Fairey Swordfish Mk.I Gevika, Ekne Nord-Trøndelag

816 Squadron FAA (Fleet Air Arm) L9731 22.09 1940

They were not able to find their target nor their way back to the carrier HMS "Furious", and finally made a forced landing in heavy fog on a field at Ekne. Four more "String bags" and a Skua of 801 Squadron were lost in this night-attack on shipping in Trondheim harbour.
Maj.J.Hanrahan. Naval Airman A.R.Purchase, and midshipman A.O.Atkins became POW's. They managed to remove some instruments and set the Swordfish afire before the Germans arrived the scene.

A force of twelve Swordfish and six Skuas participated in this operation named "DT" The weather was so bad they never even found Trondheim.

Two of the Swordfishes managed to land at island Leka. L7656 "5C" of 825 Sqdn. Sub Lt. Hugh Hearn, H.Cheetham and C.Jago became POW's. for the rest of the war.

Sub Lt. H.Deterding, H.W.Brown and D.A.Poynter of the other Swordfish (L9756 of 825 Sqdn), also became POW's.

Swordfish L2860 "5F" force landed on lake Krycktjärn in Jämtland, Sweden. Sub Lt. R L R Morgan, B.R.Laing and Sub Lt. MacLeod-Rees were interned.

Skua L2942 of 801 Sqdn. made a forced landing in river Faxälven at Ramsele in Sweden. The pilot, S/Lt Bernhard Wigginson and his navigator Leading Airman C.M. King were interned for a year.

Lt. John Read, S/Lt. Gordon Alfred Busby (21) and Leading Airman Leslie Arthur Webber (26) of 816 Squadron were lost when their Swordfish L2745 of 816 Sqdn crashed into the sea after failing to locate the aircraft carrier.

KTB for "Admiral der Norwegische Nordküste" skriver at flyet på Ekne nødlandet mellom kl. 06. og 06.30.
3 mann kgf.

Også en setning om at 3. bataljon infanteriregiment 349 melder at engelske fly hadde angrepet en norsk fiskebåt i Stjørnfjorden. 1 mann død og 3 såret.

 

© tore eggan
The burned out Swordfish standing on a field near by the farm Vestran at Ekne.

KTB for "Admiral der norwegische nordküste" skriver at swordishen på Ekne nødlandet mellom kl. 06. og 06.30. Tre mann kgf.

Også en setning om at 3. bataljon infanteriregiment 349 melder at engelske fly hadde angrepet en norsk fiskebåt i Stjørnfjorden. 1 mann død og 3 såret.

08.11 2009 © kjell sørensen