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Attack on Shell Building,
Copenhagen, 21 March 1945

On the morning of 21 March 1945, a special force of Mosquitos from No 140 Wing took off from an aerodrome in England to attack the Gestapo Headquarters in Copenhagen.

De Havilland Mosquito Fb Mk IV

Before the attack could be carried out, several weeks of careful planning were necessary. Two large scale models, one representing the city, and the other the Gestapo building, were used to brief the pilots in every detail - trees, lake and houses - were pointed out on these models which took 340 man hours to construct.

The target was a large building, U-shaped, and six storeys in height. From information received it was known that the entire Gestapo staff for the whole of Denmark as well as a large number of criminal police were housed in this headquarters.

The Mosquitos took off in three waves of six, together with two Mosquitos of the RAF Film Unit at exactly nine o'clock in the morning - the time that the Gestapo workers would be arriving at the Headquarters. After flying across the North Sea for over two hours, they made landfall exactly as planned on the coast of Jutland and soon the city of Copenhagen came into view.

Bumpy Trip

It had been an exceedingly bumpy trip. The first wave attacked the Headquarters from roof top level - so low, in fact, that the aircraft flown by Wg Cdr Kleboe struck one of the buildings and although he made a gallant effort to carry on with a damaged wing, he was seen to crash later in one of the city's boulevards.

Successful Mission

This was the most unfortunate incident of the raid because the other aircraft, seeing the flames of this burning machine, attacked that spot thinking it was the headquarters.

A reconnaissance aircraft of No 34 Wing took off the following day and photographed the area. Interception reports of these photographs showed that the target had received severe damage. The top storey and roof of the south front were destroyed and the remainder was partially gutted and destroyed. The west wing was destroyed nearly to ground level and the east wing, the top storey and roof were destroyed and the floor below damaged. Rescue work was in progress when the photographs were taken. A photograph received later from Underground sources shows the building ablaze from end to end - concrete evidence the mission was most successful.

Mustangs of Fighter Command played a dual role. They escorted the fighter-bombers on both outward and return journeys and during the actual attack they were detailed to silence flak positions in the vicinity. But the attack was such a complete surprise that anti-aircraft defences did not go into action until the Mosquitos were on their way home. The only real opposition was from ships in the harbour.

Accurate Navigation

The leading navigator did his job so thoroughly that all the aircraft landed back at base only two minutes after the original schedule.

The Huns put out a rumour that the officials were out at a funeral at the time of the attack but official information from Denmark states that 151 Gestapo men were killed and 30 Danish patriots imprisoned in the building got away.

The cruiser Leipzig was in the harbour at the time of the raid and it got underway as the Mosquitos attacked as the Huns apparently were under the impression that we were after the remnants of the German Navy.

Aircraft involved in the attack (all Mosquito Mk.VI)
No 487 Squadron
RS570 'X'	Gp Capt R N Bateson / Sqn Ldr E B Sismore (Raid Leader)
PZ402 'A'	Wg Cdr F M Denton / Fg Off A J Coe (damaged, belly landed at base)
PZ462 'J'	Flt Lt R J Dempsey / Flt Sgt E J Paige (hit by flak, 1 engine u/s, returned safely)
PZ339 'T'	Sqn Ldr W P Kemp / Flt Lt R Peel
SZ985 'M'	Fg Off G L Peet / Fg Off L A Graham
NT123 'Z'	Flt Lt D V Pattison / Flt Sgt F Pygram (missing)
No 464 Squadron
PZ353	Flt Lt W K Shrimpton RAAF (Pilot) / Fg Off P R Lake RAAF
PZ463	Flt Lt C B Thompson / Sgt H D Carter
PZ309	Flt Lt A J Smith RAAF / Flt Sgt H L Green RAAF
SZ999	Fg Off H G Dawson RAAF / Fg Off P T Murray (missing)
RS609	Fg Off J H Palmer RAAF / 2nd Lt H H Becker RNorAF (missing)
SZ968	Wg Cdr Iredale RAAF / Fg Off Johnson
All aircraft took off at 0840; last back landed 1405.
No 21 Squadron
SZ977	Wg Cdr P A Kleboe / Fg Off K Hall (missing)
PZ306	Sqn Ldr A F Carlisle / Flt Lt N J Ingram
LR388	Sqn Ldr A C Henderson / Flt Lt W A Moore
HR162	Flt Lt M Hetherington / Fg Off J K Bell
No 21 Squadron records list only these four aircraft and crews above as taking part in this operation.
All aircraft took off at 0835; the three which returned did so at 1355.

