Author: Alan Malcher

Military historian and defence commentator

Helena Marusarowna: Polish Resistance during WW2

Helena Marusarowna was born in 1918 and between 1936 and 1939 she was famous in Poland as a skier after winning nine Polish championships.

After Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, she joined the Polish Resistance and began taking messages to other members of the resistance network and guiding people through mountain passes.

In March 1940 she was caught by the Slovak Police and handed to the Gestapo and whilst being tortured refused to provide information about other members of the resistance. It has been said the Gestapo found in her possession a letter from Stefania Hanausknowy who was known to be a member of the resistance and this possibly sealed her fate.

On 12 September 1941 Helena Marusarzowna was condemned to death by the Gestapo and shot near Tarn. Another version states she was shot on 23 July 1943 in Krukowski Forest with five other female members of the resistance and among them were Stefania Hanausknowy and Jania Bednarka.

RAF Wireless Deception 1943

op corona

Operation Corona was a wireless deception strategy used by the RAF to confuse German night fighters during RAF Bomber Command raids on Germany during WW2 and was first used during the attack on the industrial centre of Kassel, Germany on the night of 22-23 October 1943.

The RAF used German Jews who fled to England from Germany to countermand orders from German Air Defence Headquarters to their pilots: they redirected fighters away from bombers or ordered them to land at various distant airfields.  The Luftwaffe responded by replacing their male fighter controllers with women and the RAF countered this by using members of he Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

Halifax bomber crew supporting SOE Operations in Denmark

BB375 crew

Crew of Halifax BB378

On the night of 10-11 December 1943, a Halifax II bomber (BB 378) of No.138 Special Duty Squadron took off from RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire to commence Operation Tablejam 18 and Tablejam 19 to support the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Danish Resistance.

Tablejam 18 was the dropping of SOE agent Flemming B. Muss by parachute near Ringsted Gyldenløves before proceeding to another remote location (Tabletop 19) to drop nine containers of weapons near lake Tisso where members of the resistance were waiting delivery. Whilst approaching the first drop zone (Tablejam 18) the Halifax was intercepted by a night fighter said to be a JU 88 and during the attack the Halifax caught fire and at  01:54 hours crash landed on farmland near   Ugerløse.

Halifax BB 376

The wreck of Halifax BB 378 (Federal German Archives)

The  crew were unhurt and after freeing themselves from the wreckage decided to split up to evade German forces, but another account states the SOE agent was successfully dropped and the Halifax was shot down whilst approaching the second drop zone (Tablejam 19).

  With help from Dutch civilians and later by members of an escape line the pilot Peter Barter, navigator Joe Fry and wireless operator Bill Howell eventually reached the safety of Sweden.

Although flight sergeants Nick Anderson (engineer), Brian Atkins (second pilot/bomber), Sydney Smith (mid upper gunner) and Ralph Riggs (rear gunner) received assistance from members of the local community they were eventually denounced by a farmer and were fortunate to be taken into custody and questioned by the Luftwaffe not the Gestapo which had responsibility for countering resistance and special duty air crews came under their jurisdiction.

SOE agent Flemming Muss is know to have continued his resistance work and was later SOE’s senior agent in Denmark. His wife Varinka was also a member of the resistance and his mother Monica is thought to be the first Danish woman executed by the Germans for being a member of the resistance.

muss

Flemming B. Muss

RAF Short Stirling which failed to return after raid on Berlin discovered along with the remains of its crew 65-years later

Stirling short

On 30 March 1943 a Short Sterling bomber (BK 716) of No.218 Squadron which was also known as the Gold Coast Squadron after the Governor of the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) and the people of the Gold Coast who adopted the squadron, was shot down by German fighter pilot Werner Rapp. The entire crew was killed and there was no trace of the aircraft which crashed somewhere over the Netherlands.

BK 716 training

No source but said to be the crew of BK 716 during training

In 2008 the Stirling was accidently discovered after part of its undercarriage fouled the anchor of a boat on Lake Markermeer, Netherlands, and in 2019 a cigarette case bearing the initials of Flying Officer John Michael Campbell was recovered and human remains of the crew were identified through DNA. The crew are now remembered at the Bos der Onverzettelijen Memorial Gardens in the Netherlands.

   Research and recovery was coordinated by Johan Grass a volunteer who investigates crash sites in the Netherlands and founded the Aircraft Recovery Group.

The Crew of Short Stirling BK 716

  • Sgt Charles Armstrong Bell, 23 from Langley Park, County Durham
  • Pilot Officer John Michael Campbell, 30 from Golders Green, London
  • Flying Officer Harry Gregory Farrington, 24 from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
  • Flying Officer John Frederick Harris, 28 from Swindon, Wiltshire
  • Sgt Ronald Kennedy, 22 from Newcastle-upon-Tyne 

138 Special Duty Squadron RAF Supporting the Dutch Resistance 1943

hanleypagehalifax-mk3_44

Halifax bomber (IWM, for illustration)

     On the night of 21-22 May 1943, a solitary Halifax bomber thought to be BB 229 NFZ took off from RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire for occupied Netherlands  on Operation Marrow 35 and 36.  Their sortie was to drop seven parachute containers packed with weapons and ammunition and two agents from the Dutch Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to members of the resistance waiting on remote farmland at Putten and then a further seven containers and two agents at a similar field in Elspeet. The navigator   Warrant Officer Leslie Tomlinson later said both fields were easily identified by bicycle lamps pointing skywards which the resistance used to mark the drop zone (DZ) and after the two successful drops the Halifax headed for home.

    At around 02:00 hrs the Halifax was hit by heavy flak and caught fire and Tomlinson said either by luck or great skill the pilot flew the crippled aircraft through a narrow gap between two farmhouses before crashing into a field.

