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Lot Essay
Sold with the recipient's original Flying Log Book, covering the period September 1942 to December 1944; together with a good quantity of original documents and two wartime photographs, the former including Buckingham Palace forwarding letter for the D.F.M., Polish Identity Card for the Cross of Valour and R.A.F. Service and Release Book.
D.F.M. London Gazette 17.10.1944 'In recognition of gallantry and devotion to duty in the execution of air operations'.
Warrant Officer John Appleby, D.F.M., a native of Cwmbran, originally enlisted in the 4th Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment in September 1939, but was discovered to be under age and released in February of the following year (Accompanying Certificate of Discharge refers). Undeterred, he next enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, attended an Air Gunners' Wireless Operators' course at R.A.F. Pembrey and qualified in December 1942.
Posted to No. 267 Squadron in Egypt in May 1943, he flew his first mission as a Wireless Operator in a Dakota on 2.19.1943, the 'target' being a clandestine supply drop over the Island of Kos. Another mission, codename "Cyanide", was completed on 22.3.1944, but it was not until May of that year that his operational career really took off, a constant round of secret sorties being flown out of Bari - and occasionally Brindisi - until mid-November, a period that witnessed his participation in no less than 34 such operations. Most of them would have involved supply drops to partisans in Northern Italy, North-West Greece and Yugoslavia, but undoubtedly the most memorable was a 'one-off' special assignment to Poland in July 1944.
A Hair-Raising Night in Occupied Poland
On the night of 25-26.7.1944, Appleby was Wireless Operator aboard Dakota KG477 'V', which carried out a highly sensitive operation to Poland officially codenamed "Wildhorn III", but known to the participants as "Underwriter" and to No. 334 Wing as "Saucepan". On the morning of the 25th, the selected crew, Flight Lieutenant C.G. Culliford (Captain), Flying Officer K.J. Szrajer (Second Pilot), Flying Officer J. Pemberton-Williams (Navigator), and Appleby, received orders that the operation first notified nearly a fortnight earlier was to be mounted that night. Thus KG477 'V', with four specially fitted long-range cabin tanks, was flown to Brindisi where the crew was briefed.
The purpose of the operation was to bring technical information regarding German V-2 Rocket Development out of Poland. A Flying Bomb had been fired on the Blizna Test Range in Poland on 20 May and had come down in a swamp near a village on the Bug River. Home Army soldiers had retrieved it and secreted it whilst a Polish technical team in Warsaw led by Chmielewski completely dissected it. It was essential to get Chmielewski, his report, and essential parts of the bomb to Italy and thence to boffins in London. The Dakota was to be escorted by two Liberators during the daylight section of the flight, but they would leave KG477 'V' at dusk and continue to their own targets. It was fully understood by Appleby and the rest of the crew that in the advent of attack by German fighters there was little the Liberators could do to help the Dakota, other than tell it what was going on around the aircraft. As the experienced Polish Second Pilot Szrajer, making his 98th operation, commented, "The Dakota was a sitting duck".
The operation was only the third such landing on Polish soil, the previous occasions having taken place on 15.4.1944, near Lublin and on 29.5.1944, near Nowy Korczyn at the same airstrip that was to be the scene of KG477 'V's landing. The landing-ground, codenamed "Motyl" (Butterfly) was near a forest and was some 200 miles south of Warsaw. It had been used by the Luftwaffe as an emergency strip during the fighting of 1939, and on this occasion was prepared by a Polish Air Force Officer named Wlodek, who was further to look after security on the night of the KG477 'V's hopefully brief visit. Indeed ever since the stolen bomb had been audaciously transported south from the capital by the Home Army in a stolen German Army truck, Wlodek had maintained a constant if unobtrusive guard over the bomb parts, for the district was stiff with some 4,000 Germans retreating from the Eastern Front to face the crisis in Normandy. In addition to the principal task, the Dakota would carry four passengers into Poland, Captain Billski, 2nd Lieutenant Starzynski, Major Wolniak and Lieutenant Nowak. The first three, with 19 suitcases of 'special equipment', were on their way to join the Underground, whilst the last was to brief General Bor-Komorowski of the Polish C.-in-C.'s estimate of the military support situation in the event of an uprising.
