Operation Jericho
18 February 1944 — Amiens
- Date
- 18 February 1944
- Target
- Amiens, France
- Force dispatched
- 19 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 2
Narrative
Operation Jericho was the low-level Mosquito raid on Amiens prison in occupied France on 18 February 1944, flown to breach the walls and free French Resistance prisoners reported to be facing execution. Mosquitos of 140 Wing — Nos. 21 (RAF), 464 (RAAF) and 487 (RNZAF) Squadrons, several setting out from RAF Hunsdon — attacked the prison walls and guardrooms with pinpoint accuracy under a Typhoon escort. The breaches let some 258 prisoners escape, among them many Resistance members, though around a hundred were killed in the bombing and most escapees were recaptured. Two Mosquitos and two Typhoons were lost; among the dead was the raid leader, Group Captain Percy Pickard. The operation remains one of the most celebrated examples of precision low-level bombing.
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
50 airmen in this archive died on 18 February 1944 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.
- Flight Sergeant Walter Berry
- Pilot Officer Gerard Alp Bottrell (19)
- Flight Sergeant John Douglas Bowers (28)
- Flying Officer Edward Charles Braun (30)
- Flight Lieutenant John Alan Broadley (23)
- Sergeant John Thomas Brockbank (20)
- Flight Sergeant Henry Shaw Brown (23)
- Warrant Officer Class II John William Burns (23)
- Flying Officer Reginald Chandler (24)
- Sergeant Philip Clarke (23)
- Sergeant Benjamin Cohen (22)
- Captain Robert Connell (35)
- Flight Sergeant Ronald Peter Crawford (21)
- Corporal Isaac John Day (43)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class Joseph Deegan (38)
- Corporal Lorne Emerson Dixon (21)
- Flight Sergeant Trevor Evans (22)
- Flying Officer William Bruce Frederick (27)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class Robert Lancelot Greening
- Flying Officer David Francis Griffin (39)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class Bernard George Hickling (24)
- Pilot Officer Raymond William Hilton (23)
- Corporal Albert Holme (28)
- Flight Lieutenant Walter Harold Hughes
See all 50 who died on 18 February →
Source: Wikipedia — Operation Jericho →