6 Group Unavailable
138 (Special Duties) Squadron (For Freedom) RAF Tempsford. Halifax B MkII aircraft BB 281 NF-O lost during "Operation Bronze", a Special Operations Executive (SOE) commando mission into German-occupied Czechoslovakia, 1943-03-14/15. The Halifax was to deliver a 3 man Czech commando team who were to parachute into a drop zone near Brno, SE of Prague, Czechoslovakia. The weather conditions deteriorated as the aircraft approached the drop zone and the decision was made to abort the mission and return to RAF Tempsford. On the return flight, the Halifax was hit by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed in the Perlacher Forest
Flight Crew: Warrant Officer 1st Class Douglas Clark Lisson (RCAF), Warrant officer 2nd Class Maurice Tallier Peter Myers (RCAF), Squadron Leader Christopher Francis Gibson DFC CDGF (RAF), Sergeant Malcolm John Hudson (RAF), Flight Seergeant John Stanley Rigden (RAFVR), Sergeant Harold John Sharwood (RAFVR), Flight Sergeant Arthur Stokes DFM (RAF) and Sergeant Leo Peter Ward (RAFVR) were all killed in action
Agent/Passengers: Lieutenant Bohumir Martinek, Frantisek Vrbka and Antonin Kubek were killed in action
Flight Engineer, Sergeant Hudson and Agent Vrbka survived the crash but both later died from their injuries, Vrbka on 1943-03-23 and Hudson 1943-04-11
Much of this same crew had successfully completed a mission to drop six Norwegian commandos into Norway to destroy the Heavy Water plant at Rjukan in an effort to stop the German Atomic Bomb program a month earlier in February 1943. The commandos were able to carry out the the destruction of the Norsk Hydro Plant 1943-02-26
Royal Air Force Serial and Image Database
