
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CREW of GLIDER DP349 Piloted by Sgt Doig and S/Sgt Strathdee in Airspeed Horsa Glider Serial number DP-349 and towed by Halifax tugs from 38 Group RAF, the mission flew from RAF Skitten, a Coastal Command Airfield four miles North-west of Wick, Scotland. Taking off at 1745hrs on 19 November 1942, the mission soon became hampered by severe weather conditions. As the aircraft neared their intended targets the glider and tug encountered dense fog northwest of Rjukan which they were unable to emerge from. Fuel was getting low and as both tug plane and glider started to collect ice, they rapidly lost altitude. The glider released but crash-landed at Fylgjesdalen, north of Stavanger, killing the two pilots and six of the Airborne Engineers onboard. (Airborne) Field Park Co y .
Date Of Death
Age
19/11/1942
25
9t h
19/11/1942
29
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
22
2114930
Royal Engineers
261s t
19/11/1942
30
210866
Royal Engineers
9t h
20/11/1942
20
Sapper
2110268
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
22
SIMKINS, GEORGE
Driver
1884423
Royal Engineers
261s t
19/11/1942
30
STRATHDEE, MALCOLM FREDERICK
Staff Sergeant
Name
Rank
Service
Regiment
DOIG, PETER
Sergeant
3250420
Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.
HEALEY, FREDERICK
Lance Sergeant
4385760
Royal Engineers
HUNTER, JOHN GLEN VERNON
Sapper
2110332
JACQUES, WILLIAM
Sapper
METHVEN, DAVID ALEXANDER
Lieutenant
NORMAN, ROBERT
Operation FRESHMAN
320272
Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.
5
19/11/1942
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CREW of GLIDER HS114 Glider pilots Pilot Officer Herbert Fraser, Pilot Officer Norman Davies onboard Horsa glider HS114, were towed by the Halifax W7801 'B' Baker. (The Halifax from 38 Group RAF was piloted by Flt Lt A R Parkinson (Royal Canadian Air Force) and Pilot Officer G W Sewell de Gency RAF (Volunteer Reserve) as co-pilot. Other crew members were Flying Officer A T H Haward RAF (VR), Flt Lt A E Thomas RAF (VR), Sgt J Falconer RAF, Flt Sgt A Buckton RAF (VR) and Flt Sgt G M Edwards RAF (VR) - all of whom later died when the tug crashed during the mission at Helleland, Rogaland.) Following take-off at 1800hrs from Wick, Scotland on 19 November 1942, the mission soon became hampered by severe weather conditions. As the aircraft neared their intended targets the glider and tug encountered dense fog northwest of Rjukan which they were unable to emerge from, coupled with problems with their target-location apparatus. Fuel was getting low and as both tug plane and glider started to collect ice, they rapidly lost altitude. Tug and glider separated although details are not known exactly what happened afterwards. The glider crashed approximately 2.5 kilometres north-east of Lensmannsgard, 400-500 metres north-west of Gasetjern, some four kilometres north from where the towing Halifax crashed killing both pilots, and Driver Pendlebury.
Name
Rank
DAVIES, NORMAN ARTHUR
Pilot Officer
401422
FRASER, HERBERT JOHN
Pilot Officer
401601
PENDLEBURY, ERNEST
Driver
Operation FRESHMAN
Service
2000197
(Airborne) Field Park Co y .
Date Of Death
Age
Royal Australian Air Force
20/11/1942
28
Royal Australian Air Force
20/11/1942
28
19/11/1942
25
Regiment
Royal Engineers
6
261s t
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The survivors of the crash of HS114 were all captured shortly afterwards as Prisoners of War and taken to the Slettebø camp at Egersund. After thorough interrogation all were shot by members of the German camp guard in accordance with a decree from Hitler ordering the executions of Special Forces prisoners. Name
Rank
ALLEN, ALEX CHARLES
Lieutenant
BAILEY, ERNEST WILLIAM,
Service
Regiment
(Airborne) Field Park Co y .
