Operation Biting
27 February 1942 — Bruneval
- Date
- 27 February 1942
- Command
- Combined / multi-command
- Target
- Bruneval, France
- Force dispatched
- 12 aircraft
Narrative
Operation Biting, the Bruneval raid of the night of 27/28 February 1942, was a combined-operations raid to seize the components of a German Würzburg radar set on the cliffs at Bruneval, north of Le Havre. Twelve Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys of No. 51 Squadron, led by Wing Commander Charles Pickard, carried a company of the 2nd Parachute Battalion across the Channel by night and dropped them near the site; the paratroops overran the position in a short fight, and an RAF radar technician helped dismantle the set before the force was taken off the beach by the Royal Navy. The captured equipment allowed British scientists to understand and jam German radar — work that led to the use of ‘Window’. All twelve aircraft returned safely.
Sortie details (which aircraft from which squadron, which crew flew, the outcome) will populate this page once the TNA AIR 27 squadron-diary importer arrives.
The fallen
99 airmen in this archive died on 27 February 1942 or the day that followed. For a raid of this kind these are overwhelmingly the night's losses, though a death-date match is not by itself proof an individual flew this operation.
- Flying Officer Harold Edward Aspey (26)
- Sergeant Edmund Sidney Ayton (26)
- Sergeant Leonard Samuel Barker (27)
- Flying Officer Mervyn William Bateman (30)
- Aircraftman 1st Class Frank Harold Bennier
- Sergeant Hubert Waddy Blackmore
- Sergeant Reginald Alfred Bland (21)
- Lieutenant Thennis J. P. Botha
- Flight Sergeant Raeside Harley Brown (22)
- Leading Aircraftman Graham Butt (19)
- Pilot Officer Alexander Calderwood (26)
- Pilot Officer Hugh Basil Carleton
- Aircraftman 1st Class John Lundy Carter (24)
- Pilot Officer Thomas Walker Caston
- Sergeant Ronald Henry Charles Clark (21)
- Flight Sergeant Gerald Francis Clarke (22)
- Leading Aircraftman Maurice Clayton (23)
- Sergeant Joseph Walter Connell (19)
- Pilot Officer Henry Cookson
- Sergeant Tom Crump
- Leading Aircraftman Albert Alexander Davies (23)
- Aircraftman 1st Class Reginald Eric Deards (22)
- Pilot Officer Christian Georges Auguste J. Deffontaine (26)
- Pilot Officer Peter Satterswaite Devonshire (20)
See all 99 who died on 27 February →
Source: Operation Biting — Wikipedia →