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EVENTS LEADING TO THE LOSS OF THE
AIRCRAFT No LJ 888 MK IV STIRLING
AND THE ENTIRE CREW.

Typed in by L Collier

On the night of 30/31st March 1945, there was a highly secret operation planned for a special personnel and equipment drop for the Norwegian resistant movement (MILORG) to obtain information as to the German progress with the development of the atomic bomb at the heavy water plant at the town of RJUKAN in TELEMARK.
The code name for this operation was ‘SNAFFLE 6’ and only pilot and navigator were told of the target and the dropping zone, and the type of equipment that was to be carried.

Aircraft No. LJ888 took off at approximately 21.32 hours for S.E. Norway for the dropping zone BIT 20, 59.20 N and 09.56 E, with 10 containers and 12 packets. On the night of the operation, it was a brilliant moonlit night with no cloud cover, and the aircraft were easy targets for the German JU88 fighters that had superior armament and speed. The JU88s were armed with 20mm cannons whereas the Stirlings only had 7mm Brownings, which were no match, and the speed of the JU88s was 300 mph whereas the Stirlings travelled at 190 mph, which clearly indicates that they were sitting targets with no chance. Further more the Germans had located on the S.E. coast of Norway a radar station at Risor and a night fighter station at Kristiansund.

The Stirling LJ888 from 196 Squadron was shot down over Arendal with the loss of the whole crew:-

F/Sgt D.V. Catterall — Pilot (21)
F/Sgt G.S Reed — Navigator (30)
Sgt P.M. Myers — Flight Engineer (20)
F/Sgt R.S. Harding — Bomber (21)
F/Sgt T.L. Brunton — W/O Air Gunner (22)
F/Sgt J.R. Cross — Air Gunner (20)

All the crews remains were respectfully given a Christian burial. Later the War Graves Commission reinterred then in Arendal Cemetary, in a communal grave. In circa 1947 the people of Arendal provided and built a granite memorial to the crew and commonwealth airmen who were lost over Norway. The families of crew LJ888 were invited to the consecration of the monument by the people of Arendal, photographs elsewhere show this occasion.

All of the planes flew out of SHEPHERDS GROVE, NORFOLK.
This station is reported in detail elsewhere.

Hostilities ceased in Norway on May 7th 1945.

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