The Bombing of the Shellhus on March 21, 1945

[au-yt]

Wow what an amazing thread with some fantastic stories and pictures... just wow!
I am a bit of a late commer to this thread.
I found the thread doing some initial reasurch on Uncle whom served with the 64 RAF Squadron and took part in the Bombing of the Shellhus on March 21, 1945. He was one of the pilots who, from what I have been able to find was the first wave attack. He Survived the raid but ran out of fuel and crashed short of the runway.
It was great reading some of the stories from behind the scenes and what a Shame I wasnt aware of the 50 anniversary.

Graeme

 

[Njaco]

Welcome to the forum Graeme!

 

[Airframes]

Welcome Graeme. What was your Uncle's name?

 

[au-yt]

Thanks for the Greatings Guys
I must also appolagise for the slow reply. I have had difficulty logging in.

My Uncles Name was Neil White or as he was known during the war Snowy.

I have attached a PDF copy of a news article written about Neil buy his then ( now vail) CEO Vic Cannon. Hopefully it is readable.

Regards

Graeme

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Graeme, interesting read.

 

[au-yt]

Thanks Airframes

has anyone managed to get a full copy of this doco.
Pictures & Photos from The Shell House Raid - IMDb
Regards
Graeme

 

[Airframes]

Can't say I've seen that, but I have a video copy of all of the footage taken at the departure, the crossing of the North Sea, and during the raid. Only parts of this have ever been screened before.

 

[au-yt]

Hi Airframes

Thats amazing, am I correct in thinking that the fottage came from the the Mosquito aircraft that were fitted with cameras?
I would love to see the footage, My main interest is obviously the footage that includes any mustangs. My uncle did tell me about the difficulty with visability on the way over caused by the salt spray on the screens.
I know 64th Squadron lettering was SH... Vic Cannons airft was SH..T no guesses what they used to add to it. Sadly I dont know what letter Neils was.

Regards
Graeme

 

[Airframes]

Hi Graeme. The footage was taken from the two FPU MkIV series ii Mosquitos on the raid, both of which also carried bombs. The strike cameras on the Mosquito FBVIs were wired into the same circuit as the drop tanks. When the tanks were jettisoned at the Danish coast, this activated the cameras, resulting in some splendid, aft-looking, low-level footage if the Danish countryside, but no strike footage!!
As far as I remember, there is no footage of the Mustangs, but on the same VHS tape, there is a 1974 documentary which shows a very small clip.
I'll check my notes, as I should have the code letter and serial number for all the Mustangs from 64 Sqn which took part.
There is a possibility that I could loan you the tape, but there are official Crown Copyright restrictions which MUST be adhered to - send me a PM.
Cheers,
Terry.

 

[jennygreen]

[]Hi, I am not too sure if I am doing this correctly as I have never done this before. My dad was in the Danish underground and he was captured I think because the Gastapo came to his house and found his father smoking American cigarettes. They eventually found dad (need to check with mum where - I thought he was in the countryside or something like that). He was housed in the Shell building and I believe that each day they were moved up a cell until they got to either number 1 or number 0 and then they were executed. My dad I believe was in cell number 5 when peace was declared! Does anyone know of any of these kind of things or where I should look. thanks, Jenny
[/B][/COLOR]


UOTE=Zeke_Freak;751693]Wow. Just wow. This is pretty silly, but I'm actually tearing up a bit as I scan over all of this. I don't think my gramps had any idea so much information existed, so many pictures, even video... and possible connections with people so familiar with the events. I had no idea. He would have loved to have seen all of this. He passed away just 4 years ago, in 2006.

To all of you, thank you so much for all of your posts. I want to take some time this weekend to study all of this much more carefully.


Airframes - thank you so much for shedding so much light on these events for me. I've searched online for details in the past, but never had I imagined there was so much to learn. Your work of art is wonderful.


BikerBabe - I have to say, I am very pleased to make your acquaintance.

I am leaving to visit my parent in a few hours. This weekend I'm going to try to dig through my grand fathers pictures to see if I can find some of the pictures I recall seeing. Some of the photos he has are ones that have been published. I suspect others have not been published anywhere. Some are shots that feature himself and other officers, on duty. Plus some photos from his days in the army and as a royal guard.

My grandfather's best friend 'Ras' Rassmussen (sp), who was also a police officer, was taken to Buchenwald. He survived the camp, and lived a long life afterward. I have some pictures of him with his dogs (he was a dog handler). His family stayed in Denmark, while my grandfather left the police force in 1949 (took 1 year leave, then quit officially in 1950), and moved his family to Canada.

