RAF hero who struck at Nazi pride and arrogance

RAF hero who struck at Nazi pride and arrogance

By Terry Walker | 10 minute read

On 12 June 1942, a solitary RAF hero flying a Beaufighter fighter-bomber struck a blow against Nazi pride and arrogance and gave hope to the oppressed people of occupied France. Dubbed “Operation Squabble”, this is the audacious story of Ken Gatward, the brave daredevil who flew that lone wolf attack aircraft and George Fern, his skilled navigator.

It was springtime in Paris, nearly two years after the German occupation of the City of Light when the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in London received reports from secret agents within German-occupied France. They revealed that regular military parades were taking place along the Champs-Élysées in Paris to emphasise Nazi superiority and remind Parisians who was in charge.

London spy chiefs and RAF Coastal Command top brass dreamed up an audacious mission that could have been the storyline of a Biggles adventure book, authored by Capt WE Johns. The Beaufighter features strongly in four Biggles books as “one of the most heavily armed fighter aircraft in the world” and frequently used to destroy enemy military assets.  

Hedge-hopping to Paris

“Operation Squabble” required a lone wolf attack that would use cloud cover to penetrate France undetected, fly low-level over Paris, shoot up the German military parade along the Champs-Élysées, take some photos, and drop French tricolour flags over the Arc de Triomphe before a quick return to England. A secondary target was set as the Ministère de la Marine in the nearby Place de la Concorde, which had become the HQ for the German occupiers and thus a suitable enemy target for the four 20 mm cannons of an RAF Coastal Command aircraft.

Having volunteered for the operation, Flight Lieutenant Ken Gatward and his navigator, Sergeant George Fern, were initially hindered by the lack of cloud cover over France. But on 12 June 1942, the pair were determined to complete their mission, despite once again finding clear skies when they reached the French coast. Gatward and Fern hoped to avoid the Luftwaffe by flying fast and low at only 30 feet above the ground – “hedge-hopping”, as it was known.

Trained as a journalist before joining the RAF, Ken Gatward subsequently wrote his own detailed report of “Operation Squabble”, which is published online for the first time as follows Image Gallery:

Mission report in his own words

“We flew very low all the way across France, and saw masses of horses in the fields”. The Beaufighter is pretty quiet, and we didn’t disturb the cattle and horses too much, but we took some photographs of them. Some horses were rearing up as we came over the fields, and one of them was a white horse; you can almost see the whites of his eyes in our picture.”

As the Beaufighter pressed on, it flew over Rouen Aerodrome – then a Luftwaffe airfield – but encountered no opposition. Racing over fields at treetop level, the raiders made directly for Paris.

Eiffel Tower aided navigation

“I’d never been to Paris before, but it looked exactly as I imagined it would. We’d studied a lot of guidebooks and photographs before we set out. We could see the Eiffel Tower when we were 30 or 40 miles from Paris, which helped with our navigation because we were too low to get a view of Paris from above. It was a very nice day – plenty of sunshine – and we could see quite easily where we were going.”

Taking their bearing from the Eiffel Tower, Gatward lined up the Beaufighter to come in directly over the Defence Monument before heading straight for the Arc de Triomphe. “I asked Sergeant Fern, my observer, ‘Are you ready for the first flag?’ and he said ‘Yes, I’m all ready, but the slipstream is nearly breaking my arm!’ He was pushing this furled flag down a flare chute into the slipstream from the propellers and at the right moment, he let it go.

“Much prior work had gone into the best way to prepare and release the flags. By the day of the raid, both had been precisely weighted and folded so they would stream as soon as they were released. We couldn’t stop to see exactly where the first flag dropped but reports said it fell right on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, which is, of course, just where we wanted it to be.”

Gestapo headquarters targeted

With no German parade visible to shoot at — the troops were mustering in the side streets — the intrepid flyers turned their attention to the Gestapo headquarters, their secondary target. “One of the things we wanted to look at particularly was the Ministry of Marine, because it was crammed with Huns, and we had something for them. We spotted that quite easily, and turned north towards the opera house and then out again.

“On our first circuit, the people in the streets hadn’t paid much attention to the aircraft overhead, the noise of which perhaps mingled with the traffic. Within moments of ending the first circuit, however, as we turned in for this second run, all Parisian eyes swivelled skywards.

“This time, we came in as low as we dared in case they had any light ack-ack (anti-aircraft guns) on the rooftops. Actually, I was too busy watching out for rooftops and steeples to notice any ack-ack, but Sergeant Fern warned me that some strafe did pass close by us. The aircraft, flying at second-floor level, was not hit.

