- Contributed by听
- Genevieve
- People in story:听
- Jack Marsden
- Location of story:听
- Northern France
- Background to story:听
- Royal Air Force
- Article ID:听
- A9013655
- Contributed on:听
- 31 January 2006
The manuscript of Jack Marsden's story came with footnotes.
For reference, we have included them here.
174 Lancasters were detailed to take off from 1 group, but one of these included a crew that was on leave. 173 Lancasters therefore ultimately took off, of which five were early returns. 168 Lancasters from twenty-four different squadrons of 1 group therefore headed for the target area. 5 Group, on the other hand, contributed fourteen squadrons, with a total complement of 175 Lancasters detailed. Two failed to take off, meaning that 173 Lancasters left their squadron bases. One of these aborted early, therefore 172 reached the target area. In total then, a grand total of 346 Lancasters took off for Mailly, with six aborting early.
Maquis is a French word which describes a shrub which grows profusely in its native Corsica. It was used to describe the resistance groups who lived rough in the forest from where they perpetrated guerrilla warfare against the occupying forces and their French collaborators. Although most of the maquis groups that Jack was to meet were communist maquis groups (FTP), the word maquis is also used to describe clandestine resistance groups of other political persuasions.
RAF: 38,462 (69.2%), RCAF: 9,919 (17.8%), RAAF: 4,050 (7.3%) RNZAF: 1,679(3.0%), other allied air forces: 1,463 (2.7%) (Bomber Command by Max Hastings, Michael Joseph Ltd 1979)
This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Allan Price of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Janet Marsden and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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