In the event, only one of the Liberators set off with KG477 'V', the other, suffering from engine trouble, staying grounded. The escorting Liberator parted company on reaching the River Sava as darkness fell, leaving KG477 'V' to press on across the Hungarian Plain at 7,500 feet, the height at which German Night-Fighter Radar functioned poorly due to pronounced ground return. Five flak bursts were sighted about a mile to starboard near Skolnok, otherwise all remained quiet. By the time they reached the final turning point in the Carpathian Mountains, KG477 'V' was only one minute behind its scheduled E.T.A. - 'excellent work given that there had been no pinpoints on this leg of the journey and the only navigational aid had been wireless bearings'. Meanwhile, earlier in the day at the landing site, Wlodek and Home Army compatriots called in for the operation, had been horrified to see two German training aircraft using the airstrip to fly circuits and make landings, and to learn that some 400 Luftwaffe personnel had set up camp a mile away. Fortunately, the German aircraft took off by nightfall and flew away, and worries concentrated on the proximity of German Division pulling out to the West, the Luftwaffe Camp, and the rain softened ground underfoot. In the midst the hundreds of Poles risking their lives that night by marking the field and keeping watch, five new passengers waited to fly out with the British: the Engineer Chmielewski, an Agent called Retinger, M. Arciszewski of the Socialist Party, 2nd Lieutenant Chciuk, a Political Courier, and an Officer named Micinski.
On the E.T.A. the letter 'O' was flashed and acknowledged with an 'N' from a point on the ground. The Dakota crossed a road busy with military traffic and approached the strip. Lights were immediately lit but the Dakota overshot at the first attempt. The second time she came in slower and made a good landing. In less than five minutes the aircraft had exchanged its loads and was preparing to take off when the problems began. Culliford had trouble releasing the parking brake, but having done so opened the throttles for take-off. He then found that the machine was stuck fast despite the tail leaving the ground when boost was applied. Szrajer climbed down to see if the aircraft was bogged, and reported that he did not think so. Culliford agreed, and ascribed the difficulty to the brakes, which he thought were still on despite indication to the contrary in the Cockpit. Through the medium of Szrajer, Culliford, Pemberton-Williams and Appleby learned that a German patrol, no doubt alerted by the sound of the engines, was less than a mile away, and that unless they could take off straight away they would have to go underground. It was decided to cut the connections supplying the hydraulic fluid to the brake drums, but in spite of the applied boost the machine refused to budge. Culliford shut down the engines and prepared to destroy the Dakota, yet still it was generally agreed that a further effort be made. The ground party was persuaded to stay a few more minutes and a spade was produced to dig out the main wheels, which had sunk deeper into the ground. KG477 'V' was loaded again and with 50in. of boost the Dakota slewed slightly to starboard, and then stopped, the port wheel having turned one quarter of a revolution - 'The aircraft was again unloaded and Appleby tore up all his documents and placed them ready to set fire to the Dakota'.
Even so, Culliford, the crew, the passengers, and Wlodek's people all knew the desperate need for success. After 30 minutes hard digging, the aircraft was finally released into a brake-less circle in which it narrowly missed a stone wall. By this time the people holding the flare-path torches had all left, and Culliford was forced to attempt a take off using the landing light and aiming north-west for a green light in the corner of the field. Having 'ploughed' along, KG477 'V' finally 'waffled' into the air at 65 m.p.h., just in time to get across Yugoslavia before daylight. Forced to make a brake-less landing at Brindisi, Culliford were directed by the Controller to use a runway still under construction. Wing Commander Francombe, commanding 267 Squadron, and thus well placed to appreciate the importance and significance of "Wildhorn III", praised the crew for their 'courage, determination and coolness with which they carried out what must be one of the most outstanding and epic flights of the war by an unarmed transport aircraft'.
The gallant Appleby completed his last mission with 267 Squadron on 17.11.1944, his D.F.M. having been gazetted in the previous month. In addition, in recognition of his part in the above described Polish enterprise, he was successfully recommended for the Cross of Valour by the Government in Exile, his related Identity Card stating the date of award as 8.8.1944. Appleby was finally released from the R.A.F.V.R. in April 1946, in the rank of Warrant Officer, but did not claim his campaign awards until April 1979 (Accompanying M.O.D. letter refers).
