Mission descriptions
1: Area familiarisationYour first mission will be a fitting start to your SOE career, as it will be conducted over enemy held France.
You will fly a specially prepared, unmarked Blenheim Mk IVF for this mission, to familiarise yourself with the your standard ingress and egress routes, and area of operations over France.
You will fly out of Southend in sector A7. Proceed via Eastchurch airfield in A6 to Hawkinge at C4, Folkestone then Dover and across the Channel to the French coast. You are free to explore France at will, but for the coming operations, make sure you can navigage from Wissant in France to Oostende in Holland by map, compass and by sight.
Stay below RDF detection level where possible, at 100-200 feet..
Return to England via Manston and land at Southend again.
It is important you egress from the area around Hawkinge, and return via Manston, so that you use the same ingress and egress routes as our fighters and bombers. We do not want to attract any attention to our operations by using unorthodox flight paths.
Your matte black Blenheim IVF - near invisible from dusk to dawn. Don't get caught outside in the daylight though.2: In the darkYou will now test your navigation and area familiarity skills with a night flight over occupied territory, to train yourself in acquiring your target in the dark.
You will proceed to Dover, and from there, to a field north of Bremes/Ardres. The French resistance, at some risk to themselves, are ready to light beacon fires in the field at the sound of your approach.
Overfly the area until you spot the 4 beacon fires, clustered together in the middle of a field in the center of the sector.
We recommend that you proceed to the target via Calais. If you keep Calais off your port wing you should at least enter France over familiar airspace. Calais should be easy to locate as it will be attacked by Bomber Command earlier and fires will probably still be burning. The problem with that, of course, is that enemy air defences will have been alerted. The choice is yours.
Locate the signal fires lit by French Resistance fighters3: Special deliveryAir start, west of Wissant, over the Channel.
This will be your first fully operational mission.
You are to fly a valuable cargo of ammunition and sabotage equipment into enemy held France. You will have to land your machine at a disused airfield at Zuikerque in sector T5.
Tailplane missing, right wheel shot off...now, to land those supplies!4: Hasty departureGround start, abandoned airfield, Zutkerque
Mechanical problems have delayed you longer than expected. It is now nearly full daylight. Luckily you have not been interrupted yet.
Wait! Enemy vehicles are approaching! Abort the mission and get airborne as quickly as you can!
Let's get out of here Harry, I think Jerry is onto us!5: Slowly slowly catchee monkeyAir Start Channel, Tiger Moth
You have stopped at Hawkinge to pick up an agent. Your mission is to transfer the agent to France, and return with an allied pilot who has been rescued by the Resistance.
The transfer will occur at Oye-Plage, at sector AT8. You will fly at dusk, when visibility for the German AAA crews and air patrols is poor, but there is enough light for you to be able to find your target.
This section of the French coast is heavily defended. Only a small, light aircraft will be able to get in and out undetected. Landing in the dark will be no small matter either.
It will take a pilot such as yourself to pull it off!
Beacon fires dead ahead. It will only take us half an hour to get there!6: Night blindGround start Oye-Plage
The transfer has been effected. You have delivered an SOE agent into the heart of occupied France, and picked up a downed Bomber Command pilot who is very glad to see you!
Now you just have to get home!
At least you won't have to worry about Jerry fighters in the dark. The only enemy aircraft should be German bombers, and you will be nearly invisible at the altitudes they usually fly.
Is that Dover ahead? Or Wissant? Or Folkestone? Or Calais?7: Night of the JaegerGround start Calais Marck Luftwaffe airfield
You were parachuted into France three days ago in order to infiltrate the Luftwaffe airfield at Calais Marck and steal a new Bf110 Nachtjaeger. Our agents report that the German night fighter may carry special equipment which the boffins want a look at.
You have managed to get onto the base using forged papers, and together with a German speaking member of the French resistance, he has helped you make it into the cockpit of one of the fighters, and will go with you to man the rear gun.
The rest is down to you.
Now how do I start this thing...oh oh, do you think they heard that?8: Wotan spottingOur agents have reported that the Luftwaffe has begun using a new RDF direction system to guide its bombers to their target.
Known as Y-Gerät, and codenamed Wotan, the system projects a radio beam which can be read by the bombers, telling them their distance to target, altitude and even when to release their bombs. This new system could allow the Luftwaffe to bomb at night, in total darkness or in cloud, and still hit their targets!
The French resistance has reported a strange new installation about five miles west of Audinghen, near Wissant in Sector E2. The installation lies in a break in the forest, and is reported to be well camouflaged. This is believed to be a Wotan transmitter.
Find it, so that we can destroy it.
How come the other guys always get the blue one?9: Train to hellOur agents have received word that Luftwaffe Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering will be touring front line airfields in his personal train.
It will be departing Hazerbrouck in sector BA2-3 at dawn, 0700 hours.
The train is fast moving and heavily armoured and the Blenheim IVF is the only SOE aircraft we have with the necessary range, the maneouverability to evade fighters, and the hitting power of four 250lb bombs.
Good morning Hermann, this is your early morning wake up call!10: Return flightOnce again you will be parachuted into Germany to bring out an aircraft but this time it is one of our own!
Germany has restored to flying status a crashed Spitfire with the new 100 Octane rated Merlin engine. They are about to conduct combat testing of this aircraft versus their own fighters, and we do not want them to know its full capabilities.
You will bring that machine home. There is just one complication, you have to bring a passenger with you!
Bringing two prisoners home - the captured Spitfire, and escaped SOE operative Elaine Plewman (read her true story in the mission briefing).11: Sitting DuckThe Luftwaffe has begun deploying a new experimental Freya RDF system known as Wasserman, which we have now identified operates in the band from 2.5 to 2.3 m (8.2 to 7.5 ft) (120 to 130 MHz), with a pulse width of three microseconds, a peak power output of 15 to 20 kW, and a pulse repetition frequency of 500 Hz. It extends the German RDF maximum range to nearly 100 miles.
In response, our Boffins have developed a system codenamed 'Moonshine'. Carried by a Blenheim IVF, a single radio set retransmits a portion of the Freya signal amplifying the apparent return. A single aircraft in this way can mimic a force of 20 bombers!
The problem with this of course, is that the Luftwaffe will send everything it has against you.
Next time, I'm bringing one of those clever boffins with me!