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SAS group Gain and France June 1944

Discussion in 'Western Europe 1943 - 1945' started by Kai-Petri, Oct 13, 2020.

  1. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    Captain Ian Fenwick, the Punch cartoonist who had been the Intelligence officer in Somerset, and Captain Bond, one of the officers in Sussex, received parachute training and shortly before D-day were transferred to the Special Air Service. Both were dropped to France and both were killed there.

    Fenwick commanded an SAS group, codenamed "Gain", that was parachuted complete with heavily armed,hotted-up jeeps, just south of Paris, between the Seine and the Loire, on 14 June 1944. Fenwick´s men operated like a motorized Auxiliary Units patrol, hiding by day and racing out at night to hit the German supply convoys speeding towards the Normandy front. They would wait in a side road until a convoy passed, then pull out and follow it. Before the Germans had a chance to take evasive action, they accelerated,caught up with the convoy and raced alongside it, blasting it with their machine-guns.
    German security police based on Paris managed to sniff out Fenwick´s hide. When,early in the hours of 5 July reinforcements from Britain were parachuted in, the Germans were waiting on the edge of the dropping-zone. Fenwick was killed and a dozen of his men were captured.

    Less is known about Bond´s fate and nothing mentioned in the book about his actions in France.

    The last ditch by David Lampe
     
    bronk7 likes this.
  2. bronk7

    bronk7 Well-Known Member

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    .....they had a unit in PG1 that had ''problems''....when things don't go right for standard units, they usually have help/etc available--the SAS/SOE did not ....and, things usually don't go right in a lot of operations
    ...blasting away like that is not very stealthy ......I wonder how many convoys they hit before getting it?
    ...the Germans found out where the drop zone would be/etc?!? good security work there
     

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