Basil Embry was the leader of the Royal Air Force team involved in three bombing raids on Gestapo headquarters in Denmark.

Between the end of October 1944 and April 1945, we made three attacks on Gestapo headquarters in Denmark. In each instance the primary object was to destroy Gestapo records and evidence against patriots who were under arrest or about to be arrested for their activities against the Germans, with the secondary object of trying to release the prisoners held in the headquarters and killing as many Gestapo men as possible.

The first raid was directed against the Gestapo headquarters for Jutland, which was in a building in Aarhus University.

The second raid was against the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen. The Gestapo had occupied the offices of the Shell Oil Company in the centre of the town, and the building was known as the Shell House. As usual we had the target and the approaches to it modelled, and planned the operation with the greatest care because the slightest error in navigation or bombing would cause heavy casualties among the Danes. Shortly before the operation took place, I was worried to learn that a large number of the Resistance Movement were imprisoned in one wing of the building and it seemed certain they would perish in the attack. I discussed this with Major Truelson temporarily attached to my headquarters while we were planning the operation, and he assured me that they would sooner die from our bombing than at the hands of the Germans, adding, "Who knows-some might not be killed and succeed in escaping, as happened at Aarhus, and anyhow their death will save many more Danish lives, so don't worry."

We lost three Mosquitos and one Mustang on this occasion, but succeeded in completely demolishing the Shell House, destroying all Gestapo records, liberating all the prisoners without the loss of a single life, and killing twenty-six Gestapo. It will always remain a miracle to me that anyone inside the building survived to tell the tale.

The third and last attack on the Gestapo in Denmark was on the 17th April when we raided their headquarters at Odense. Bob Bateson with Sismore his navigator again led, Peter and I flying as his No. 2. We had great difficulty in finding the target, a house in a thickly populated area and well camouflaged with netting. We must have been in the target area at least half an hour searching and of course just inviting trouble from German fighters. Happily they never appeared and eventually we found and destroyed our objective. The difficulty we had turned out to be fortunate, for it gave the people in the area time to disperse and not a single Danish life was lost.

Additional Sources:

members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.din-bog.dk/nyboder
frihed.natmus.dk/rundvisninger
www.brooksart.com
www.daveswarbirds.com
www.raf.mod.uk

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on January 02:
1642 Mehmed IV sultan (Turkey)
1647 Nathaniel Bacon leader of Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia (1676)
1699 Osman III sultan (Turkey)
1727 James Wolfe commanded British Army (captured Québec)
1752 Philip Freneau poet of American Revolution (The American Village)
1777 Christian D Rauch German sculptor
1822 Rudolph J E Clausius Germany, physicist (thermodynamics)
1835 Charles Russell Lowell Jr Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1857 Frederick Opper cartoonist (Willie and His Papa, Maud the Mule, Alphonse & Gaston)
1860 William C Mills museum curator (excavated Ohio Indian mounds)
1861 Helen Herron Taft 1st lady (1909-13)
1873 Anton Pannekoek Dutch astronomer/marxist theorist (Communist Tactics)
1880 Louis Breguet French aviation pioneer
1895 Count Folke Bernadotte Sweden, statesman (Red Cross, UN)
1901 Robert Marshall founder (Wilderness Society)
1904 Sally Rand Hickory County MO, stripper (fan dance)
1913 Ernest Sidey British air marshal
1920 Isaac Asimov Russia, scientist/writer (I Robot, Foundation Trilogy)
1925 William J Crowe Jr Kentucky, chairman joint chiefs of staff
1928 Dan Rostenkowski (Representative-D-IL, -94), House Ways & Means Committee chair
1928 Vaughn Beals Cambridge MA, CEO (Harley Davidson motorcycle)
1932 Dabney Coleman Austin Texas, (That Girl, Mary Hartman, Buffalo Bill)
1936 Roger Miller Fort Worth TX, country singer (King of the Road, Dang Me)
1939 Jim Bakker televangelist (PTL Club)/philanderer (Jessica Hahn)
1949 Chick Churchill Wales, keyboardist (Ten Years After-I'm Going Home)
1950 Lou Gramm rocker (Foreigner-Midnight Blue, Ready Or Not)
1952 Ricky Van Shelton Grit VA, country singer (Wild-Eyed Dream)
1954 Ludmila Borozna USSR, volleyball player (Olympics-gold-1972)
1966 Tia Carrere [Althea Janairo], Honolulu, actress(?) (Wayne's World)

