Peter 45Gentlemen,
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
Peter 45Good 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
Peter 45Hello 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://www.raf.mod.uk/history/CivilAircraftinWWIIService.cfm
Peter 45The “police officer”, was probably a key person in a radio agent network set up by the British SIS/Naval Intelligence Service in some Norwegian costal towns in 1939 to observe and report on German shipping carrying vital war supplies (a.o. Swedish iron ore from Narvik) to Germany.
From 1940 German (naval and merchant) shipping activity along the Norwegian coast grew steadily and after the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 large supply convoys to “the Northern Front”, naval ships and submarines was a common sight on the coast and continuously monitored and reported to UK by Norwegian radio agents.
Background information: On 9 April 1940, the Germans launched a surprise attack on Norway and after two months of heavy fighting, the remnants of the Norwegian forces in Northern Norway capitulated on 10 June 1940, lacking weapons and supplies after the British and French withdrew their support a week earlier.
Norway with its long coastline and strategic location gradually became a very important base and strategic area for the German war effort and thus heavily fortified with coastal fortresses, naval bases, airfields etc. (in 1945 more than 400.000 well equipped, combat ready troops was stationed here).
In 1939 a large number of UK civilian aircraft were impressed into military service and the most probable “candidate” for the mission in question, may be the Stinson Reliant, a three-place high-wing monoplane of which 14 planes were impressed into service in 1939.The Stinson also fit the reliable but “scarce” description of the actual (SIS?) aircraft, being a high wing, single engine, three place cabin, floatplane with very cramped space (the extra fuel tank) in the rear cabin area.
(From 1942 and on, 118 Reliants and 161 Fairchild Argus were delivered to RAF and RNS through the “Lend lease” agreement).
There exists information that (civilian type) small planes crossed the North Sea to Britain during the war (a Hornet Moth from Denmark 21 July 1941 – “The Hornets Flight”).
A pilot from 331 (Norwegian) squadron stationed at Skeabrea (Orkneys) in 1941/42 wrote in his memoirs that once, on a North Sea patrol, they were warned to expect a small, slow, low flying (civilian type) airplane approaching from the east (Norway?).
The suggestions on (ex-Norwegian) He-115 and PBY-Catalinas are highly unlikely – it was a small single engine (cabin) floatplane (Catalinas were used later in the war by 333 (No.) squadron (Woodhaven) to fly SIS/SOE agents to Northern Norway).
So the question is; what is the probability that maybe a Stinson Reliant was used (by SIS) to fly the agent to Scotland (for instructions etc.) and back to Norway the following night?
Anyone know of such operations and where to find the records confirming it?
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