WW II SIS/MI6 clandestine flights to Norway?

In wartime Invernesshire there were at least two (RAF) bases for seaplanes; Invergordon and Alness that might have been used on this occassion.

Same base as I understand it – Invergordon was renamed Alness in 1943

We shouldn’t rule out the possibility of a Fox Moth floatplane, which existed prewar.

Gentlemen,

Comments along this “thread” have derailed a bit to also focus on some other issues – a.o. about the ex-Norwegian He-115s and alleged clandestine flights with this A/C type to occupied Norway (which never happened although planned for).

So – back to the operation in question, some more pieces of information that makes it even more credible, have just been received; the agent (my friends father) was picked up by a small English plane that landed at night off the leeward side of the island Lindoey in the Idsefjord east of Stavanger.

The episode allegedly took place during a moonlight night and simultaneously a diversion RAF air attack was launched at the nearby German fighter base – Sola Airfield.

My friend asked his father some 60 years later about details of this adventurous flight (late autumn 1941 or early 1942) and was told that it was one pilot who spoke English and it was a single engine (cabin) plane on floats – and he sat very cramped and uncomfortable in the back on what he believed to be two (extra) fuel tanks. He was a serious and very credible man with no reason to make up this story which he confirmed on several occasions in his old age.

Ordered by the leader of the Stavanger SIS-network, Mr. Leif Lea, the agent´s mission to Scotland was to meet with the SIS (?) people and receive (new) instructions plus a large sum of money. The meetings took place somewhere in Invernesshire and besides the SIS people, a uniformed Norwegian officer was present.

The return flight took place two nights later and although being searched before the return flight for any revealing evidence of having been in the UK, he managed by the help of the pilot to bring back a present to his wife, a nice ladys handbag.

In wartime Invernesshire there were at least two (RAF) bases for seaplanes; Invergordon and Alness that might have been used on this occassion.

His mother, now 95 years old, confirms that her (late) husband was away for a few days early in the war and upon his return she received a beautiful hand bag that clearly was not bought in war time Norway, she never asked where he had bought it but got the explanation after the war.

His father was arrested by the Gestapo in November 1942 accused for spreading illegal newspapers, spent the rest of the war in German concentration camps but survived.

The involvement in the SIS shipping espionage network was not discovered which probably saved his life – and now all involved are dead without having disclosed barely any information of their wartime SIS-services.

The mystery still remains unsolved: “could this flight have happened as claimed – and was single engine floatplanes ever used by SIS for agent-missions to occupied Norway”?

Have a nice afternoon!

Peter 45

Don’t forget that Francis Chichester did single handed open cockpit sextant navigation.

Very probably …. at night the pilot probably used a sextant.

That was my first thought, and then I considered the practicality of flying an aircraft single-handed and using celestial nav and thought better of it. (As noted by Peter above)

Fascinating story though

Moggy

Just to say that I have edited/added text to the above post because some parts were a little vague as originally posted.

rgds baz

The ex-Norwegian 115s are worthy of a thread of their own, I only mentioned them as being types that have been claimed as being used for clandestine flights to Norway (From Woodhaven on the Tay).

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Flt Lt John Iverach was the canadian navigator who wrote ‘Chronicles of a nervous navigator’,I am aware that there was some controversy over his He115 claims but he writes that he was introduced to the type at Calshot where the He115’s were prepared/modified/serviced by BOAC !
He does not go into too much detail about most of his He115 flights but confirms that the A/c was based at Woodhaven and that the a/c wore british markings…but even so they still had trouble with being (friendly) fired upon even when escorted by british a/c.I believe that they were never fired at when doing the Norway ops.
Not too much help for the OP but as DaveF68 said – it is a fascinating subject on its own.

The pic below is apparently taken at Woodhaven (courtesy Invergordon Archive) clearly showing the He115 at mooring,John Iverach is probably far right.

This is just a thought but what happend to the single engined monoplane floatplanes which Iceland recieved shortly before the war , did any end up in the UK , I think they were Northrops ?

