Chas Jellis and I were invited to Tangmere Military Aviation Museum on 21 July 2018 to see a new SOE Lysander Exhibition. One VIP was 94-year-old Fred Bailey from Bosham, an SOE-trained saboteur.
Mr Bailey operated behind the lines in France in 1944 and again in Burma in 1945. He said: ‘The Lysander brings back a lot of memories. It was a Lysander which picked me up from the jungle in Burma. The plane is a two-seater, but there were five of us in it when it picked us up. I was underneath the seat at the bottom of the rear cockpit with a radio set underneath me. They had a ten-minute turnaround as the Japanese were closing in. I was really looking forward to seeing the Lysander, it all seems a long time ago now, but it has certainly brought back so many memories.’
Mr Bailey received the highest French award, the Legion d’honour, five years ago at the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth. He said: ‘I was really proud to receive it. It was for my Service in the French Resistance. I parachuted in France, sent back Intelligence, arranged further drops and helped organise the Resistance using radio.’
Visitors got a first glimpse of the full-size replica of a Westland Lysander and equipment used by SOE agents to carry out their clandestine operations. Cllr Martyn Bell, Mayor of Chichester, said: ‘I have been associated with the Museum for a long time, I’m thrilled they have put on an SOE Exhibition. The airfield is famous for the Spitfire Pilots, but the 161 Special Duty Squadron are also heroes.’
Props chargehand Chas, known for his work on Edge of Tomorrow, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Fury, sold the replica Lysander to the Museum after he purchased some Second World War props from the film production of ‘Allied’ starring Brad Pitt. He purchased the Lysander and kept it at home among his other Second World War vehicles. He said: ‘Put together, this plane is so convincing and authentic. It stands out from other replicas as it is built from the original fabrics so it’s not fibreglass. I realised it was a bit too big for my garden and this is where it belongs. It’s in the best place. I had offers from Museums in the USA, Australia, and Normandy, but it’s perfect here.’
Following the Opening, there was a six-week Exhibition on ‘Tangmere and the Special Operations Executive’. There were talks on the RAF pick-up pilots who flew secret agents to and from RAF Tangmere at night to fields in France and on the lives and work of the agents.
A programme of Talks started in August when the Mayor of Chichester, Councillor Martyn Bell, gave a Talk on the life of Jimmy ‘Mac’ McCairns, a Spitfire pilot who flew in Douglas Bader’s Tangmere Wing in 1941 and who later in the war became one of the most successful Lysander pick-up pilots. Other Talks included Pete Pitman who spoke of RAF Tangmere’s role in support of the SOE, Dr Andrew Smith of Chichester University on ‘Resistance and the Free French’, and Rosemary Coxon on ‘Operation Anthropoid – The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich’. Museum volunteer John Gradwell gave a Talk on SOE Wireless Operator Noor Inayat Khan. Demonstrations by re-enactors took place alongside the full-size replica Westland Lysander and of equipment used by SOE operatives to carry out their clandestine operations.
It was an honour and a pleasure to have played our part.
You can see a video of us delivering the Lysander to Tangmere in June by clicking the link below:
This article is from the Winter 2018 issue of Confound and Destroy