Deaths which occurred on January 02:
0017 Publius Ovidius Naso Roman poet, dies
1861 Frederik Willem IV king Prussia (1840-61)/Germ (1849-61), dies at 65
1863 Roger Weightman Hanson Confederate Brigadier General, dies in battle at 35
1892 George B Airy English astronomer/writer, dies at 90
1904 James Longstreet Confederate General, dies at 82
1918 Sijbe K Bakker vicar/theologist (Christian-Socialism), dies at 42
1923 Sam Carter black resident of Rosewood FL, lynched by KKK
1963 Jack Carson actor (Star is Born, Mildred Pierce), dies at 52
1963 Dick Powell actor/director (Dick Powell Theater), dies at 58
1974 Tex Ritter country singer (5 Star Jubilee), dies at 67
1977 Erroll Garner jazz pianist (Misty), dies at 53
1981 David Lynch singer (Platters-My Prayer), dies at 51
1990 Alan Hale Jr actor (Skipper Jonas Grumby-Gilligan's Island), dies of cancer at 71
1994 Dixy Lee Ray chairwoman (US Atomic Energy Commission), dies at 79
1995 Mohammed Siyad Barre President of Somalia (1969-91), dies
2001 Former Attorney General and Secretary of State William P. Rogers died in Bethesda, Md., at age 87.

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 MAC LAUGHLIN DONALD C.---BALTIMORE MD.
1967 MENGES GEORGE BRUCE---MAPLE HEIGHTS OH.
[REMAINS RETURNED 08/80 BY INDIGINOUS]
1970 BROOKS NICHOLAS G.---NEWBURGH NY.
[REMAINS RETURNED 02/03/82]
1970 FRYAR BRUCE C.---RIDGEWOOD NJ.
1970 LINDSTROM RONNIE G.---DULUTH MN.
1970 WEST JOHN T.---BALTIMORE MD.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0069 Roman Lower Rhine army proclaims its commander, Vitellius, emperor
0533 John II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1235 Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names
1492 Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day)
1570 Tsar Ivan the Terrible march to Novgorod begins
1585 Spain & Catholic France sign Saint League of Joinville
1602 Spanish forces in Ireland surrender to the English at Kinsdale
1757 British troops occupy Calcutta India
1776 1st revolutionary flag displayed
1776 Austria ends interrogation torture
1788 Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution
1790 Mozart's opera "Cosi fan tutti" premieres, Vienna
1800 Free black community of Philadelphia PA petitions Congress to abolish slavery
1811 US Senator Thomas Pickering is 1st senator censured (revealed confidential documents communicated by the President of the US)
1831 Liberator, abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston
1832 1st Curling club in US (Orchard Lake Curling Club) opens
1839 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)
1861 Colonel Charles Stone is put in charge of organizing DC militia
1861 SC seizes inactive Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor
1863 Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends
1879 Northwestern League (minor baseball league) organized, Rockford IL
1882 Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust
1885 General Wolseley receives last distress signal of General Gordon in Khartoum
1890 Record 19'2" alligator shot in Louisiana by E A McIlhenny
1896 Battle at Doornkop, South Africa (Boers beat Dr Jamesons troops)
1900 E Verlinger begins manufacturing 7" single-sided records (Montréal)
1903 President T Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola MI, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
1905 Japanese troops capture Port Arthur
1908 Canadian branch of the Royal Mint opens in Ottawa
1910 1st junior high schools in US open in Berkeley CA
1911 Brooklyn Dodgers president Charles Ebbets announces purchase of grounds to build a new concrete-and-steel stadium to seat 30,000
1913 National Woman's Party forms
1919 Anti-British uprising in Ireland
1919 Lithuania gains independence
1920 10,000 US union & socialist organizers arrested (Palmer Raids)
1921 1st religious service radio broadcast in US, KDKA-Pittsburgh
1923 Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on black residential area Rosewood FL, 8 killed (compensation awarded in 1995)
1929 US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls
1933 US troops leave Nicaragua
1934 1st state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania
1935 Bruno R Hauptmann trial begins for kidnap-murder of Lindbergh baby
1936 1st electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis MO
1938 Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded
1942 Japanese troops occupy Manila Philippines
1944 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
1945 Allied air raid on Neurenberg
1947 Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali
1948 WNDT (now WNET) TV channel 13 in New York-Newark, New York (PBS) begins
1949 KDKA TV channel 2 in Pittsburgh, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1954 Herman Wouks "Caine Mutiny" premieres in New York City NY
1955 1st "Bob Cummings Show" premieres on NBC (later on CBS)
1959 USSR launches Mechta (Luna 1) for 1st lunar fly-by, 1st solar orbit
1959 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees
1960 Senator John F Kennedy, announces his candidacy for President
1960 1st redshank old world shore bird reported in North America (Halifax)
1960 John Reynolds sets age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years
1961 Hawaii's, then all time low temperature, 14ºF recorded atop Haleakale
1962 Nighttime version of "Password" with Allen Ludden premieres on CBS
1965 New York Jets sign quarterback Joe Namath
1965 Obverse design of all Canadian coins is changed to depict the Queen with a slightly more mature look
1966 American G.I.s move into the Mekong Delta for the first time.
1966 1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion
1967 U.S. planes down seven enemy planes
1968 Christiaan Barnard performs 2nd heart transplant
1974 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon
1974 Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres
1975 US Department of Interior designates grizzly bear a threatened species
1977 Bowie Kuhn suspends Braves owner Ted Turner for one year due to tampering charges in Gary Matthews free-agency signing
1978 Rhino Records releases their 1st album "Wildmania"
1979 Sid Vicious' trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spingen begins
1984 Riot in Tunis kills over 100
1984 Wilson Goode, sworn-in as Philadelphia's 1st black mayor
1988 Mulroney & Reagan sign Canada-US free trade agreement
1990 Sting joins wrestlings 4 Horsemen (Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson)
1995 Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (estimated 15 billion light years away)

