Don Atkins and 148 (SD) Squadron Halifax, Brindisi 1944/45 (source: Pat Atkins)
The Atkins Crew, Sept 1944 - May 1945
Don Atkins came from Brighton, the second of six children and one of three brothers who served in the war. At the age of 17 in January 1940 Don travelled to Uxbridge to volunteer as aircrew in the RAFVR, and was put on deferred service until December 1941. Then, after his initial training, he was sent to the USA as part of Draft 4496 of the Towers Scheme. Under this arrangement the US Navy trained RAF and Fleet Air Arm pilots, and it seems that initially Don was destined for Coastal Command, if he survived the notoriously rigorous USN training programme (and the almost-equally-notorious night life) at Pensacola, Florida. In May 1943 he successfully passed out with the rank of Flight Sergeant and, as was the tradition on the Towers Scheme, received both his RAF wings and the gold wings of a US Navy aviator.
Back in the UK Don successfully continued his pilot training: No6 (P)AFU, and then No12 OTU where he crewed-up with a navigator, Australian W.A. Belson DFC; an air-bomber, E.F. Lock; a wireless operator/air gunner, D. Sullivan, and a rear gunner, J.Sharples. Together, they learned to fly Wellingtons in operational conditions. In May 1944 they converted to the Short Stirling four-engined bomber, picking up a flight engineer, J. Allcock, and a mid-upper gunner, B. A. Lawler. At the end of July 1944, they flew to Blida in Algeria to join 624 (Special Duties) Squadron, which was employed dropping supplies and personnel (‘Joes’) to the Resistance in southern France. The sprog Atkins crew successfully flew their first operation, CARACOLE, on the night of 30/31 August, but the war in France had moved north and the squadron was disbanded. Along with nine other crews they were transferred in September to 148 (SD) Squadron of the Balkan Air Force based at Brindisi, Italy. It was with 148 that the Atkins crew would fly the remainder of their 36 operations together.
At this time, 148 Sqdn was rebuilding after the terrible losses incurred supplying the doomed Warsaw Rising, and the Stirling crew were converted to Halifaxes – Don by the late W/O Larry Toft, DFM, a nearly time-expired veteran of bomber operations and a Special Duties tour. On 25 October the Atkins crew flew their first operation in this theatre, successfully dropping supplies to the Special Operations Executive mission LAPWORTH, in northern Greece. Operations were mostly daylight drops into Yugoslavia and northern Italy, usually involving pinpoint navigation and extremely dangerous low-level flying up mountain valleys in poor weather, vulnerable to weather, flak and even small arms fire from the ground. The strain on crews was intense and they became tight-knit ‘families’, particularly as the conditions of secrecy surrounding their work meant they were typically briefed separately. They mostly socialised as a crew too, unlike the more gregarious stereotype of, say, Bomber Command. In March 1945 William Belson was moved to another crew and replaced as navigator by another Australian, A.S. Allen.
Two night operations flown by the Atkins crew stand out as particularly noteworthy, and illustrate the role of the Special Duties squadrons in keeping up the pressure on the German southern flank at this crucial stage of the war. On the night of 23/24 March 1945 for operation ELECTRA they flew to Horn in southern Austria and dropped a secret agent equipped with a wireless set and instructions to contact the underground resistance in Vienna (though nothing was ever heard from the agent again). And on the night of 05/06 April 1945, having had to abort the night before when the port inner engine failed, they flew a Halifax MkV with a jeep slung in its bomb bay and protruding beneath the fuselage, a feat of great skill and danger. This was dropped along with two ‘Joes’ to reinforce the celebrated SAS operation TOMBOLA, an attack carried out with partisan support on the German HQ above Reggio Emilia.
By VE Day the Atkins crew, like every other 148 crew, had had its share of hairy moments - thankfully all came through the war alive, however. Within two weeks, though, they were unceremoniously scattered to the winds, with Don transferred to fly with a conventional bomber squadron, No 37, and rest of the crew reassigned. It must have been a difficult time for them, after all their collective efforts in the service, and doesn’t seem a fitting reward somehow. Don served with 37 Sqdn in Italy, Palestine and Egypt, but a reading of the squadron records for the time makes it clear it was a period mainly characterised by boredom, discomfort and frustration, and no doubt Don - never one to sit on his hands - was glad to be demobbed in 1946, with the rank of Flying Officer. On his return to civilian life Don married and raised a family in Brighton; he died aged 42 in 1966. It is not known if he ever had any contact with the rest of his crew.