Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

By June 1944 Graydon Howe had complete training with 42 OTU and was based at RAF Heaton Norris in Berkshire with ORTU (Operational & Refresher Training Unit). Although ORTU and 42 OTU were not operational squadrons, 38 Group HQ asked them to provide additional aircraft for a key role in the invasion. Accordingly eight Albemarles from 42 OTU and two from ORTU, including Graydon Howe’s V1745, were prepared for D-Day. Their job was to deceive the enemy as to the intended direction of the main British airborne force as it headed for France on Operation Tonga.
D-Day 6 June 1944 was the first time Graydon was on operational duty. The mission was not to tow a glider (for which they had been training intensively) but ‘RCM’ (Radio Counter Measures). The Albemarles of ORTU and 42 OTU were tasked to fly over France at the same time as Phases I & II of Operation Tonga (the airborne aspect of the D-Day landings) and drop bundles of ‘window’ (strips of aluminium foil nowadays known as chaff) to disorientate the German radar systems.
On 2 June 1944 the 42 OTU aircraft and their ground crews arrived at Hampstead Norris from RAF Ashbourne and the station was sealed off from the outside world.
At 2340 on 5 June 1944 the first group of six Albemarles began taking off and formed up over southern England alongside the stream of over 200 aircraft from Phase I of Operation Tonga. They flew in pairs 10 miles astern from one another and, at 60 miles from the French coast, they began dropping ‘window’. At a prearranged point the RCM aircraft continued south-easterly towards the Seine while the main force turned towards the River Orne and the parachute dropping zones.
Just before 0200 on 6 June the second group of RCM aircraft formed up on the Hampstead Norris taxi way. These comprised the remaining two planes from 42 OTU and two from ORTU. One from 42 OTU, V for Victor, suffered engine trouble and could not take off. The remaining three took off at 0216, 0221 and 0227, with Graydon’s V1745 being one of these. They were each carrying two extra crewmen to assist in the deployment of ‘window’. As with the previous phase, the RCM aircraft joined the fleet of planes towing the main force of gliders over southern England.
They crossed the south coast around Littlehampton at 2500 feet guided by navigation beacons. When the stream of aircraft reached Turning Point A (49°59’45”N, 00°30’00”W) at 0245 the 71 tug and glider combinations turned towards Normandy while the decoy aircraft continued to fly south-easterly. At this point the RCM aircraft dropped to 1700 feet. The 42 OTU Albemarle flew ahead while the two ORTU planes flew as a pair 10 miles astern. They kept at a steady 160 mph and, as with the previous wave, at 60 miles from the French coast they began discharging ‘window’. This was to continue to a similar point from the French coast on the return journey.
They used two sizes of ‘window’ which were aimed at confusing both the Freya and Wurzburg radar systems. With each pair of aircraft, one carried 325 lbs of Type N, the other 1200 lbs of Type M(B). They had to maintain a consistent dropping rate to give the desired effect. British radar stations monitored the operation and reported a successful deployment of ‘window’.
They crossed the French coast between Cap d’Antifer and Fécamp, continued inland and then turned north on a distinct bend of the River Seine (identified as Turning Point D, 49°29’30”N, 00°30’00”W). From there they were ordered to rejoin the main force on the planned route at Eletot.
Although only a diversionary operation, the RCM mission of this small group of planes was probably the most hazardous undertaken by 38 Group that night. If the decoy mission was successful, it was bound to attract the attention of the German defences. Of the nine aircraft which took off, only seven returned. Indeed these two Albemarles were the only major casualties of the 98 aircraft from Brize Norton / Harwell / Hampstead Norris which 38 Group put into the sky on Operation Tonga.
In the first phase they lost Albemarle P1442 from 42 OTU piloted by F/Lt James Finn. All seven members of the crew were killed but the location of the crash was never discovered.
In the second phase Graydon Howe’s Albemarle V1745, B for Baker, was lost. My father-in-law, Tom Porteous, was the navigator of Albemarle K1454 which flew alongside Graydon’s plane during the ‘window’ operation. The full crew were: F/O Graydon Howe RAAF (pilot), Sgt Bernard Cane (navigator), F/Sgt Alan Clark (navigator), Sgt Ernest Belcher (bomb aimer), Sgt Stanley Neale (wireless op./air gunner), Sgt Henry Pearson (air gunner), Sgt Clifford Scargill (wireless op./air gunner). At least five of these men (Messrs. Howe, Cane, Belcher, Pearson & Scargill) are featured in a photo taken on the completion of the 42 OTU course at RAF Ashbourne in December 1943.
Their stricken aircraft came down in the village of St Sylvain, a small farming community 3 km south-west of St Valéry-en-Caux and 39 km west of Dieppe. The men are buried together in the only war grave in the churchyard of St Sylvain. There is also a memorial to them at the crash site.
By chance, on a visit to St Sylvain, we met Bernard Demoulins who was 13 at the time. He witnessed the crash and later became mayor of the small community. Over calvados at his home he told us that he was convinced that the Albemarle was shot down, rather than suffered mechanical failure. It came in low from a direction to the right of where the memorial stands today and ripped off the roof of a farmhouse. The old woman inside survived with only a fright. The plane then ploughed into a field to the left of the memorial, killing two cows. Debris was scattered widely, especially the aluminium foil (‘window’) which was the main cargo. There was foil all over the ground and on the trees and houses bordering the field. Our witness told us that his mother supplied sheets and helped to wrap the bodies.
The Germans allowed local people to bury the crew in the churchyard and sometime after the war the community erected the impressive memorial. We donated a copy of Tom’s photo and so they now have pictures of at least five of the dead.