5443791 Sidney George ROBERTS, MM, DLI & SOE: Operation Stepmother?

Any body know what Operation Stepmother was? Swampster very kindly sent me a photograph of Sidney George Roberts DLI along with another of his headstone he is listed on the special forces roll of honour (SOE)
Sidney George Roberts - SOE - Special Forces - Roll Of Honour
Casualty
He was a member of Force 133 SOE (I presume as a Radio Operator?)his history reads...Op.Stepmother - POW 1943 - escaped but died of exposure Albania.Awarded the Military Medal.


Questions
1)What was Op Stepmother?
2) POW of who and where?
3) He was awarded a Military Medal in Albania in 1943. Citation /background

Anything about this lad would be helpful.

Thanks
Verrieres

 

Look that it was a name of one of SOE operation in Albania:

List of Special Operations Executive operations in World War II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But you probably already know that.

 

Hi Jim I could only find Op Stepsister and that isn't related in anyway. It was a Australian Op moving troops from Middle to Far East from Feb to April 1942.

Well Done Sol

 

There is a book about SOE operations in Albania: "The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle", by Roderick Bailey (maybe you can find it in your local library) and review of the same you can find here:

The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle, by Roderick Bailey - Times Online

"Horrific winter conditions, enemy attack, betrayal, disease and solitude take their toll among the colourful SOE fighters. Sixteen of the first fifty parachuted into Albania were either killed or captured."
But I couldn't find any specific details about Operation Stepmother. Sorry

 

From personal experience you could expect minus 35 with the wind chill in that region during the winter.

 

Thanks for looking lads ,looks like it will be a trip to the Library


Verrieres

 

Thanks for looking lads ,looks like it will be a trip to the Library


Verrieres

You could try browsing T.N.A. Catalogue from HS 5/1 as these do refer to S.O.E. Albania.

Brian

 

Any body know what Operation Stepmother was? Swampster very kindly sent me a photograph of Sidney George Roberts DLI along with another of his headstone he is listed on the special forces roll of honour (SOE)
Sidney George Roberts - SOE - Special Forces - Roll Of Honour

He was a member of Force 133 SOE (I presume as a Radio Operator?)his history reads...Op.Stepmother - POW 1943 - escaped but died of exposure Albania.Awarded the Military Medal.


Questions
1)What was Op Stepmother?
2) POW of who and where?
3) He was awarded a Military Medal in Albania in 1943. Citation /background

Anything about this lad would be helpful.

Thanks
Verrieres

Verrieres, LOndon Gazette, states that he died of Wounds.

Phil

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/issues/36497/pages/2046/page.pdf

 

Just looked on TNA for the citation and nothing listed:

The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Refine Browse Criteria

 

There is a book about SOE operations in Albania: "The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle", by Roderick Bailey (maybe you can find it in your local library) and review of the same you can find here:

The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle, by Roderick Bailey - Times Online

But I couldn't find any specific details about Operation Stepmother. Sorry


I have the said book and found this short passage "Robert's, Kemps w/t operator, 'a quiet young man, brave and intelligent,' was not a prisoner for long.Without his captors knowing he had kept his pistol hidden and later shot one of his guards and pushed the other over a cliff.Then he went on the run .By late November however when Seymour eventually found him in the care of a Partisan ceta, Roberts was very weak from sickness , exposure and lack of food he died from pneumonia on 22 December".Reading the pages preceeding this passage it seems they were ambushed by Germans and possibly Albanian Quislings who captured them following a misson in Peza.Roberts is listed in the Nominal roll/ awards list as going in on 17.7.43 and died 22.12.43 and awarded the MM presumably for the above incident. There is a brief mention of Op Stemother in relation to Kemp and misson codenames but as to what it was nothing else I could find.

 

I have the said book and found this short passage "Robert's, Kemps w/t operator, 'a quiet young man, brave and intelligent,' was not a prisoner for long.Without his captors knowing he had kept his pistol hidden and later shot one of his guards and pushed the other over a cliff.Then he went on the run .By late November however when Seymour eventually found him in the care of a Partisan ceta, Roberts was very weak from sickness , exposure and lack of food he died from pneumonia on 22 December".Reading the pages preceeding this passage it seems they were ambushed by Germans and possibly Albanian Quislings who captured them following a misson in Peza.Roberts is listed in the Nominal roll/ awards list as going in on 17.7.43 and died 22.12.43 and awarded the MM presumably for the above incident. There is a brief mention of Op Stemother in relation to Kemp and misson codenames but as to what it was nothing else I could find


Brilliant Well found Thank you very much another piece of the puzzle.Heres a photograph of the lad to go with it.

Thank You
Jim

 

In the SOE Albanian Section History he is listed as a Sgt and as a Cpl - also listed as being badged to Royal Signals.