Iceland only had one aircraft, a Waco YKS-7, when war broke out. Any suggestion that a civil Icelandic aircraft could have been used on clandestine flights to Norway is a pure fantasy.
Single engine monoplane floatplanes in Iceland were the Northrop N-3PB of 330 squadron (Norwegian) of RAF Coastal Command.

Several years ago I was told by an ex Sunderland pilot that the RAF operated HE 115 seaplanes on clandestine flights to Norway. He had known pilots who had flown the sorties. I am pretty sure that he said they operated in German markings.

There is a poor quality photo of one such aircraft in the Action Stations Scotland volume. There is also a fairly well known photo of a He 115 at Woodhaven at some point during the war. I have seen this photo incorrectly captioned as being at Invergordon, but Dundee is clearly visible in the background.

Although the SIS files are still locked away, there may well be other sources of info that could shed some light. Dundee City Archives have poor photocopies of some of the agent dropping flights undertaken by 333 (Norwegian) Squadron, so its perfectly reasonable to assume that others may have been released. If it was a Coastal Command pilot doing the ferrying, the there should be a record somewhere in the Coastal Command records.

I am puzzled by a lot of things in this story. The choice of Inverness as a departure point for the flight is a strange one. There are other places that are a lot nearer to Southern Norway. as has been noted above. Wasn’t Inverness a training airfield with runways? I would have thought it more likely that an operational one would have been used, and one that could handle floatplanes. It just doesn’t make sense.

He 115s

Several years ago I was told by an ex Sunderland pilot that the RAF operated HE 115 seaplanes on clandestine flights to Norway. He had known pilots who had flown the sorties. I am pretty sure that he said they operated in German markings.

This is just a thought but what happend to the single engined monoplane floatplanes which Iceland recieved shortly before the war , did any end up in the UK , I think they were Northrops ?

Did any of the above mentioned floatplanes bare a close resemblance to any German floatplane? I was wondering if it did perhaps they would try and bluff it out HMS Cambetown style at St Nazaire.

Were there any Stinson floatplanes on the UK register?

It would have been somewhat difficult, but far from impossible to import floats and a float conversion kit from the USA….but it would have been a bit of a bother.

As was common with American “lightplanes” of the period, the Stinsons came with a number of engine options with varying ranges..but the numbers I find for a wheel equipped aircraft are 500-700 miles. A floatplane would be much less.

Sort of correct in this thread.

Many(!) years ago when I was working in Post Office Telecommunications, we had an engineer working with us who lived in Scotland at the time in question. He mentioned that as ATC cadets they used to scrounge air experience flights on Catalinas, don’t know where from. Turns out a couple were killed on flights that were diverted to do something with SOE in Norway. If it’s true it certainly won’t be in ORBs or anywhere else public. I’ve no reason to doubt him, lots of other stuff he, and my then boss of a similar vintage, said have since been shown to be true.

The Vigilant is unlikely – only 4 were delivered to the UK, in late 1941, and they were undergoing trials in the UK in that time. I can’t find any reference to the UK testing or using a floatplane version. If it was a Stinson, I’d wager it was one of the SR types that were impressed.

I wonder if it could have been a DH type – from memory, the RAF had at least one DH cabin floatplane.

Good afternoon G-ORDY,

Thanks for your comment. As for the night naviagtion, you are probably right about dead-reckoning with watch and a good compass (and possibly a DG) – and I think when closing on the Schottish coast, radio fixes would be helpful. Using a clestial sextant (Astro navigation) would probably require clear sky and carrying a navigator, impractical and to much weight in the small plane.

I have found information that The Stinson Vigilant was used in diverse roles such as towing training gliders, artillery spotting, liaison, emergency rescue, transporting supplies, and special espionage flights (by the “forces”). The enclosed link shows a RAF Stinson Vigilant photographed at Air Fighting Development Unit, Duxford, UK, 1941-42. The type was also operated on floats.

But the main question remains a mystery – did the “Spooks” perform this operation – and where are the records (ORBs) to be found?