138

Drawing by WO Tomlinson

 

Two members of the crew were killed, and the five others suffered serious burns which meant any attempt to evade German forces was impossible and local farmers gave first aid to the crew inside one of the farmhouses the aircraft narrowly missed. When the Luftwaffe examined the burnt-out Halifax, it was apparent the aircraft was not a standard bomber and was being used for special duties to support the resistance which meant the crew came under the jurisdictions of  the Gestapo.  According to an MI9 report, after the crew were in Gestapo custody they were refused medial treatment whilst being interrogated for six hours during which they were threatened with execution if they refused to tell their interrogators how many agents were dropped and the contents of the parachute containers.

138 crew Leslie William Tomlinson

Three members of the crew (source unknown)

The crew were eventually split up and sent to different prisoner of war camps. Only after the war  did they became aware the four Dutch agents had been dropped to German troops after their network had been infiltrated and their wireless ‘played back’ to London by a German operator and all were quickly executed. This German wireless deception cost the lives of many agents from the Dutch Section and members of the resistance throughout the Netherlands and is sometimes called the Wireless War.  

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British Homefront during WW1. Germany’s strategic air attacks against British cities and civilian targets in 1917.

German bomber crew among those who took part in the attack (IWM)

During the war Britain had experienced several air raids on cities by Zeppelins but in 1917 Germany started strategically bombing British cities using bomber aircraft instead of their slow-moving Zeppelins.

On Wednesday 13 June 1917, 20 German bombers called Gotha GI. V’s took off from airfields in Ghent, Belgium to start the strategic bombing of London which was called Operation Tûrkenkreuz. Some aircraft dropped bombs on Margate, three bombs hit Shoeburyness and the remaining fourteen aircraft flew over east London.  

After dropping bombs on Barking, East Ham and the docks in East London by 12pm 70 bombs had been dropped near Liverpool Street Station; three hit the station killing 100 people and a further 400 were injured.

Upper North Street School was a London primary school in Popular which was rebuilt after the war and is now called Mayflower Primary School (the road is still called Upper North Street).

Upper North Street school was full with children when the German bombers flew over and dropped two 110 lb (50Kg) bombs which crashed through the roof then through the  top two floors before exploding in the ground floor class room killing 18 children, sixteen of whom were aged between four and six years old, 30 children were seriously injured and two older children were killed as the bombs passed through the upper floors of the building.

Upper North Street School (IWM)

15 children were buried together in an east London cemetery and the last coffin in the funeral procession contained the remains of children who could not be identified.

School caretaker Benjamin Batt whose son was killed in the explosion looking for body parts

The Mazabotto Massacre, Italy 1944

5th October marks the anniversary of the Mazabotto Massacre (29 September to 5 October 1944) also called the massacre of Monte Sole, Italy.

Italian Partisans (Resistance fighters)

After German troops came under sustained attacks from Italian Partisans (resisters) the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsfuhrer- SS killed 700 civilians of all ages and genders in the village of Marzabotto in the mountains south of Bologna. Major Walter Reder, the SS commander who signed the order for the executions was later tried for war crimes and was sentenced to death by an Italian court but was released in 1985 and is said to have returned unremorseful to Austria and died in 1991.  Ten other SS officers were not convicted due to lack of evidence.

Lilian Rolfe SOE wireless operator in France

Lilian Rolfe (left) standing outside a safe house in France with the daughter of the family working for the resistance. (IWM)

After completing her training and being accepted as an agent by the French Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) on the night of 5/6 April 1944 Lilian Rolfe was dropped by parachute onto remote farmland near Orléans in north-central France to be the wireless operator for the Historian network supporting the Maquis (French Resistance). Apart from reporting German troop movements, arranging and organising arms and supplies to be dropped by parachute she also worked alongside the Maquis and is known to have been involved in a firefight in the town of Olivet south of Orleans.

George Wilkinson head of the Historian Network (common source)

Shortly after D-day her circuit leader, George Wilkinson, was captured by German troops and Rolfe continued sending messages to London to support the Maquis but was later captured by the Gestapo whilst transmitting from a safe house in Nargis. Although she was repeatedly tortured for information her wireless was not ‘played back’ to London by a German operator which means she refused to reveal her codes and in August 1944 Rolfe was deported to Ravensbrück Concentration camp in northern Germany. During an investigation after the war it was discovered Rolfe was so ill she was unable to walk (later reports state this was due to leg injuries sustained during torture) and on 5 February 1945, 30-year-old Lilian Rolfe was executed and her body disposed of in the camp crematorium.


The Battle of Vercors 1944.

Vercors 1944

In July 1944 the Maquis (French Resistance) held a plateau known as the Massive du Vercors consisting of rugged mountains when they were faced by overwhelming German forces including an airborne attack by glider troops. During the battle an estimated 639 members of the Maquis were killed. Those who were wounded were executed on the spot, 201 civilians were killed, and 500 houses burned. It has been estimated German casualties were 83 killed and missing.

Marcel Pinte the six-year old who worked for the French Resistance

(Musee Resistance)

French Resistance. Six-year old Marcel Pinte worked for the resistance carrying secret messages to various parts of the resistance network and his father, Eugéne Pinte (aka La Gaubertie) ran a resistance cell from their remote family farm. It was later said, with his school satchel on is back he didn’t raise suspicion.
  In August 1944 Marcel accompanied the Maquis to a night parachute drop of weapons and supplies and whilst waiting for the drop a member of the resistance had an accidental discharge with a Sten Gun during which Marcel was hit by several rounds and killed.  He was later honoured during the Armistice Day at a ceremony in Aixe-sur-Vienne, near the city of Limoges in central France.