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Georgia : Constitution Ratification Day (1788)
Haiti : Ancestor/Hero's Day
Japan : Kakizome
Japan : Shigoto Hajime-Begin Work Day [beginning of the work year]
Spain : Granada Day (1492)
Switzerland : Berchtold's Tag, founding of Berne
US : Betsy Ross Day (1776)
US : Diet Resolution Week (Day 2)
Date Your Mate Month.

Religious Observances
Christian : Commemoration of St Macarius the Younger, martyr
old Roman Catholic : Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (most years)
Unification Church : Day of Victory of Love
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, bishops
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Gaspar del Bufalo, Italian priest
Lutheran : Commemoration of Johann Loehe, pastor
Jewish : Asarah B'Tevet (Siege of Jerusalem); Tevet 10, 5756

Religious History
1744 Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd wrote in his journal: 'We are a long time in learning that all our strength and salvation is in God.'
1909 Future Foursquare Gospel church founder Aimee Elizabeth [n‚e Kennedy] Semple [later McPherson], 19, along with her husband Robert Semple, was ordained to the ministry in Chicago by evangelist William H. Durham.
1921 The first religious program heard over the radio was broadcast from Calvary Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh over local radio station KDKA. (The first licensed radio station in the US, KDKA had been on the air only two months.)
1968 Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians.'
1971 A team of Israeli scholars announced the discovery in Jerusalem of a 2,000-year-old skeleton of a crucified male. Found in a cave-tomb, it was the first direct physical evidence of the well-documented Roman method of execution.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Question of the day...
If peanut butter cookies are made from peanut butter, then what are Girl Scout cookies made out of?

Murphys Law of the day...(Newton's Little-known Seventh Law)
A bird in the hand is safer than one overhead

Astounding Fact #10,204...
Elizabeth I of England suffered from anthophobia, a fear of roses.

Aircraft involved in the attack (all Mosquito Mk.VI)

No 487 Squadron

No 464 Squadron

No 21 Squadron