My PIEMENTO connection.

Seventy Seven years ago today my great uncle was a special operations crew member in 1943, when they crash landed testing a new night sight. F/Sgt Frank Pollard had joined the RAFVR as a professional soccer player with Bury in England he was the rear gunner and radio operator. Thankfully all the crew survived and my uncle went onto fly missions into enemy occupied territory in a Handley Page Halifax or a Lysander, night after night. Sometimes resupplying the resistance fighters in Europe, on other occasions picking up or dropping agents.

One such agent was Lt Col Tony Brooks DSO, MC, Legion d'Honneur, Croix de Guerre, shortly after the outbreak of WW2 found himself in the unenviable position of being both too young to serve in the British Army and living behind German lines. A determined man, Tony was to prove his worth to the allied cause by first assisting in the escape of British soldiers cut off behind enemy lines before escaping himself and returning to England. His early days in occupied France were to be invaluable for his future career. A fluent French speaker Tony went on to join and operate as a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and, whilst still aged barely 20 was twice parachuted into France by my relative's aircraft, to form and command a group of resistance fighters in the Haute Savoie region, code named PIMENTO.

Despite being badly hurt during his second parachute jump into enemy occupied France, Tony and Pimento were to prove a highly effective team. Whenever possible these SOE agents would parachute into country but often the Lysander would need to land at some pre- reconnoitered location deep behind Nazi lines. They attempted to spend no longer than 30-40 seconds on the ground.

On 14 Aug 1943 at 2140 hrs, call sign ‘O’ for orange, number JD 180 of 138 Special Duties Squadron of Royal Air Force, departed from RAF Tempsford near Sandy, Bedfordshire (Britain’s most secret airfield), on a mission to resupply a PIMENTO unit.

After successfully dropping containers and packages on Gliers plateau at Fretallaz, 10 km north of Annecy, in the Haute Savoie region of France, the aircraft was returning home. Flying low, it took small arms fire from an Italian Alpini unit.

The aircraft crashed at 0115 hrs on 15 Aug 1943, due to a technical malfunction causing multiple engine failure, a result of the small arms incident. The plane collided with two houses at Meythat, 1 km NW of Annecy killing 5 civilians, (including two young children), on the ground, and the plane hit a bridge and burst into flames. Five of the crew perished, including my relative

Squadron leader Frank Griffiths, the pilot, was helped by inhabitants of Meythet and the Maquis (Resistance), he evaded his Italian captors and was subsequently sheltered and eventually escaped over the border to Switzerland, returning to England around Christmas 1943.  

Crew: S/L F.C. Griffiths AFC - Pilot - wounded - evaded capture and was assisted by the inhabitants of the town and the Maquis, he was taken across the border into Switzerland. He later became Gp Captain.

1. F/O Sydney John Congdon DFM, RAFVR - Navigator - killed 
2. Sgt Frederick Ronald Davies RAF - Flight Engineer - killed 
3. F/O Roderick Alexander MacKenzie RAFVR - Air Bomber - killed 
4. Sgt John Maden RAFVR - Gunner / dispatcher - shot by Italians after capture 
5. P/O Robert William Peters DFM, RAFVR - Wireless Op / Gunner - killed.
6. F/Sgt Francis Pollard RAFVR - Gunner - killed 

F/O Congdon & F/Sgt Pollard are buried at Meythet Communal Cemetery, France. Sgt Davies, F/O MacKenzie, Sgt Maden & P/O Peters are buried at St Germain-Au-Mont-D’Or Communal Cemetery Extension. The French unveiled a commemorative plaque in 1986, and supplemented this with a monument in 1994 at Meythet.

Tony Brooks was captured, interrogated by the Nazis. A full account of Tony's extraordinary war including his capture, interrogation and his role in hindering the Das Riech SS Panzer Division as they attempted to deploy to the Normandy beachhead during Operation Overlord can be found in the book SABOTEUR by Mark Seaman.

Following the war Tony joined the SIS (MI6), with whom he served all over the world and on a number of operations, he died on April 19th 2007.