Somewhere I have a tape recording of my grandfather recounting many of the events of these times. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate it in the last couple of years. My plan was to transcribe our discussions into writing, when I can locate it. But I do still recall many details.

I also know my grandfather was involved in protecting Jewish Danes and even smuggling some from Denmark to Sweden. He was very proud of their efforts. He also knew something first hand of collaborators who were executed by resistance fighters. Unlike other people I know who did not like to speak of WWII, my grandfather was very willing to talk, but he was not untouched by the events. I recall him telling me about the fire fight with the Germans during the police round up. He said that it was the easiest thing to do, to point your gun at another person, and pull the trigger. But tears welled up in his eyes as he said it.

I have so many items here that my grandfather kept, and many I know little about. My mother was born in Copenhagen in 1943, and she is able to roughly translate some things. But not that much, as she been speaking English since they moved to Canada in '49. For instance, I know we have a sort of old 'memorial' book that lists all of the captured Danish Police officers, who survived, who died where. So many died in Buchenwald. There are many little things, booklets, badges, pieces of uniforms, etc.

Here are some shots of my grandfather's police driver's license, his hat, and whistle, which we still have.

I am sorry so much of my post goes off topic of the Shell building attack.

Leif[/QUOTE]

 

[Crimea_River]

Welcome aboard and thanks for posting this. Hope you'll get some more info to fill in some gaps in your grandfather's already great story.

 

[Njaco]

Welcome aboard Jenny. I'm sure that Maria (BikerBabe) will be very much interested in talking to you. She works at a Police Musuem in Denamark so your pics of police officers will interest her. I think she also has more on Ras Rassmussen, I believe.

 

[Airframes]

Welcome Jenny, and glad to have been able to help.

 

[Wayne White]

Have just joined and reading your articles, my Dad was in the mustang escort squadron, Neil White, will check his log book, think he was squadron leader at the time.

 

[Crimea_River]

Another Wayne from Oz. I though you guys were all named Bruce! Welcome aboard!

Do check the log book and if there is any info you can share there'd be a lot of interest.

 

[Lucky13]

Twins??

 

[wuzak]

Thanks Airframes

has anyone managed to get a full copy of this doco.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imsRFurUDPA

I also posted this in the videos section.

 

[wuzak]

For instance... were there other bombing raids carried out in WWII that were similar to the Shell building situation... where resistance groups were involved maybe?

Similar attacks


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Mosquito_raid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarhus_Air_Raid

 

[cherry blossom]

I decided to clutter the thread with a few more family memories. My relative Fl. Lt. S. J. (Jim) Rattray flew one of the Mustangs. I remember two extra details.

Firstly, he said that the Mustang pilots were offered a free choice of flying above or below the roof line. He was thankful that he had decided to fly along the streets because another pilot (a friend or perhaps his wingman - I have forgotten and Jim died in 1989) who flew higher was hit by FLAK and killed.

Secondly, he mentioned that after flying over or near the Shellhus, he had flown over Copenhagen harbour. He had the impression that this contained a fair fraction of the remaining German surface fleet. Naturally, these showed their appreciation of the RAF's display of low level flying by firing a salute with all available guns.

I have been trying over the last few days to find which ships were present without success. In May, the cruisers Prinz Eugen and Nürnberg surrendered at Copenhagen but Prinz Eugen only arrived on 20th April. However, Nürnberg seems to have arrived on 27th January. On 13th January, Nürnberg and the minelayer Linz were escorted by the destroyers Riedel and Ihn and torpedo boats T19 and T20 in laying the "Titus" minefield in the Skaggerak when they were attacked by a radar equipped RAF Halifax. Some others of this force may have remained near Copenhagen but the destroyers remained active in convoying ships to and from Norway. Other destroyers active around that area and time include Beitzen and Galster. Of course, a convoy may have been in Copenhagen harbour that day but I have not found any information.

Jim had written a comment in his logbook for the mission "buckets of sweat" (I might be able to get that scanned as his son still has it).

This is a very old thread but my cousin Andrew retired last year and after doing various unimportant things such as visiting Australia was persuaded to search for his father's log books. He has found the last two covering the period 16 March 1942 to 9 March 1946 and thus I can attach Andrew's scan mentioning the Shellhus mission. My memory from long before when we had talked was slightly faulty and Jim had written bags of twitch rather than buckets of sweat.