Sean Feast outlines the contribution of one PFF navigator to the success of D-Day and beyond …

The task of taking out coastal batteries ahead of the invasion of Normandy was a vital one. It aimed at dramatically reducing casualties when the beach landings were made, and thus required multiple targets to be located and target-marked using Oboe-equipped Mosquitoes. The heavy bombers would then follow on to complete the job.

Within 8 Group, the task of target-marking was given to the Pathfinders of 109 and 105 Squadrons. One of the first Mosquitos to successfully complete its marking duties in the small hours of 6 June 1944 was flown by Squadron Leader (later Wing Commander) Graham Foxall; sitting beside him was his Canadian navigator, Flight Lieutenant ‘Cam’ Wallace.

Alexander Cameron Wallace enlisted in the RCAF on 23 July 1941 in London, Ontario after finishing his second year of medical school at the University of Western Ontario. As a medical student he was exempt from military service but decided to join the war instead. He trained as an observer and impressed to the point that he was appointed to a commission. Arriving in the UK, he completed further training at an Advanced Flying Unit (9 AFU) and Operational Training Unit (14 OTU) before joining 214 Squadron via 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit.

The Stirling crews of 214 Squadron at RAF Chedburgh in the spring of 1943 were going through a tough time, and their losses were considerable. This was the period known as the Battle of the Ruhr and the German nightfighters were at the top of their game. Happily, so was Cam’s pilot, Geoff Shattock, and the rest of the crew. On their fourth operation (to Mannheim) they got the better of a German Ace, Gerhard Friedrich, shooting his Bf110 out of the sky.

Coming off second best to a German nightfighter

On their fifth trip they were attacked again, this time coming off second best. The German’s canon fire ripped through the cockpit, wounding the pilot in the leg. Cam used his medical knowledge to patch his skipper up, while the bomb aimer kept the aircraft straight and level. The pilot recovered sufficiently to be able to land the Stirling, later noting in his logbook ‘one or two holes’. He spent several weeks in hospital.

Cam was ‘screened’ after his 17^th operation along with his pilot to become instructors. A reason was never given, and yet Cam’s letters home to his family are full of disappointment and confusion as to why they were ‘yanked off ops’. They are also full of his determination to be put back on ops as soon as possible.

He volunteered for Pathfinders and was readily accepted. Six months after being screened from Stirlings, he was being trained on the blind bombing device – Oboe – in Mosquitos and his mood soared.  He was posted to 109 Squadron and paired up with Graham Foxall, one of the squadron’s very best pilots in a unit of superlative talent.

Marking a target on D-Day within 70yds of the aiming point

On D-Day, Foxall and Wallace began the attack at St. Pierre du Mont (Pointe du Hoc Coastal Battery) at 04:46.50 when they released their target indicators (TIs) from 30,000ft and which the Oboe controllers plotted to land just 70yds northwest of the aiming point.

One minute later, two other Oboe Mosquitos from 109 and 105 Squadrons dropped their TIs from 18,000ft which were plotted to hit 140 and 220yds from the aiming point. These were backed up by more TIs from 627 Squadron Mosquitos from 5 Group. They were marking for 115 Lancaster from 5 Group who were battling severe icing at 10,000ft and many had to drop down to 8,000’ or 9,000ft to bomb. The bombing was very concentrated and accurate, and the operation a complete success.

Cam Wallace’s 73 operations with 109 Squadron ran the gamut of pre-invasion attacks on rail and communications, the tactical work in Normandy in support of the troops on the ground after the invasion, the Operation Crossbow attacks on the V1 and V2 Rocket launching and supply sites as well as the usual attacks on German industrial targets. He flew half a dozen trips as Oboe leader, almost killing himself and Foxall on the last occasion, after nearly firing the flare pistol inside the cockpit, following an explosive decompression that filled the cockpit with mist. This Oboe leader op was to Duisburg leading a formation of Mosquitos at 20,000ft.

In an action-packed tour he had a number of close shaves, including a crash with the aircraft still carrying its full load of TIs and on two occasions the aircraft catching fire. He also once flew the wrong way in a bomber stream, avoiding a collision by sheer chance. Foxall and Wallace were screened from further operations on 21 December 1944; Foxall was awarded both the DSO and DFC for his wartime service; Cam Wallace the DFC.

Alexander Cameron Wallace, “Cam”

Accepting that he wouldn’t survive was the best way of coping

After the war, Cam spoke little of his experiences, portraying his time as being rather ordinary and unremarkable. He was simply a navigator who had flown often and seen plenty of Germany. It wasn’t that he was without fear, but once he had accepted that he was unlikely to survive, it made it much easier to cope. He did, however, record his thoughts on Oboe, as described in The Pathfinder Companion (Grub Street 2012):

[Oboe] was incredibly accurate within its range, but this was only about as far as the east end of the Ruhr. If you flew higher, you increased the range, so we did experimental ops at up to 38,000ft which gave us the bends and blew out valves.

When we got the pressurized Mark XVI ‘planes it was better. The other trouble was that there were only a few ‘planes could use it at a time, thus excluding the Main Force; we either marked for them in the PFF role or went out ourselves alone, doing accurate but small jobs. When marking for heavy bomber forces, they would kick you off the channel and call in your reserve if they saw you were going to miss by more than about 100 yards.

Oboe was absolutely secret; we were not allowed to talk about it except behind closed doors, and when we landed away, we had to demand that a guard be put on the plane and couldn’t even discuss it with the people who interrogated us on another station, which made us unpopular.”

SEAN FEAST

The author is indebted to Cam’s son David Wallace for greater insight into his father’s wartime service.