Retracing the Amiens' Raid - 80 years on - what would become known as 'Operation Jericho'.

With the kind support of The Vintage Pair, a trip to recreate the flightpath of Mosquito aircraft to Amiens in France was an auction lot in our Grand Fundraising Dinner at The RAF club in London, last year.

This week, the couple kindly supporting this lot with a generous donation were able to meet the team at their base and then set off on an incredible journey – flying in
De Havilland aircraft, but this time, two-seater Chipmunks. You might have already seen the formation team on the display circuit this year.

The February 1944 Mosquito attack codenamed Ramrod 564, became better known as Operation Jericho, which was the title of our first major fundraising campaign a few years ago.

We have covered the raid before in our newsletters, so if you are not familiar with it, there is a fascinating video here, that will explain it better than this restricted space allows.

Pre-flight checks and crew briefing complete – sitting on the ground at Hunsdon Microlight Club – at former RAF Hunsdon. This was the departure point on 18 February 1944 for Mosquitoes from No. 21 Squadron RAF, 464 Squadron (Australia) RAF, and 487 Squadron (New Zealand) RAF which formed No 140 Wing Squadron, on their momentous raid.

Viewing the memorial that is dedicated to the groundcrew, aircrew and support staff who were based at RAF Hunsdon from 1941 to 1945.

A fuel stop and clearing Customs at Rochester.

…approaching the coast – following the same track as the Mosquito crews in 1944.

Just after landing at Le Touquet for customs clearance.

Inbound: Flying the same route – following the road towards Amiens.

Overhead Amiens – now, just where is the prison?

On the ground at Glisy, now Amiens Aerodrome. It was from this airfield, south-east of the prison, where Luffwaffe aircraft scrambled when they knew of the surprise Mosquito attack.

Part of the main prison complex after the attack – merged from an original image.

The same location today, with repairs to the wall clearly visible.

The commemorative memorial just outside the main gates.

The nearby St. Pierre Cemetery where the graves of Pickard and Broadley lie.

Back at their home base – Fenland Airfield.

Pilots, David and Jon with our auction lot supporters, Amanda and Graeme.

Yesterday, we received an email from Amanda and Graeme.

That really was quite an extraordinary 48 hours – an amazing experience with so many memories.

We have now had a chance to take more of it in with the help of the photos – if we were to comment on everything this would be a very long e-mail.

As we left Criel and followed the course to Amiens it stopped feeling that we were simply re-enacting the raid but were more honouring the 18 crews from 1944. The visits on the ground were poignant and set the scene for then second pass over the prison when the light was better and we knew what to look out for.

The other part of the trip – the flying – was incredible. We enjoyed listening to David and Jon planning the route, discussing the weather and agreeing the plan. The formation flying and less formal parts of the flight were fun. We so enjoyed being part of the spectacle that attracted so much interest from many people along the way.

In a word – fantastic.

Our thanks to John and The Peoples Mosquito for bringing us all together, David and Jon – The Vintage Pair – for their friendly, professional delivery and of course to the Chipmunks who only wanted to please.

Retracing the Amiens’ Raid – 80 years on – what would become known as ‘Operation Jericho’.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Sign-up to our Newsletter

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply