Thread: Operations of WW2 - B

Operation Bluebottle I and II - sea evacuation of evaders by HMS Tarana in 1942:

Art Operation Bluebottle

Interesting bit of text:

W/Cdr Whitney Willard Straight ... On approaching the border near Bedous, he was arrested and sent to St Hippolyte du Fort, where, realising the potential for propaganda his name would have for the Germans, he gave his name as Captain Whitney RASC*.

* Squadron Leader Patrick Gibbs, who had arrived at St Hippolyte a few days before Straight, was actually advised by the French Commandant to allow his rank and service to be entered as a Royal Artillery Captain. This was to avoid the attentions of the German Military Control Commission who made periodic vists to the prison and who might consider high-ranking avaitors of sufficient importance to be removed to a POW camp in Germany

There appears to have been more than one S/L Patrick Gibbs! Fascinating! Perhaps the best known one:
http://ww2chat.com/forums/obituaries...gibbs-rip.html

Operation Barbarossa :The German attack in June 1941 on Russia
AJ