The Mission


At this stage of the war, the Russians beginning their plunge into the heart of Germany. Several German armies had been trapped in the Baltic States and East Prussia. More troops were stationed in Norway.  The German Navy was desperately trying to ferry these troops home in time to help in the defence of the homeland. "Gardening", or minelaying,  not only presented a real threat to this process, but also tied up Kriegsmarine resources on mine sweeping duties.

The Log is very  limited in the information it gives on this mission. I don't know if Joe had more information which he did not record in the log. But I was left wondering what went wrong, as "Gardening " Ops were generally believed to be relatively low risk.

The usual hazards faced on gardening ops included:  night-fighters, flak, weather, mechanical failures, mid-air collision, pilot error (flying into the water). On the internet and in the Reference Library I searched for a Luftwaffe War Diary that might list claims for the area south of Copenhagen that night. The closest I could find had summaries only and no details.

In "They Shall not Grow Old" , a compilation of all Canadian Aircrew fatalities, I was able to identify the four crew members not mentioned in the Log . It also indicates:   Halifax #MZ 865 went down in the sea off Sweden during a mine laying op in the western Baltic south of Copenhagen. This we more or less knew by the location the bodies washed up.

An exhaustive listing of all  Royal Air Force Bomber Command losses of the Second World War   was being compiled and published by W R Chorley. Unfortunately for me,  Volume 6, covering 1945 had not yet been published.

An e-mail to the website administrator of the #429 Squadron  seeking information went unanswered.

I was at an impass.

In 2002 we travelled again to Scandinavia, where I found...

On returning to Canada, I found Volume 6, had finally arrived:

"T/O 18:03 Leeming for mining duties over the Kadet Channel. Violated Swedish Airspace and was shot down by AA fire. Crashed  20:58  into the sea roughly 8 km off Falsterbo light house. Six bodies eventually recovered and buried in cemeteries in both neutral Sweden and occupied Denmark." From W.R.Chorley  v6 p78

Confirming what I had found in Sweden.

This leaves me with a big question:
 Why, at this late stage in the war, with Germany on the brink of collapse, were the Swedes so intent on demonstrating their neutrality?