Date Of Death
Age
137173
Royal Engineers
261s t
19/11/1942
24
Sapper
1869293
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
31
BELFIELD, JOHN THOMAS VERNON
Driver
2016305
Royal Engineers
261s t
19/11/1942
26
BEVAN, HOWELL
Sapper
2074196
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
22
BRAY, FREDERICK WILLIAM
Lance Corporal
1884418
Royal Engineers
261s t
19/11/1942
29
CAMPBELL, ALEXANDER
Lance Corporal
1923037
Royal Engineers
261s t
19/11/1942
24
FAULKNER, THOMAS WILLIAM
Sapper
2115238
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
22
GRUNDY, CHARLES HENRY
Sapper
1886725
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
22
KNOWLES, GEORGE
Lance Sergeant
1871585
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
28
LEGATE, HERBERT J.
Sapper
1922713
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
SMALLMAN, LESLIE
Sapper
2068169
Royal Engineers
261s t
19/11/1942
STEPHEN, JAMES MAY
Sapper
2010697
Royal Engineers
261s t
19/11/1942
THOMAS, JOHN GEORGE LLEWELLYN
Corporal
2076750
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
23
WILLIAMS, GERALD STANLEY
Sapper
1948916
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
18
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Brookwood Military Cemetery – Pirbright, London
BROOKWOOD MILITARY CEMETERY is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom, covering approximately 37 acres. In 1917, an area of land in Brookwood Cemetery was set aside for the burial of men and women of the forces of the Commonwealth and Americans, who had died, many of battle wounds, in the London district. The BROOKWOOD MEMORIAL stands at the southern end of the Canadian section of the cemetery and commemorates 3,500 men and women of the land forces of the Commonwealth who died during the Second World War and have no known grave, the circumstances of their death being such that they could not appropriately be commemorated on any of the campaign memorials in the various theatres of war. It commemorates casualties who died in the United Kingdom during the First World War but for whom no graves could be found.
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CREW of GLIDER DP349 Nine members of those onboard Glider DP-349 survived the crash but four had suffered serious injuries. All survivors receiving medical help from Norwegian locals in a farmhouse, all but they were soon imprisoned as POWs by the Gestapo. They were taken to the Lagürdsveien jail on 23 November. The injured four were given lethal injections by Werner Fritz Seeling, a German Luftwaffe Doctor. Records of his allied war crimes trial in Oslo, December 1945 state that after falling into semi-conscious states, the four prisoners were subjected to torture by the Gestapo, during which time three of the prisoners were strangled and a fourth shot in the head on the night of Thursday, 24 November and morning of Friday 25th November 1942. The following day all the bodies were collected by truck and driven to the quayside. They still wore the head and arm bandages from after the crash at Fylgjesdalen. The four corpses were sunk at a few hundred metres depth off Kvitsøy Island. The bodies were dumped at sea and never recovered. They are commemorated at Brookwood Military Cemetery. (Airborne) Field Park Co y .
Date Of Death
Age
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
22
2010213
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
26
Lance Corporal
1872832
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
25
Sapper
1892979
Royal Engineers
9t h
19/11/1942
25
Name
Rank
Service
Regiment
CAIRNCROSS, James Dobson
Corporal
2110314
FARRELL, Peter Paul
Driver
MASTERS, Trevor Louis SMITH, Eric John
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Oslo Western Civil Cemetery (Also known as Vestre Gravlund)
Cemetery inaugurated in 1902. Naturally laid out urn graves with stone settings from 1939. The chapel originates from 1902. In connection with the cemetery you will find, Vestre Krematorium (Western Crematorium). The city’s largest war memorial is situated at Vestre gravlund (just behind the Vigeland Sculpture Park). The final home of 331 Soviet, 102 British, Danish, Jugoslavian, Polish, Swedish and Norwegian inhabitants.
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CREW of GLIDER DP349 Once at Grini concentration camp the five survivors were kept in solitary confinement until 18 January 1943 when they were collected by the German security police and conducted to Trandum, where they were shot in accordance with a decree from Hitler ordering the executions of Special Forces prisoners. Their bodies were finally recovered in August 1945 and were buried with full military honours at Vestre Gravlund, Western Civil Cemetery in Oslo.
(Airborne) Field Park Co y .
