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Squadron Leader Geoffrey Rothwell, DFC and Bar, Chevalier of Order of Leopold II and Palme, Croix de Guerre and Palme who flew with the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command and the subject of a biography, The Man With Nine Lives, to be published in January, not only survived seventy-one operations in a war in which the average pilot's chances of surviving were one in three, but also a near-fatal crash in which several of his crew were killed, and through which he subsequently became a prisoner-of-war.
At the time of D-Day Geoff was a Flight Commander in Special Duties 138 Squadron which was equipped with Stirling aircraft and which was attached to the renowned Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). This squadron dropped secret agents and supplies to the Resistance Movements in enemy-oiccupied countries. However, on the eve of D-Day the squadron of Stirlings took part in a special mission to hoodwink the Germans into thinking the invasion was taking place in the Pas de Calais area many hundreds of miles from Normandy where the assault on the beaches would take place some hours later.
The Stirling dropped a phantom army of dummy parachutists knowns as "gingerbread men" with packages simulating gunfire. These dummy parachutists were made of hessian stuffed with straw. "They were about two feet six inches in height and looked like pigmy scarecrows," says Geoff.
After several hundred of the dummies had been dispatched Geoff's Stirling flew on through the night, eventually dropping containers of arms and ammunition to a Reistance reception in the Loire Valley. Geoff flashed a "V for Victory" sign and received a similar signal in return. He set course for base and as he did so he saw gun flashes and lights from vehicles speeding along the field. It must be the Germans. His first instinct was to fire at the lights but then he remembered that the Resistance often used transport to carry away the containers. He had to identify the vehicles and as he dived figures in the vehicles now distinct as German transport stood up and fired at the Stirling. "O.K. Wally, let 'em have it!" Geoff told his rear gunner who opened fire as the aircraft passed over the vehicles. "We beat it for home like bats out of hell," said Geoff.
At debriefing a mission was received to say the Gestapo had been tipped off that a drop would take place and they were on their way to the field when they were sighted by the crew of the Stirling.
The "gingerbread men" mission was successful and so, while nineteen German divisions of Hitler's best troops and Panzer forces sat motionless in the Pas de Calsis area, the battle for the beaches of Normandy was won by the Allies. It was the beginning of the end of the Thousand Year Nazi Reich.

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