17.9.1944 Crash of MOSQUITO HM223 CREW: |
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17.9.1944 Crash of MOSQUITO HM223 CREW: |
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Mrs. Betty Clements, widow of ppor. Jaworski, descripted that night as following:
No. 305 Nightfighters
17/18 Sept.
No. 307 Sqdn sent 6 Mosquito crews to Holand in Operation MARKET, in support of the Allied landings at Arnhem, Holland which was hoped, if successful, would bring a quick end to the war, opening the road to the Allies racing east towards Germany.
N0. 307 Squadron Letter from S.J. Andrzejewski (dated 11.2.1993) "The Mosquitows flew first to Colltishall, Norfolk, to refuel. The coast of Holland and the area containing the bridges on the Rhine and the Albert canal was very heavy defended and to get to the dropping zone the Mosquitoes had to fly through heavy anti-aircraft fire, which seemd to come up from all directions. After the Parachute drop the Germans were on the alert and were not sparing ammunition. The task for the Squadron was to patrol the dropping zone and safeguard the Paras from harassment by the Luftwaffe. For this purpose, a complete GCI Radar Station was flown out by glider with controllers and technical staff. Unfortunately, G/Capt John Lawrence Brown - an old friend of the Squadron from Exeter and all his staff and radar crashed on landing and the Squadron Mosquitoes were left without control. The other task was to listen any wireless transmission, that could come from from the Paras and if any were heard, to establish contact. But there were not such transmissions on the wide band of frequenties given. It was known later that all the wireless and transmitting stations were damaged or lost on landing; this was, in spite of the heroism of the Paras. The Squadtron were to stay in the area for 90 minutes and then return through the same intensive flak to the North Sea." In his fine book (with Robert Wright) "Night Fight" Collins, London, 1957, C.F. (Jimmy) Rawnsley writes on p. 356/7, "We did not know then that John Brown, as keen as a lad with a new toy, was there with them, off to Arnhem with his latest creation, a complete, mobile G.C.I. for tranportation by air. And like so many of them, he paid the price for all his pioneering. His airborne caravan was scattered and he did not even have a chance to set up his latest shop. He dies fighting with the troops within the dwindling perimeter of that tragic landing". A/c 'J' crossed 5 miles approx. inland over Dutch lslands on AI detection then owing to nil visibility returned direct to Church Fenton. A/c 'R' had similar trouble due to ground mist, flew for 12 minutes over Holland and orbitted down to 4000 ft. Large fires observed in an area thought to be S of Utrecht. AIR27/1676 states that another crew made landfall over West Schouwen where they ran into fog and returned to Coltishall. AIR27/1676 states this crew was W.O.Gorski & F/O Thomason: possibily an error. they were not listed as flying. They reported a reddish explosion becoming a small bright light in the sky which appeared stationary at a height of 2000 feet about thirty miles from Dutch coast. (NOTE 1) Letter 18.11.97 (G. J. Zwanenburg, KON, MBE) informs us that two complete Mobile Radar Control Posts were towed (18.9.44) in 4 Horsa gliders by Stirlings of Nos 295 & 570 Sqdns: one of the 1st pair , shot down, crashed near Doodewaard, the other landed O.K. but was destroyed by ground fire The 2nd oufit reached the para troops but could not operate having lost their equipment. (NOTE 2) Roll of Honour. Battle of Arnhem. 17-26 Sept 1944, J. A. Hey Soc. of Friends of Airborne Museum. Oosterbeek. 1986 p. 76 states that (W/C) John L. Brown, MBE (RAF 74440) is now buried in the Canadian War Cemetery, Groesbeek, Netherlands. P/O Kazimierz Jaworski and F/O Zygmunt Szymilewicz, the crew that took off last, did not return and were reported missing. Nothing is known of the result of their mission. A symbolic memorial to P/O Jaworski has been placed by bis family in the military section in Krośno, his home town in SE Poland. Due to some confusion in Squadron's records, the serial no. of the Mosquito is in doubt. Returning from Coltishall to Church Fenton in the morning, two Mosquitoes collided in mid-air: F/Lt Stanisław Madej and F/O Józef Gąsecki in Mosquito XII HK194 EW-L and F/Lts W J. Griffiths and G. J Lane in HK228 EW-R. HK228 was in flight at 1200 feet when it was struck by HK194 overtaking from below and behind. HK194 crashed at Stenigot, Lincs: HK228 crashlanded at Sturgate, Lincs. and was destroyed by fire. Flying Officers Madej and Gąsecki were killed while F/Lts Griffiths and Lane got out seconds before their aircraft burst into flames. "Coming as it has on top of the loss of P/O Jaworski and F/O Szymilewicz, who were missing from Operation Market, these last two days have dealt us a sad blow". (AIR27/1676). |