People peering down at us

“On this second circuit, we came square up to the Ministry of Marine, and we were right in line at a range of about 500 yards before we let fly with our four cannons. There were sparks flying off the building. We hadn’t time to see whether the shells burst inside, but a good deal went through the windows.

“I strafed the place from base to apex and only cleared the roof by about five feet. Whilst I was doing this, Fern was shouting out encouragement and pushing out the second flag, which we hoped would fall slap across the front door.

“There were people running about the street to have a good look at us and we noticed that one or two faces at the windows were actually peering down at us. We saw a number of German military cars stop in the street, with Huns standing around them while others dodged around the street. But we couldn’t let fly at them because there were too many civilians.

“Most of the civilians were waving to us. Fern said he saw some German soldiers trying to take cover behind a lorry. One of them was very fat and he was shaking his fist at us!”

Daring mission widely celebrated

Having achieved all they could – Fern snapping the required evidence photographs after dropping the flags – the airmen turned for the coast. They had been over Paris for only six minutes. On the return journey, they flew over Rouen Aerodrome, and once again, no enemy aircraft came up to challenge them.

After returning to England, Ken Gatward was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and George Fern received the Distinguished Flying Medal.

Their daring mission was also widely celebrated in the media, and, perhaps inevitably, the story became embellished with each retelling – with parading Nazis scattering in panic and one hapless band member apparently diving through his own bass drum in his efforts to escape.

Both Ken Gatward and George Fern survived the war, and on 28 July 1949, they were publicly recognised for their gallantry during “Operation Squabble” at an RAF Association ceremony in London. Monsieur Louis Roche of the French Embassy in London officially presented a Tricolour to (now promoted) Wing Commander Gatward in front of a crowd of 12,000 spectators.

Monsieur Roche told the audience: “Everything was so dark at that time. The feat of arms of Gatward and Fern was what everyone had been waiting for. It cheered up thousands of people who had been living in misery (under German rule).”

UPDATE

The honour of handing over the flag was given to an eyewitness of the events in Paris, Mrs Jane Luc, the English wife of the First Secretary of the French Embassy. RAF Association standard bearers from numerous branches also held prominent positions around the platform. The RAF Association said: “Wing Commander Gatward was the Life President of the Southgate and Wood Green Branch, and his flag has hung proudly in Southgate’s Christ Church ever since.”

Wing Commander Alfred Kitchener (Ken) Gatward is also commemorated in Frinton on Sea, where he lived, married, died and is buried, by having the newest street within The Gates named in his honour – Ken Gatward Close. The Frinton & Walton Heritage Trust is planning a commemoration for this daring “Boy’s Own” hero. 

Ken Gatward had one daughter, a love child (Janice [Jan] born in London in 1949, now living in Australia), with Theressa (Tess) Warren (1918–2019). Father and daughter were reunited for the first time 21 years later. After 30 years in the RAF, he enjoyed a peaceful life in Frinton with Pamela Yeomans, the woman he married. He died in 1998 at the age of 84. 

The airman’s gallantry and 30 years of service were rewarded with eight medals. His first Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) came in July 1942 and a second DFC in September 1944 when he participated in an operation that destroyed a German shipping convoy. Despite sustaining severe damage to his aircraft, he managed to fly it safely back to base.

Ken Gatward was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in June 1944 and Mentioned in Despatches in January 1944. The medal group is an official replacement because the originals were lost. They sold for £41,000 in a Colchester auction. A complete replica set is displayed at the Frinton Memorial Club, which, as the town’s official war memorial, hosts the annual Poppy Day ceremonies. 

The Bristol Beaufighter was a torpedo bomber with a crew of two, a maximum speed of 330 mph, and a ceiling of 29,000 feet. It had a standard range of 1,500 miles but could be extended to 1,750 miles. The Bristol Beaufighter carried four 20mm cannons in the belly of the aircraft and up to Browning machine guns in the wings. It could also carry eight 3-inch rockets, a 1,605 lb torpedo or a bomb load of 1,000 lb. The Beaufighter first flew in July 1939 and, with some modifications, entered service with the Royal Air Force in July 1940. In the winter of 1940-1941, the Beaufighter was used as a night fighter. From March 1941, it was used by Coastal Command as a long-range strike aircraft and in North Africa as a forward-ground-attack aircraft. Then in India, Burma and Australia. A total of 5,564 Beaufighters were built until production in Britain finished in 1945. A further 364 were built in Australia for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).