Norway 1940: Chronicle of a Chaotic Campaign by Harry Plevy

Author:Harry Plevy [Plevy, Harry]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781781555811
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Published: 2017-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

Maj. Partridge managed to land his plane on the deep snow of a frozen lake. Neither he nor his observer were injured, and after struggling through snow several feet deep found refuge in a snow hut occupied by the three-man German crew they had just shot down.45 An uneasy truce was established overnight and next morning Partridge and his observer were rescued by an armed Norwegian ski patrol, released and made their way back to Ark Royal. Their erstwhile roommates were taken prisoner.

In the face of the German air superiority, there was also little that the puny RAF contingent on the frozen Lake Lesjaskog could do to help. On 26 April, at the hastily conceived and poorly organised base, and with five (badly maintained, but just about serviceable) Gladiators available, CO Sqn Ldr J. W. ‘Baldy’ Donaldson wrote:

Sent out one section [of two aircraft] to strafe enemy positions in the Kvam district.… The engine of one of these aircraft seized up hard over mountainous and rocky country where the pilot, Craigie, had not chance at all of a forced landing. He had to abandon the aircraft by ‘chute. He came down right where the jerries were supposed to be, but saw none of them. Craigie was sent back to us by the Norwegians.… In the meantime the other pilot of the section got back to the field [sic.] safely, but no oil pressure could be got on his engine. A big-end seizure finished the usefulness of this machine, though we tried to ease it. It was no go. This left us with only three aircraft for dealing with Jerry.

The Squadron Leader sent all three aircraft up to patrol the base at 10,000 feet. Soon after this, about ten a.m., the Germans sent over a number of Heinkel 111s to bomb Aandalsnes, the beginning of an attack that was kept going until dusk. Our fellows tried all they could to get to grips with the enemy, but the latter were flying at 25,000 feet, and in our aircraft the oxygen supplies were exhausted. Nor was there any oxygen to be had on the ground, so our pilots had the exasperation of watching the enemy bomb without air interference, and of seeing him get direct hits on jerries and on an ammunition dump.46

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