Mosquito Action! The Real 633 Squadron

[Music] in World War two the Philips corporation was one of the largest electronics companies in the world based in the Netherlands where the Netherlands was captured by the Germans in 1940 Philips continued in operation making radio equipment for the Germans accounting for one-third of all radio tubes used in German military equipment for these reasons Philips main manufacturing plants at Eindhoven were placed on a list of high-value targets by the British who determined to destroy the plants of the earliest possible time but the plant's location made for several problems the British couldn't simply send in a few hundred heavy bombers at night and blow the places to smithereens because they were actually within the city of Eindhoven and with bombing accuracy what it was at the time such a raid would cause huge civilian casualties the Dutch were Britain's allies after all and the Dutch government in exile in London would be outraged another possibility was to send Lancaster's on a daylight raid where accuracy would be improved but the British lacked an escort fighter with sufficient range to protect the bombers and UNASUR 'td such a raid would in 1942 be slaughtered by German fighters and heavy concentrations of flak but there was a third option a precision surgical strike the RAF had pioneered extremely low-level raids on fortress Europe using several medium bomber types in Norfolk in the east coast of England across the North Sea from the Netherlands was number two group of 10 medium bomber squadrons they already flew extremely low altitude raids on shipping along the French coast and inland the due to the size of the Phillips works at Eindhoven a big effort was required RAF Bomber Command decided that all 10 squadrons would attack codenamed Operation oyster the raid was very mixed as the squadrons flew four different types of medium bomber three other types were American the Lockheed Ventura the Douglas Boston and the North American b-25 Mitchell while the fourth aircraft type was one of the finest planes of World War two the famous wooden wonder the de Havilland Mosquito an extremely fast and sleek machine the aircraft and crews faced significant challenges the Ventura in particular was skittish at very low altitudes and flying into the sea was a real danger all aircraft faced the risks of church steeples power lines tall chimneys and tall trees and the real danger of birdstrike all of this was in addition to the obvious dangers from ground fire and German fighters the Phillips plans consisted of two targets the plan was for the Boston's to strike first then the Michels and mosquitos and lastly the venturers after considerable training and practice runs the number of squadrons taking part was reduced to eight the b-25s being omitted from the raid leading the raid was the experienced wing commander James Pelle Frey of number 88 squadron flying the leading Boston the entire raid was to be flown at extremely low level across the North Sea over the targets and back to Norfolk an exhausting trial for pilots and navigators but below German radar giving less time for Luftwaffe fighters to intervene it was also complicated by having three different aircraft types with different speed ranges the operation was also an international affair for an Australian and a new zealand squadron took part as well as a smattering of Canadians serving as individuals and RAF squadrons 12 Boston's 10 mosquitos and 31 vintorez targeted the main site at stripe with 24 Boston's and 17 venturers bombing the Phillips plant at Emma's Ingo half a mile southeast the time window for the attack over the target was 10 minutes each squadron receiving instructions concerning routes in and out of the target area altitudes and bomb loads Spitfires will also be involved waiting off the Dutch coast to escort the Bombers back to England the time of the raid the US 8th Air Force would launch diversionary raids on targets at Abbeville and Lille in France escorted by RAF Spitfires to draw off German fighters delayed by poor weather Operation oyster finally was launched on Sunday the 6th of December 1942 the us diversionary rays went in first 19 b-24s was supposed to bomb the German airfield at Abbeville but most had to turn back one flight did actually attack while 66 b-17s hammered the railyards at Lille a strong German fighter response was triggered but fortunately only two American bombers were shot down one escorting RAF Spitfire managed to down of [ __ ] wolf fw190 the 8th raiding squadrons took off between 11:15 and 11:30 hours and flying at a hundred feet and under strict radio silence formed up passing over the British coast and out to sea 45 minutes later the Dutch coast appeared on the horizon the Germans were caught completely by surprise by the first wave of Boston's flak being extremely light however the Boston's ran into startled sea birds lifting off into their path many of the Boston's hit the birds damaging cockpits wings and engines three minutes later the venturers cross the Dutch coast met by intense German flak from the now fully alert Gunners one Venturer crashed into the sea another crash landed in a farmer's field some folk evolved 190s arrived and one ventura was shot down the raid continued weaving around trees chimneys cables and church steeples the mosquitoes also met the 190s but their superior speed enabled them to outrun the trouble one mosquito returned to base after outpacing the 190s and having lost its part in the operation wing commander Pelle Frey with the leading boston's and mosquitoes arrived at turn route the formation turn northeast and flew for 24 miles to Eindhoven following a railway line then the huge Philips factory buildings loomed in the distance the two attack forces now headed for their respective targets the Boston's mosquitoes and Ventura's attacked in sequence coming under fire from frack and machine guns on the factory roofs Pelle Fry's aircraft was hit in the starboard engine and wings but he managed to get clear after dropping his bombs the mosquitoes were also attacked by FW 190s again outrunning the German fighters one Venturer hit plowed into one of the phillips buildings another on fire went through a dutch house several others slowed venturers fell to german fire the remainder hedge hopped home in the post raid confusion many aircraft flew on to Rotterdam some having to weave through the ports tall cranes in order to clear the heavily defended area the mosquitoes peeled off towards England the slower Boston's were pounced on by German fighters one Boston was shot down over the sea followed by another four down by waiting German fighters all along the Dutch coast but the raid was a success 60 tons of bombs was delivered to the Phillips plants causing severe damage to production Phillips workers subsequently went on strike in defiance of the Germans on the 30th of March 1943 10 RAF mosquitoes hit Phillips again knocking out production for a further six months the airmen of operation oyster were lauded by the press but the truth was although the raid was a success the loss of aircrew and machines was heavy 62 men killed with nine Ventura's for Boston's and one mosquito lost or 16 percent of the attacking force a further 57 percent of the aircraft were damaged with 31 having had Birds treetops and various other obstacles for the mosquitoes it would become the main aircraft type to be used in the future high speed low level precision attacks but more on that in future episodes James Pelle Frey was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for operation oyster and was later made an Air echoey to King George the 6th moving into Buckingham Palace he survived several more operational flying commands and served on for a while after the war and died on the 6th of December 1994 precisely 52 years after the oyster raid the 6th of December 1942 he was 83 Pelle Frey had even taken the opportunity to visit the Phillips works after the war and apologized for smashing the place up the managing director told him that there were no hard feelings as you can see said the director pointing to the new buildings we have a much better one now many thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Fulton you can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 770,549

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, 633 Squadron, De Havilland Mosquito, RAF, Netherlands, Philips

Id: O-zf-Xt0Bg8

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 22 2020