Pilots of 161 Squadron, RAF

LYSANDER PILOTS

Squadron Leader H.B. Verity
DSO & bar, DFC
Officier de la Légion d'Honneur
Croix de Guerre avec Palme

28 Lysander operations, 36 pickups in France

Squadron Leader Hugh Verity had joined 161 Squadron in November 1942. He had earlier served in a night fighter Beaufighter squadron, so knew something about night flying, and then at Fighter Command HQ at Bentley Priory in Stanmore. Sometimes when he had been on duty late into the night, he had noticed lonely plots of single aircraft doggedly crossing the Channel and then, a few hours later, coming back. Asking one of his colleagues about these lone aircraft, he had been told about 'Specials' and the kind of cloak-and-dagger operations they were doing.

Believing he could be more use to the war effort by joining the Special Duties operations, Verity managed to get himself transferred, taking over as commander of 'A' Flight's six Lysanders. Landing operations were considerably more dangerous than just flying over a target, largely because one could never be sure of the reception committee or exactly what the conditions were on the ground. The risk of being stuck in the country over which they were operating was ever-present to Special Duties air crews, all of whom carried their own escape and evasion kit. These included a wad of French money, a map of France printed on silk, a compass, fishing hook and line and some concentrated food tablets, as well as photographs of themselves in civilian garb which could then be used for a forged identity card if required. Hugh Verity tended to wear a mixture of civilian clothes and uniform when on operations; his battle blouse could easily be burned or hidden, leaving him with an ordinary shirt, trousers and pullover.

As a Lysander pilot, Verity was also his own navigator. Navigation, whether in a Lysander or a Halifax, needed to be of a very high standard. There were few navigation aids: Verity was merely given 1:250,000 military maps as well as French Michelin road maps and aerial photographs to study beforehand. Reception committees were told to choose sites which could easily be seen from the air, but this was not always possible and pilots frequently had to circle repeatedly before they finally spotted the dim half-hidden lights below.

Hugh Verity made 29 successful pick-ups during his time with 161 Squadron. One of his most dangerous missions was in February 1943, when he was carrying just one passenger outbound - who, as he later discovered, was Jean Moulin, one of de Gaulle's leading resistance co-ordinators, later infamously tortured and murdered at the hands of Klaus Barbie. They were heading for a field south of the Loire but on reaching the target area discovered it was thick with fog and Verity was left with no visual reference to the ground at all; there was nothing for it but to turn back home, in this case to Tangmere. Having evaded the searchlights of Cherbourg, he finally reached home only to find the station also covered in fog. Losing height through the low cloud, Verity believed he was just above the runway and so cut his throttle; in fact, he was still thirty feet too high and he smashed into the ground. Miraculously, neither pilot nor passenger was injured. Verity apologised profusely in French, but Moulin could not have been more charming and even went to the lengths of thanking me for a 'very agreeable flight'.

Later in the war, Verity supervised clandestine air operations in South East Asia; Special Duties squadrons operated in every theatre. In the Middle East, 624 Squadron bore the brunt of clandestine work, and later 334 Wing was established to help resistance work in the Mediterranean and the Balkans.

Flying Officer J.A. McCairns

26 Lysander operations, 37 pickups

In July 1941, J.A.McCairns, a fighter command sergeant pilot was shot down over Gravelines (near Dunkerque). On ~20 November 1941, he and three friends had escaped from a PoW camp in Bad Sulza,Thuringia. They planned to seize an aircraft somewhere near Weimar and fly it home. Their plan failed. In January 1942, McCairns got out again: he crossed southern Germany to France, then crossed the Pyrenees to Spain, on 27th March 1942, with the Comète Line. When he got to England, he was commissioned and joined 161 Squadron as a Lysander pilot. McCairns survived the war but was killed in 1948 while night flying in a Mosquito.

Flying Officer J.R.G. Bathgate (RNZAF)
DFC

7 Lysander operations 10 pickups, in France

Flying Officer Bathgate (No. 403932) in Lysander V9673 - MA-J was shot down and crashed at La Ville-Aux-Bois-Lès-Pontavert (Aisne), France (30 kms NW of Reims) on 10/11th December 1943 (operation STEN). He did not survive. Age 23.

According to Hugh Verity, James Bathgate is buried at the WWI British cemetery at Berry-au-Bac, near Juvincourt

According to "www.roll-of-honour.com/Bedfordshire/TempsfordAircrewLost1943.html", James Bathgate is buried at La Ville-Aux-Bois-Lès-Pontavert Cemetery - Grave 3. B. 1A.