Hello, with a friend of mine we are investigating about the Halifax JP294 (148 sqn), shot Down near Venice on 8 of august 1944. The "Aircraft lost on Allied Force’s Special Duty Operations & Associated Roll of Honour" list say that the JP294 "Failed to return from supply mission Operation PEAR 4, probably to a Northern Italy destination. Shot down and crashed near Venice". Really, the plane went down not far from Chioggia, some miles south of Venice. We would know more about the operation PEAR 4: I know that in the area was a SOE-SIM mission codenamed "MRS", using radio plans "BAFFLE", "BIPLANE" and "PEARL". Was the mission "PEAR 4" a mistyping of PEARL, or PEAR is related to a drop zone, a supply drop mission or other? Thanks
Hi Micky Have you contacted - The sites SOE man - http://ww2talk.com/index.php?members/jedburgh22.15678/ RAF 148 Squadron, Special Duties WW2 http://www.harringtonmuseum.org.uk/...-on-Allied-Forces-Special-Duty-Operations.pdf TD
Cant help with SOE I'm afraid (I should imagine jedburgh22 on this forum will know about PEAR 4 if anyone does) but for what its worth - there were no 148 Sqdn operations on 8 August 1944; however, the ORB summary says the aircraft, a Halifax MkII, was shot down on the night of 2/3 August: "This aircraft was shot down near Venice, and all the crew are reported to have been killed." They were: W/O Bettles, K.J. Pilot F/Sgt Ward-Barrett B/A F/Sgt Edmondson, W. Nav F/Sgt Wharam, F. W/Air Sgt Hobbs, N.J. F/Eng F/Sgt Macintosh, W.C. A/G Sgt Birtles, J.J. AG/SD They are all buried in Padua war cemetery. W/O Bettles was halfway through his second tour with the squadron, and had flown 13 sorties in July alone, 120 hours of operations. The crew had flown operationally the night before in the same a/c, JP294 B-Beer. 148 (SD) Sqdn dropped supplies and personnel to various Allied cloak-and-dagger outfits and partisan groups across Greece, the Balkans and southern Europe; in the summer of 1944 it was being very badly mauled trying to supply the doomed Warsaw Uprising, as well as flying numerous operations to the north of Italy, and to Yugoslavia. Based at Brindisi, Italy, the squadron flew Halifaxes and Lysanders, though other aircraft were also used periodically. Hope this is helpful. Cheers, Pat. Edit: There appears to have been an American OSS mission PEAR in Italy (along with a number of others with the names of fruit, e.g. PAPAYA, GRAPEFRUIT, APPLE, etc). It is referred to, though no information is given, here.
Dicky and Pat, thanks... i have mistyped the date, it was the night of 2/3 august 1944, not 8.... and yes, the plane was the JP294. The OSS PEAR mission was almost 250 km northwest of the final rest place of JP294, in the mountains near Vercelli, too much far from Chioggia, and the return route of JP294 should have been just over the major Flak area of the Po valley, like Milan, Verona, Adige Valley and so...
Just found, the PEARL was an OSS mission with Italian agents, was dropped ashore around Chioggia in February 1944, with other two OSS missions, FIG and PLUM. It seems that JP294 was shot down in a supply drop for this mission.