Date Of Death
Age
Name
Rank
Service
Regiment
BLACKBURN, James Frank
Sapper
1900803
Royal Engineers
9t h
18/01/1943
28
BONNER, Frank
Sapper
1906932
Royal Engineers
9t h
18/01/1943
25
JACKSON, Wallis Mahlon
Lance Corporal
4537415
Royal Engineers
9t h
18/01/1943
21
WALSH, John Wilfred
Sapper
2073797
Royal Engineers
9t h
18/01/1943
21
WHITE, Thomas William
Sapper
1875800
Royal Engineers
9t h
18/01/1943
23
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Field Company(s) (Airborne) Royal Engineers 9th Field Company The Squadron’s history goes back to 1787, when the Chatham Company of “Royal Military Artificers” was raised at Chatham. It was re-named 9 Field Company in Gibraltar in 1806 and became part of Airborne Forces in May 1942, when 9 Field Company RE (Airborne) provided the engineer support for the newly formed 1st Airlanding Brigade, with about one-third of the Company in the parachute role and the remainder glider-borne. Their first airborne operation, OP FRESHMAN, was in Norway in 1942 where they were tasked to destroy a heavy water plant. This turned out to be a disaster, both gliders crash landing and the few survivors being executed by the Gestapo.
261st Field Company Formed from 204 (Wessex) Field Company as 261 Field Park Company RE in 1939, it became part of the newly formed 45th (West Country) Division. The Company joined the Airborne Division (later the 1st Airborne Division) in January 1942 and was the forerunner of the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment. From March 17th 1943 the unit designation became 261 Field Park Company RE (Airborne), the glider-borne Field Park Company of 1st Airborne Davison. 261 Company supported the 1st Airborne Division throughout the war in North Africa, Italy, Sicily, NW Europe and a detachment of 21 sappers landed in Arnhem.
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Horsa Glider HS114 – as used on OPERATION FRESHMAN
The Horsa Mark I had a wingspan of 88 feet (27 m) and a length of 67 feet (20 m), and when fully-loaded weighed 15,250 pounds (6,920 kg). The Horsa was considered sturdy and very maneuverable for a glider. Its design was based on a high-wing cantilever monoplane with wooden wings and a wooden semi-monocoque fuselage. The fuselage was built in three sections bolted together, the front section held the pilot's compartment and main freight loading door, the middle section was accommodation for troops or freight, the rear section supported the tail unit. It had a fixed tricycle landing gear and it was one of the first gliders equipped with a tricycle undercarriage for take off. On operational flights the main gear could be jettisoned and landing was then made on the castoring nose wheel and a sprung skid under the fuselage. The wing carried large "barn door" flaps which, when lowered, made a steep, high rate-of-descent landing possible — allowing the pilots to land in constricted spaces. The pilot's compartment had two side-by-side seats and dual controls. Aft of the pilot's compartment was the freight loading door on the port side. The hinged door could also be used as a loading ramp. The main compartment could accommodate 15 troops on benches along the sides with another access door on the starboard side. The fuselage joint at the rear end of the main section could be broken on landing to assist in rapid unloading of troops and equipment on landing. Supply containers could also be fitted under the centre-section of the wing, three on each side.
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Hitler’s Order for Dealing with Commandos and Agents in Occupied Territories – Issued October 1942 The “Fuehrerbefehl” On 18th October 1942, Hitler issued the Fuehrerbefehl which accused Germany's opponents of using methods that did not conform to the international agreements of the Geneva Convention. He singled out commandos for special mention, describing their behaviour as 'especially brutal and cunning'. Commandos, he stated, were partly recruited from among hardened criminals in their own countries, and it appeared from captured documents that they were instructed not only to bind prisoners, but also to kill defenceless prisoners out of hand as soon as they believed they could be an obstacle to their purpose. Orders had been found in which the killing of prisoners had been demanded on principle. The crux of Hitler's order was this: From now on all opponents brought to battle by German troops in so-called Commando operations in Europe or in Africa, even when it is outwardly a matter of soldiers in uniform or demolition parties with or without weapons, are to be exterminated to the last man in battle or while in flight. In these cases it is immaterial whether they are landed for their operations by ship or aeroplane or descend by parachute. Even should these individuals, on their being discovered, make as if to surrender, all quarter is to be denied them on principle. The order continued: If individual members of such commandos working as agents, saboteurs, etc, fall into the hands of the Wehrmacht by other means - e.g., through the police in any of the countries occupied by us - they are to be handed over to the SD immediately. It is strictly forbidden to hold them in military custody, e.g., in PW camps, etc., even as a temporary measure.
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