9. Surprise Strike Springs French Resistance Fighters From Gestapo’s Clutches
Word reached Britain in 1944 that the Gestapo planned to liquidate hundreds of French Resistance prisoners held in the Amiens prison, starting with a mass execution of over 100 prisoners on February 19th, 1944. An air strike to breach the prison’s walls and allow the inmates an opportunity to escape was requested, and the RAF’s Second Tactical Air Force drew up plans for Operation Jericho.
The Amiens prison was a conspicuous building with high walls, in an open area adjacent to the long and straight Albert-Amiens road, so finding it was easy. The difficulty, in the days before precision munitions, was to blast its outer walls and kill many guards, without destroying the prison and killing too many prisoners. Some prisoners would inevitably die in the bombing, but it was reasoned that they were doomed anyhow, and the risk of death in a breakout attempt was better than the certainty of execution.
The plane most suitable for the job was the de Havilland Mosquito multirole combat aircraft. The mission was repeatedly postponed because of poor weather, but on February 18th, 1944, one day before the scheduled mass executions, it had to be now or never. Despite heavy snow and fog, eighteen Mosquitoes took off from southern England and linked up with escorting fighters over the English Channel. Flying low, the attackers took a circuitous route until they reached the town of Albert, northeast of Amiens, then followed the long and straight Albert-Amiens road to approach the prison from that direction.
The leading Mosquitoes were to bomb and breach the prison’s outer walls, and the rest were to bomb the guard barracks and cafeteria. The raid was timed for lunchtime, to catch as many German guards as possible as they sat dining. The Mosquitoes arrived at noon, and dropping 500 lb bombs with delayed fuses to allow the raiders to fly out of the blast zone before detonation, breached the outer walls. Then the guardhouse was struck and destroyed, killing its occupants along with collateral damage prisoners nearby. Once prisoners were observed pouring out of the breached walls, the raiders flew back home.
It was a tactical success, but the results were mixed: the bombing was pinpoint accurate by the era’s standards, and the walls were successfully breached, allowing the prisoners an opportunity to escape. At the cost of three Mosquitoes and two escorting fighters, 50 Germans were killed, but so were 107 of the 717 prisoners. 258 prisoners escaped, but 182 were recaptured. Controversy erupted after the war when some in the Resistance disputed that the they had requested the bombing. Additionally, no evidence emerged that the Germans had planned mass executions of the Amiens prisoners.