"...The “Pear” team, including an Italian air ace from the Italian Air Force, was the first mission to go into north Italy in January 1944. The Pear team was dropped off on the coast of Venice via a submarine. Three teams, all consisting of Italian personnel, were dropped in February and another four in March in areas all over north Italy – Turin, Bologna, Milan, the Lake region. NARA, RG 226 OSS E165 Folder 303, 2677 Regiment OSS, NARA, RG 226 OSS E165 Folder 303, 2677 Regiment OSS, SI Branch, Italian Section, “Report for period 1-15 June 1944,” pp. 2-3 " from: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2542&context=etd
A very interesting thread. Just a couple of comments which might help to understand why things are recorded as they are. "This aircraft was shot down near Venice, and all the crew are reported to have been killed." Now we know it was not near Venice. But the people who wrote it down may not have known that, all they knew was it was on a mission to North Italy in the region of Venice. In 1944 there were not many people, who would have known many places in the world let alone in Italy. (No Google maps in those days). Venice would be a well-known place. Another point to remember is, this trait, that was particular to the RAF. I worked with an Ex RAF chap in the early 1990s, sometimes, If I asked him a question and he did not want to give me an answer or did not know the answer, he would just tap his nose and say “The need to know”. So even if they did know it would not necessarily be put down. So why did Halifax JP294 crash where it did? This depended on many factors: the flight plan to return to base, speed and height, wind, the positon it was at when it was hit, how long it remained under control after being hit, damage sustained at the time of being hit etc. Halifax specs. Maximum speed: 282 mph (454 km/h/246 kn) at 13,500 ft (4,115 m) Range: 1,860 mi (3,000 km) combat Service ceiling: 24,000 ft (7,315 m) Rate of climb: 750 ft/min (3.8 m/s) Wing loading: 45.7 lb/ft2 (223.1 kg/m2) Power/mass: 0.12 hp/lb (195 W/kg) A rough sketch of what might have been the flight path, remembering after the drop the height, speed, wind speed, and direction would determine the actual flight path. With such rudimental navigation those boys had and being shot at as well, it is wonder that anyone ever got back to base. Respect to them all.
taking this one step further who reported it as 'shot down', how would they know as I assume this aircraft was doing a solo flight??? As the Harrington database states: Failed to return from supply mission Operation PEAR 4, probably to a Northern Italy destination. Shot down and crashed near Venice How come they are definite about how it crashed, but are uncertain about where it was?? TD edited to add: The crash site as shown is a long way from the cemetery at Padua where they are buried.
Indeed Padua Cemetery is 194 mls from Vercelli and Milan cemetery is 65.3 mls from Vercelli and have 175 RAF chaps buried there. So that opens the question is as stated in post 4. the final rest place of JP294, in the mountains near Vercelli. Correct?
I have the feeling that the drop zone (DZ) for the supplies was at Vercelli and that the plane came down somewhere near Padua/Venice, which is why the crew are buried there, It does not make sense if the plane crashed at Vercelli to then transfer the corpses of the crew 200miles or so to Padua. Thats my thinking on it at the moment, perhaps Micky has some details about where the plane actually crashed/was shot down?? TD
I was just thinking that Allied casualties were often exhumed from burial at their places of death and reburied in collective cemeteries during and after the war, which might mean Padua is a red herring. The ORBs don't give location details of operations, as security was (naturally) a big deal in Special Duties. They only give grid refs for nickel drops, usually. If an operation was numbered 4 it's likely there were three previous drops to it - I've checked the ORBs for September and can't see any reference to PEAR, but I don't have that for July - might be worth a look, though I doubt it will do more than confirm the code name as correct. Pat
Well, some fixed points: - I've NOT found other references or stamens about the PEAR mission in Vercelli-Novara Area, the previous sources was a short note in a book related to the year 1945, but at the moment I'm unable to find it again.... - I've found evidence of a PEAR mission in the Veneto region area: the first was the OSS-SIM PEAR mission, landed from the Italian submarine "Platino" near Chioggia on 26 February 1944. The mission connected with the partisan group "Boscolo" in the area and provided supply drop and informations. - In the same area (Venice and Treviso) was a SOE-SIM mission called MRS, with radio plans BAFFLE, BIPLANE and PEARL. I don't know if PEAR 4 was a mistyping of PEARL.... - In the same area, as I know, another 148th Sqn Halifax went down in October, may be the rumors was referred to THIS particular plane? I don't know... - The Graves Concentration Report of W/O Bettles say that his body came from a New Zealand temporary cemetery, as I know NZ cemeteries was only in Veneto Region, not in Lombardy, because New Zealanders never fought in Lombardy in WW2....
