The RAF pilot who dropped the Tricolor on occupied Paris

A first class operation and a first class painting.

Thanks for the correction on the IWM photo Mark, and it goes without saying that your painting is an absolute cracker.

…this was my take on the operation for the ‘other’ magazine’s cover. It’s good to see the story getting some nationwide publicity, it was a pretty spectacular idea after all!

Incidentally we found out that that IWM photo is mis-captioned, it’s definitely not T4800, you can see as much from the serial number!

Mark P

I was thinking about this operation just the other day and wondering why more fuss wasn’t made about it in later years, one of the greatest ops of the war and with an undeniably noble objective.

Gatward wrote a section for Max Arthur’s “Lost Voices of the RAF”, and it’s well worth a read.

As for the Beau, it was Mk.IC T4800 ND-C of 236sqn. I just googled the serial and came up with this image from the IWM archives:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205211341

Edited in the light of Mark P’s post below, the picture is NOT T4800!

Does anyone know why the job would have been given to a Coastal Command Beau squadron rather than a squadron in 2 Group? Seems an odd job for Coastal…

Wonderful story! Do we still have men lke him?

I believe the full story was told in Flypast or cough cough Aeroplane a while back.