References: Flights of the Forgotten, Special Duties Squadrons in World War Two, by K.A. Merrick, 1989; They Saved London, by Bernard Newman, 1955.
D.F.M. London Gazette 17.10.1944 'In recognition of gallantry and devotion to duty in the execution of air operations'.
Warrant Officer John Appleby, D.F.M., a native of Cwmbran, originally enlisted in the 4th Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment in September 1939, but was discovered to be under age and released in February of the following year (Accompanying Certificate of Discharge refers). Undeterred, he next enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, attended an Air Gunners' Wireless Operators' course at R.A.F. Pembrey and qualified in December 1942.
Posted to No. 267 Squadron in Egypt in May 1943, he flew his first mission as a Wireless Operator in a Dakota on 2.19.1943, the 'target' being a clandestine supply drop over the Island of Kos. Another mission, codename "Cyanide", was completed on 22.3.1944, but it was not until May of that year that his operational career really took off, a constant round of secret sorties being flown out of Bari - and occasionally Brindisi - until mid-November, a period that witnessed his participation in no less than 34 such operations. Most of them would have involved supply drops to partisans in Northern Italy, North-West Greece and Yugoslavia, but undoubtedly the most memorable was a 'one-off' special assignment to Poland in July 1944.
A Hair-Raising Night in Occupied Poland
On the night of 25-26.7.1944, Appleby was Wireless Operator aboard Dakota KG477 'V', which carried out a highly sensitive operation to Poland officially codenamed "Wildhorn III", but known to the participants as "Underwriter" and to No. 334 Wing as "Saucepan". On the morning of the 25th, the selected crew, Flight Lieutenant C.G. Culliford (Captain), Flying Officer K.J. Szrajer (Second Pilot), Flying Officer J. Pemberton-Williams (Navigator), and Appleby, received orders that the operation first notified nearly a fortnight earlier was to be mounted that night. Thus KG477 'V', with four specially fitted long-range cabin tanks, was flown to Brindisi where the crew was briefed.
The purpose of the operation was to bring technical information regarding German V-2 Rocket Development out of Poland. A Flying Bomb had been fired on the Blizna Test Range in Poland on 20 May and had come down in a swamp near a village on the Bug River. Home Army soldiers had retrieved it and secreted it whilst a Polish technical team in Warsaw led by Chmielewski completely dissected it. It was essential to get Chmielewski, his report, and essential parts of the bomb to Italy and thence to boffins in London. The Dakota was to be escorted by two Liberators during the daylight section of the flight, but they would leave KG477 'V' at dusk and continue to their own targets. It was fully understood by Appleby and the rest of the crew that in the advent of attack by German fighters there was little the Liberators could do to help the Dakota, other than tell it what was going on around the aircraft. As the experienced Polish Second Pilot Szrajer, making his 98th operation, commented, "The Dakota was a sitting duck".
The operation was only the third such landing on Polish soil, the previous occasions having taken place on 15.4.1944, near Lublin and on 29.5.1944, near Nowy Korczyn at the same airstrip that was to be the scene of KG477 'V's landing. The landing-ground, codenamed "Motyl" (Butterfly) was near a forest and was some 200 miles south of Warsaw. It had been used by the Luftwaffe as an emergency strip during the fighting of 1939, and on this occasion was prepared by a Polish Air Force Officer named Wlodek, who was further to look after security on the night of the KG477 'V's hopefully brief visit. Indeed ever since the stolen bomb had been audaciously transported south from the capital by the Home Army in a stolen German Army truck, Wlodek had maintained a constant if unobtrusive guard over the bomb parts, for the district was stiff with some 4,000 Germans retreating from the Eastern Front to face the crisis in Normandy. In addition to the principal task, the Dakota would carry four passengers into Poland, Captain Billski, 2nd Lieutenant Starzynski, Major Wolniak and Lieutenant Nowak. The first three, with 19 suitcases of 'special equipment', were on their way to join the Underground, whilst the last was to brief General Bor-Komorowski of the Polish C.-in-C.'s estimate of the military support situation in the event of an uprising.
