Hello everybody interested in the War in Italy and especially what took place behind enemy lines. Operation Pomegranate was a six-man SAS raid in support of Operation Shingle designed to be conducted against German aircraft based at Sant'Egidio airfield, near Perugia, on the night of 12 January 1944. The commandos, aboard a C-47 belonging to the USAAF, made their parachute jump in an area near Magione to the east of Lake Trasimeno, after which the plane crashed into Monte Tezio killng the entire crew. Although it appears that all six parachutists landed safely four went missing in unknown circumstances leaving Major Tony Widdrington and Lieutenant Jimmy Quentin Hughes to go ahead and reach the target, upon which they planted bombs on seven airplanes, destroying three. One of the remaining bombs detonated while being made safe, killing Widdrington and temporarily blinding Hughes. Upon being taken to the German military hospital in Perugia, Hughes was destined to be shot as a commando, but he enlisted the help of a German doctor with whom he had struck up a friendship and managed to acquire Prisoner of War status, after which he was transferred to another military hospital in Florence. After escaping with two others from a POW train bound for Germany, he made his way south and rejoined allied lines. According to the MACR report the missing SAS men were: 4398288 L/Cpl J. Malloy 2735716 Private T. Cox 2068344 Private A. Todd 1696262 Private S. McCormick Does anyone know what happened to them? I don't have a copy of Quentin Hughes' book 'Who Cares Who Wins' but possibly they are mentioned in it. Vitellino
WO 218/185 refers to this operation in which there is an account that shows the four men you mentioned made it back to their own lines. Can you confirm that the service number for McCormick is correct as he is shown as being awarded the MM, the only two I have with that surname were awarded the MM in 1946 and 1947 resepectively! Hughes was awarded the MC for this action and Widdrington a posthumous MID which are below Hughes/James Quentin Lieutenant 187543 Royal Artillery - 2 Special Air Service Regiment LG (post July 1944) Lieut Hughes was one of a party of two officer and 4 ORs who were dropped by parachute on 12 Jan 44 close to Lake Trasimene, with the object of attacking grounded aircraft on San Egidio airfield. On the night of 14 January 1944 the detachment attempted to cross the Tiber but were intercepted by an enemy patrol. The officer commanding the detachment gave the order to disperse. Unfortunately the two officers failed to make contact again with the remainder of the party. They continued on night 15 January towards the airfield, and on 16 January arrived at the objective placing bombs on 4 JU 88's, 2 Fieseler Storch, and 1 Ju 52. No further aircraft could be found and the officers began to disarm their remaining bombs. During this process a bomb exploded killing the detachment commander seriously wounding Lieut Hughes, who was captured. On 10 March this officer was put on board a hospital train bound for Padua, and although blind in one eye succeeded in escaping by jumping from the train. On 30 March he returned to our own lines. Lieut Hughes displayed throughout high courage determination and devotion to duty. Widdrington/E A F Major 63144 5 RIDG? – 2 Special Air Service Major Widdrington MC was commanding a party of two officers and 4 O.R.s who were dropped by parachute on the 12th of January, 1944, close to Lake Trasimene (Italy), with the object of attacking grounded aircraft on San Egidio airfield. On the night of the 14th of January, 1944, the detachment attempted to cross the Tiber but were intercepted by and enemy patrol. Major Widdrington gave the order to disperse. Unfortunately the two officers failed to make contact with the remainder of the party again. They continued on the night of the 15th January towards the airfield and on the 16th January arrived at the objective placing bombs on 4 J.U.88’s, 2 Fieseler Storch, and 1 JU 52. No further aircraft could be found and the two officers began to disarm their remaining bombs. During this procedure a bomb which Major Widdrington was disarming exploded killing him and seriously wounding Lieut Hughes, who was subsequently captured. Major Widdrington MC displayed throughout high courage, determination and devotion to duty. I thought I might have an Escape and Evasion report for Hughes but it would appear not. Regards Andy
Thank you very much indeed for this. I live not far from where the plane came down and the Comune of Perugia has financed a lovely booklet giving details of the crash and how the exact spot was located. The author knows what had happened to Hughes and Widdrington but not to the other four so I can now tell him. I have checked on McCormiok's number and it is 2696262 - sorry about the mistake, Regards, Vitellino
Ciao Vitellino, According to "War behind enemy lines" (written by Julian Thompson) the other four men of the team arrived to the airfield after the attack and after they crossed the german lines to rejoin the allied lines regards
Hello Gandalf, I've read Hughes' book 'Who Cares Who Wins' since I wrote the post and it's true that they got back to their own lines. Vitellino
Major Widdrington was quite a character. After serving in 5 INNIS DG, he went to the Transjordan Frontier Force. At some point, he won an MC. His father was a Brigadier who himself had won a DSO. Quite a family. I drove by the old airfield spot only yesterday - without having seen this post. Perugia was the German airfield that ran all the air recce flights so it was important to destroy any aircraft that could overfly any beachhead. FdeP
I landed on it yesterday - Ryanair flight Stansted-Perugia. I do this journey about every six to eight weeks and it always strikes me how little the passengers probably know about its history. There was some discussion two years ago about putting up an information board giving details not only about Operation Pomegranate but of the shooting down on 6 April 1944 of ship 7K, a B25 Mitchell belonging to 487 Squadron, 340 Bomb Group (M) USAAF in which all of the six-men crew except the pilot 2/Lt. Billy Bob Barker, lost their lives, four on impact and the fifth, 2/Lt. Robert 'Bob' B. Hicks, of wounds in the German military hospital in Assisi. I have full details of the crews of both this and the other plane lost on the same mission -7T - and will post them if anyone is interested. Vitellino
My friends of Archeologi del'aria did researches about all these planes, and also about a Ju-52 crashed on Monte Tezio
What did they find out about 7T which crashed somewhere near Colfiorito according to the map in the MACR report?
The C-47 went down over the slopes of Monte Tezio, our members found many items. With these items they did a cross to remembere the fallen. A relative of the pilot went over the Tezio some time ago to commemorate the events. To se the items recovered and other pictures, take a look at the Topic in our forum: http://www.archeologidellaria.org/index.php?topic=1236.0
Thanks Micky. i know a lot about Monte Tezio, thanks and have a cophy of Mauro Bifani's book. I am interested in B.25 Mitchell 7T which crashed near Colfiorito after having bombed Perugia airfield on 6 april 1944, killing three crew members. Vitellino
