Tirpitz Re-visited

In a ten-and-a-half-hour sortie to Tromso Fjord on 22nd March 1945 Squadron Leader Frank Dodd and P/O Eric Hill flew low under unexpected heavy fire to obtain confirmation of the final demise of the pride of the German navy - the battleship Tirpitz.

Warrant Officer Harry Barrett flew as a PR Mosquito Navigator for 17 months from October 1945 to April 1947. He volunteered for aircrew duties as a navigator in mid-1941, and was selected and put on deferred service until August 1942. He trained as a Navigator/Wireless Operator at Cranwell and in Canada, qualifying in November 1943. He was on the night-flying staff at 3 (PR) AFU at South Cerney for nine months. He qualified as an airgunner in May 1945 on the Isle of Man. On joining 540 Squadron at Benson, he and his pilot ferried three Mosquitoes to the Middle East and were then posted to 680 in Palestine, where it was more dangerous on the ground than in the air. 680 then became 13 Squadron. Harry carried out aerial surveys in Egypt and the Greek Islands, and then went on the Nairobi. Nine of the 15 Mosquitoes Harry flew in came to grief.

W/O Francis Joseph Baylis AFM C de G (Belg) Kings Commendation volunteered in October 1941 and joined at ACRC Lords in March 1942. He completed an ITW at Babbacombe and a Wireless course at Cranwell. He received flying training at Port Albert, Ontario and Charlotte Town PEI and a General Reconnaissance Course at Squires Gate, then OTU (PR) at Dyce. He was posted to 544 Squadron, Benson in January 1944 and flew 63 ops, finishing in April 1945. He was awarded the C de G with Palme and also served on 13 (PR) Squadron at Fayid 1947-49 and awarded the AFM. Finally, after ten months on 540 (PR) Benson he received the Kings Commendation.

Flight Lieutenant Peter G. Brearley DFC joined the RAF in 1941 from Cambridge University Air Squadron. He obtained his Wings in 1942, and then completed a navigation course at 3 School of General Reconnaissance and after OTU joined 140 Photo Reconnaissance Squadron in November 1942 until March 1944. The squadron was attached to Army Intelligence revising maps and possible coastal landing sites for the coming invasion. Targets also included flying bomb sites in Pas de Calais area and other varied sectors of enemy activity. At first Peter flew Spitfires and later Mosquitoes with F/O Leslie W. Preston GM as navigator. He finished his RAF service as a flying instructor on Mosquitoes.

Flying Officer Tom Clark volunteered to join the RAF in October 1941. On completion of training he spent 12 months flying with Dominion and trained pilots at No. 15 (P) AFU. At No. 8 OTU Dyce he crewed with Fl/Lt. (later Squadron Leader) W. R. Assheton and was posted to 540 Squadron in May 1944. He completed 48 operations and ceased flying duties in September 1945.

Flight Lieutenant Arnold Cussons joined the RAF in July 1940, but pilot training did not start until early 1941. After EFTS (DH82) and SFTS (Oxford) he was told he must be an Instructor. FIS at Cranwell, instructing at 14 SFTS Lyneham (then grass field!) then secondment to RNZAF at Christchurch until he got back to the UK in September 1943. 8OTU (Dyce) then 540 Squadron, A flight, hours after it was sunk by Lancasters. He returned to instructing in July 1945, first as Flight Commander Mosquitoes at PRU's 8OTU then as CFI when Frank Dodd left. Arnold then went to the Empire Central Flying School as a Tutor. He left the RAF at end of 1949 after a time flying Hornets with 65 Squadron, Linton-on-Ouse near York.

Flight Officer Ken Ellis DFM joined the RAF in April 1942 for training as an Observer. He received his wing as a Navigator in Canada and after subsequent OTU training was posted to 540 Squadron (PR) at Benson in January 1944. His pilot was F/Lt. Arnold Cussons DFC and after in excess of 60 missions over Europe, Ken eventually left the Squadron in July 1945. He and Arnold photographed the German battleship 'Tirpitz' within hours of it being capsized on 12 November 1944 in Tromso Fjord.

Flight Officer Eric Hill DFC DFM joined the RAF in 1941 and crewed up with F/Lt. Frank L. Dodd AFC in January 1944. He joined 544 Mosquito PRU Squadron (detached from RAF Benson to Leuchars) in March 1944. They did all their 53 operational flights together, including flying diplomatic mail to Churchill at the Big Three Conferences in Moscow, Athens and Yalta. They photographed the battleship 'Tirpitz' at anchor in Alten Fjord (north Norway) in July 1944 having lost their cockpit cover moments before. In other sorties, they survived a half-hour chase by two Me262 jets over Magdeburg and a Me109 attack while on one engine over the same city. Frank Dodd stayed in the service as a pilot after the war, finally retiring as Air Vice Marshal, CBE DSO DFC AFC *** AE LRPS.