Icelandic Hunters: No 269 Squadron
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Title
Icelandic Hunters: No 269 Squadron
Description
A brief history of 269 Squadron.
Creator
Date
1991
Language
Format
One printed sheet
Conforms To
Is Part Of
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
SKnoxRW[Ser#-DoB]v80005
Transcription
[crest of 269 Squadron, Royal Air Force]
ICELANDIC HUNTERS
No 269 SQUADRON
ROYAL AIR FORCE
BY ANDREW THOMAS
AVIATION NEWS 24 MAY – 6 JUNE 1991
THROUGHOUT the long drawn out Battle of the Atlantic during World War 2 it was the lot of many squadrons of Coastal Command never to attack and sink a U-boat. Others, like No. 269 Squadron, met with considerable success.
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN
The pace of action continued into June and with the discovery of enemy battleships in Trondheim harbour, No 269 was ordered to mount a strike. Thus on the 11th, in spite of poor weather, the CO led 12 Hudsons off from Sumburgh to attack the ‘Scharnhorst’, her sister ship ‘Gneisenau’ and other units. After a three hour flight the Hudsons attacked from 15,000 feet in four waves of three in the face of a considerable barrage of flak. One Hudson, P5131/UA-P flown by Sergeant G.W. Robson was shot down by flak and crashed west of Trondheim. Robson and LAC Craig were killed, but the other two escaped. Some hits were claimed on the warships and a supply ship but as the Hudsons withdrew they were attacked by four Bf 109Es of II/JG77 and a Bf 110 of 3/ZG76. Sergeant E.B. Lascelles and crew in N7361/UA-N were shot down. The ten survivors finally landed back at Sumburgh after a six hour sortie.
Three days later four of No 269’s Hudsons mounted an attack with six Beauforts of No 42 squadron on shipping off Bergen, fortunately without loss. A further attack on the ‘Scharnhorst’ was mounted in the late afternoon of 22 June when the battleship was at sea, some 50 miles north of Bergen. The six Hudsons bombed from medium level and followed in No 42’s Beauforts, again in the face of a heavy flak barrage which damaged every Hudson. Unfortunately the bombs fell wide, but the formation then successfully evaded the escorting Bf 109s and returned safely to Wick.
By this stage Norway was lost, but No 269 maintained patrols and reconnaissances [sic] up the coast, one leading to its final loss of the campaign when Pilot Officer Trolove’s crew in N7330/UA-C were intercepted and shot down by a Bf 109 of 5/JG77.
ICELAND
After the end of the disastrous Norwegian campaign No 269 continued to operate over the northern sector of the North Sea along the coasts of Denmark and Norway looking for enemy shipping and submarines. Pilot Officer Weightman found one on 21 July and damaged it.
The above narrative is extracted from:
Thomas, Andrew. “Icelandic Hunters – No 269 Squadron Royal Air Force.” Aviation News, 24 May 1991.
https://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Hudson
ICELANDIC HUNTERS
No 269 SQUADRON
ROYAL AIR FORCE
BY ANDREW THOMAS
AVIATION NEWS 24 MAY – 6 JUNE 1991
THROUGHOUT the long drawn out Battle of the Atlantic during World War 2 it was the lot of many squadrons of Coastal Command never to attack and sink a U-boat. Others, like No. 269 Squadron, met with considerable success.
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN
The pace of action continued into June and with the discovery of enemy battleships in Trondheim harbour, No 269 was ordered to mount a strike. Thus on the 11th, in spite of poor weather, the CO led 12 Hudsons off from Sumburgh to attack the ‘Scharnhorst’, her sister ship ‘Gneisenau’ and other units. After a three hour flight the Hudsons attacked from 15,000 feet in four waves of three in the face of a considerable barrage of flak. One Hudson, P5131/UA-P flown by Sergeant G.W. Robson was shot down by flak and crashed west of Trondheim. Robson and LAC Craig were killed, but the other two escaped. Some hits were claimed on the warships and a supply ship but as the Hudsons withdrew they were attacked by four Bf 109Es of II/JG77 and a Bf 110 of 3/ZG76. Sergeant E.B. Lascelles and crew in N7361/UA-N were shot down. The ten survivors finally landed back at Sumburgh after a six hour sortie.
Three days later four of No 269’s Hudsons mounted an attack with six Beauforts of No 42 squadron on shipping off Bergen, fortunately without loss. A further attack on the ‘Scharnhorst’ was mounted in the late afternoon of 22 June when the battleship was at sea, some 50 miles north of Bergen. The six Hudsons bombed from medium level and followed in No 42’s Beauforts, again in the face of a heavy flak barrage which damaged every Hudson. Unfortunately the bombs fell wide, but the formation then successfully evaded the escorting Bf 109s and returned safely to Wick.
By this stage Norway was lost, but No 269 maintained patrols and reconnaissances [sic] up the coast, one leading to its final loss of the campaign when Pilot Officer Trolove’s crew in N7330/UA-C were intercepted and shot down by a Bf 109 of 5/JG77.
ICELAND
After the end of the disastrous Norwegian campaign No 269 continued to operate over the northern sector of the North Sea along the coasts of Denmark and Norway looking for enemy shipping and submarines. Pilot Officer Weightman found one on 21 July and damaged it.
The above narrative is extracted from:
Thomas, Andrew. “Icelandic Hunters – No 269 Squadron Royal Air Force.” Aviation News, 24 May 1991.
https://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Hudson
Collection
Citation
Andrew Thomas, “Icelandic Hunters: No 269 Squadron,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 22, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/41447.
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