In the event, only one of the Liberators set off with KG477 'V', the other, suffering from engine trouble, staying grounded. The escorting Liberator parted company on reaching the River Sava as darkness fell, leaving KG477 'V' to press on across the Hungarian Plain at 7,500 feet, the height at which German Night-Fighter Radar functioned poorly due to pronounced ground return. Five flak bursts were sighted about a mile to starboard near Skolnok, otherwise all remained quiet. By the time they reached the final turning point in the Carpathian Mountains, KG477 'V' was only one minute behind its scheduled E.T.A. - 'excellent work given that there had been no pinpoints on this leg of the journey and the only navigational aid had been wireless bearings'. Meanwhile, earlier in the day at the landing site, Wlodek and Home Army compatriots called in for the operation, had been horrified to see two German training aircraft using the airstrip to fly circuits and make landings, and to learn that some 400 Luftwaffe personnel had set up camp a mile away. Fortunately, the German aircraft took off by nightfall and flew away, and worries concentrated on the proximity of German Division pulling out to the West, the Luftwaffe Camp, and the rain softened ground underfoot. In the midst the hundreds of Poles risking their lives that night by marking the field and keeping watch, five new passengers waited to fly out with the British: the Engineer Chmielewski, an Agent called Retinger, M. Arciszewski of the Socialist Party, 2nd Lieutenant Chciuk, a Political Courier, and an Officer named Micinski.
On the E.T.A. the letter 'O' was flashed and acknowledged with an 'N' from a point on the ground. The Dakota crossed a road busy with military traffic and approached the strip. Lights were immediately lit but the Dakota overshot at the first attempt. The second time she came in slower and made a good landing. In less than five minutes the aircraft had exchanged its loads and was preparing to take off when the problems began. Culliford had trouble releasing the parking brake, but having done so opened the throttles for take-off. He then found that the machine was stuck fast despite the tail leaving the ground when boost was applied. Szrajer climbed down to see if the aircraft was bogged, and reported that he did not think so. Culliford agreed, and ascribed the difficulty to the brakes, which he thought were still on despite indication to the contrary in the Cockpit. Through the medium of Szrajer, Culliford, Pemberton-Williams and Appleby learned that a German patrol, no doubt alerted by the sound of the engines, was less than a mile away, and that unless they could take off straight away they would have to go underground. It was decided to cut the connections supplying the hydraulic fluid to the brake drums, but in spite of the applied boost the machine refused to budge. Culliford shut down the engines and prepared to destroy the Dakota, yet still it was generally agreed that a further effort be made. The ground party was persuaded to stay a few more minutes and a spade was produced to dig out the main wheels, which had sunk deeper into the ground. KG477 'V' was loaded again and with 50in. of boost the Dakota slewed slightly to starboard, and then stopped, the port wheel having turned one quarter of a revolution - 'The aircraft was again unloaded and Appleby tore up all his documents and placed them ready to set fire to the Dakota'.
Even so, Culliford, the crew, the passengers, and Wlodek's people all knew the desperate need for success. After 30 minutes hard digging, the aircraft was finally released into a brake-less circle in which it narrowly missed a stone wall. By this time the people holding the flare-path torches had all left, and Culliford was forced to attempt a take off using the landing light and aiming north-west for a green light in the corner of the field. Having 'ploughed' along, KG477 'V' finally 'waffled' into the air at 65 m.p.h., just in time to get across Yugoslavia before daylight. Forced to make a brake-less landing at Brindisi, Culliford were directed by the Controller to use a runway still under construction. Wing Commander Francombe, commanding 267 Squadron, and thus well placed to appreciate the importance and significance of "Wildhorn III", praised the crew for their 'courage, determination and coolness with which they carried out what must be one of the most outstanding and epic flights of the war by an unarmed transport aircraft'.
The gallant Appleby completed his last mission with 267 Squadron on 17.11.1944, his D.F.M. having been gazetted in the previous month. In addition, in recognition of his part in the above described Polish enterprise, he was successfully recommended for the Cross of Valour by the Government in Exile, his related Identity Card stating the date of award as 8.8.1944. Appleby was finally released from the R.A.F.V.R. in April 1946, in the rank of Warrant Officer, but did not claim his campaign awards until April 1979 (Accompanying M.O.D. letter refers).
References: Flights of the Forgotten, Special Duties Squadrons in World War Two, by K.A. Merrick, 1989; They Saved London, by Bernard Newman, 1955.