Have a nice day!

Regards

Peter 45

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinson_L-1_Vigilant

A North Sea crossing in a Stinson Reliant (with an extra fuel tank) should be no problem – but how was the low level night navigation done – dead reckoning, radio compass?

Very probably dead-reckoning with watch and compass, at night the pilot probably used a sextant.

When I spoke to the late Flt Lt “Tim” Fairhurst a few years ago he explained that he had led his formation of three Spitfire P.R.IV’s from Sumburgh to Afrikanda in Northern Russia totally by dead reckoning. 1,300 miles with no radio in four and a half hours. He only had a page from a school atlas as they had no accurate charts of the area and simply aimed for the White Sea coast after they had flown over Norway, Sweden and Finland! His Spitfire was BP923 and he was very surprised to be told it was being restored to fly in Sweden!

Peter 45, Hi,

OK, so if you have access to the book in question, and it has not provided much that you did not already know, then I need not go through the Norwegian index to check.

I am a retired Met Man, and although I can handle an aircraft I am not a Pilot. So how “They” did what “They” are supposed to have done is outwith my area of expertise. The only other source I can suggest is:- http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/forumdisplay.php?4-Airfields. They might know about any/some temporary/clandestine airfields and/or seaplane bases that might have been used for the purposes you are interested in.

Or, as we often say in this sort of research “If they don’t know, they might know someone who does!!!!”.

HTH
Resmoroh

Hello Resmoroh,

Thanks very much for your interest and comments. I received this message yesterday from a (Norwegian) contact of mine (aviation historian, writer and airline captain) – translated:

Peter, I have Jeffry´s book. It is quite ok, some new material but (as usual) better on anecdotes than facts. It contains no information relevant to the case in question.

And as you quite right states: The “Spooks” didn’t, by-and-large, leave too many accountable trails!! But nobody’s security is 100%! – so hopefully “something” may turn up?

A North Sea crossing in a Stinson Reliant (with an extra fuel tank) should be no problem – but how was the low level night navigation done – dead reckoning, radio compass?

Because the Germans feared an allied invasion in the SW part of Norway, this area gradually became heavily fortified (“Festung Stavanger”), so flying in with a small, slow flying floatplane at night was indeed a very risky undertaking.

Also – was there any WW II seaplanebases likely to be used by “Spokes” in the Invernesshire area where “surviving” ORBs may be available?

Maybe enough “circumstansiable evidence” will turn up to conclude that this misson (and another similar some time later) really happened (Tempsford airfield with No. 161 (special duty) squadron with Halifaxes and Lysanders and their missions are well known) – I have also read somewhere that Stinson Reliant and Fairchild Argus was used for clandestine ops.

From a well known Norwegian historian, Mr. Tore Pryser, who has studied WW II clandestine activities in Norway and Scandinavia (SIS, SOE, OSS, Abwehr etc.) and published several books on the subject, I received this answer:

“… this story may very well have happened, I know that SIS (from Sweden) towards the end of WWII used a Waco YKD-7 and an (captured) Arado Ar-196 piloted by a Norwegian for clandestine flights into occupied Norway (re: my book, “The Werwolf and other agent stories”).

The problem is that while SOE archives are opened up, the SIS Archive in the National Archives in Kew, London for this period, are still unavailable for research…..”

So – anyone “out there” with relevant information or plausible suggestions?

Best regards!

Peter 45

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_of_the_Royal_Air_Force#Civil_Aircraft_Impressed_Into_RAF_Service_1939.E2.80.9345

http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/CivilAircraftinWWIIService.cfm

http://aerofiles.com/_stin.html

Peter 45, Hi,
When I have finished reading the book I quoted above I will go through all the “Norway” entries in the Index, re-read the passage(s) concerned in detail, and try to find out if there are any references quoted (there are quite a few on other topics). The “Spooks” didn’t, by-and-large, leave too many accountable trails!!
But nobody’s security is 100%! If something of interest to you should appear then I will let you know!
HTH
Resmoroh