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| Click Here For Full Artist Print Indexes | Aviation History Archive |
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Aviation Art Prints  Countries UK Squadron Index More Squadrons Squadrons 129 to 199  No.161 Sqn |
[UP] - No.129 Sqn - No.132 Sqn - No.135 Sqn - No.137 Sqn - No.139 Sqn - No.141 Sqn - No.143 Sqn - No.144 Sqn - No.148 Sqn - No.150 Sqn - No.151 Sqn - No.152 Sqn - No.154 Sqn - No.156 Sqn - No.157 Sqn - No.158 Sqn - No.161 Sqn - No.166 Sqn - No.174 Sqn - No.175 Sqn - No.181 Sqn - No.182 Sqn - No.185 Sqn - No.193 Sqn - No.197 Sqn - No.198 Sqn - No.199 Sqn |
No.161 Sqn
Country : UK
Founded : 1st June 1918
Disbanded 2nd June 1945
Codes : , MA, JR,
Liberate
| No.161 Sqn Aviation Art Prints, Paintings and Drawings Aviation Art |
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| Text for the above items : |
They Landed by Moonlight by Robert Taylor. To fly a small aircraft at the dead of night, without radio communication or navigational assistance, deep into enemy-occupied territory, was an extremely perilous task. To then land on an unlit remote field, deliver secret agents, collect Resistance leaders, or downed airmen and fly them home without attracting the attentions of enemy night fighters, was appallingly risky work. Yet throughout World War II the prime function of the pilots of the RAFs Special Duties Squadrons was to fly time and again into occupied France, in utmost secrecy, under the cover of darkness. It was acutely dangerous work requiring inordinate flying and navigational skills, and supreme courage. Most suited to these clandestine operations was the rugged Westland Lysander, operations being conducted, weather permitting, during the moons fullest phase. Guided only by torch light, the pilot made a hazardous night landing into an isolated field at a pre-arranged time, trusting that agents on the ground had checked the field for cart tracks and loitering Gestapo. Every mission required ice cool bravery and nerves of steel. |
Lysander Pick Up by Graeme Lothian. A Lysander of 161 Squadron from RAF Tempsford banks to port as it circles a field somewhere in France 1943. These missions only took place on or around the full moon period to pick up or drop off SOE agents with the help of the Resistance. 161 Squadron, the most secret of all RAF squadrons, had in its flight, Lysanders, Hudsons, and Halifaxes which carried out parachute operations. Two of 161s top pilots Hugh Verity and Lewis Hodges both received the DSO & bar and DFC & bar, and from France the Legion dHonneur and the Croix de Guerre. |
Black Lizzie by Ivan Berryman. Entering service with the RAF in June 1938, the Westland Lysander was to prove invaluable in its role of transporting SOE agents on clandestine missions during World War II. 1,652 Lysanders were built and they were the first British aircraft to be based in France at the outbreak of the war and the last to see action there during the evacuation of Dunkirk. The example shown is of 161 Sqn based at Tempsford. |
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