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Old 05-06-2008, 04:30 AM   #1 (permalink)
Antipodean Andy
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Operation Chocolate

Anyone come across reference to this before? I read the excellent pdf at Kyt's post here - Group Captain Houle DFC* RIP - regarding G/C Houle and it mentioned his involvement in Operation Chocolate where Hurricanes operated from an abandoned airfield behind enemy lines for three days harrassing German supply columns etc. They headed home just as an enemy column sent to find them arrived on the scene.

From the pdf:
Friday, November the 13th, 1942 was the beginning of "Operation Chocolate." Its objective was to harass retreating Axis forces by strafing deep behind their lines. Tasked with the assignment were 213 and 238 Squadrons. Flying their Hurricanes to an abandoned air strip 140 km behind the lines the two squadrons would for the next three days fly sortie after sortie strafing enemy ground forces. They pulled out just ahead of an Axis column coming to intercept them. The mission was a great success. One enemy aircraft destroyed during the operation was a Fiesler Storch, a slow, ungainly observation platform. Houle noted that "I shared an unarmed Feisler Storch - but never did count it in my score. It did not seem sporting"6

The 6 at the end refers to a reference - Bert Houle, Flying Desert Rats, unpublished manuscript, supplemental to p.253.
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http://www.454-459squadrons.org.au/.
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Aircraft from No. 60 Squadron levelling out for the "run in" to make a mast-head attack on a Japanese coaster off Akyab. Courtesy AWM.

Last edited by Antipodean Andy; 05-06-2008 at 04:40 AM..
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