Westland Lysander IIIA, G-AZWT, is 'equipped' as a (Special Duties) version of the aircraft and appears in the markings and colours of Lysander V9367, MA-B, of 161 Squadron (Special Duties, Royal Air Force during 1942 and 1943. These colours were that of the aircraft flown by Pilot Officer Peter Vaughan-Fowler from RAF Tempsford, on operation Apollo on the night of 25/26th November 1942. his mission was to Thalamy field, east of Ussel in Corrèze départment , France, to rescue three police inspectors (Xavier Piani, Mathiu Rutali and Reverbel), who had helped in the escape of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade. Marie-Madeleine had been running a group concentrating on obtaining intelligence information about the German armed forces and sending it to Britain from May 1941. Betrayed by a double agent wireless operator who had been sent to France from Britain in August 1941, Marie-Madeleine was arrested by the Gestapo. Having escaped, Marie-Madeleine concentrated on helping to develop a network for returning shot down airmen to Britain. During early July 1943 it was decided that it was too dangerous for Marie-Madeleine (alias “Hedgehog”) to remain in France so on the 17th July an RAF Lysander from 161 Squadron piloted by Pilot Officer Peter Vaughan-Fowler landed at Oise, France, on operation Renoir. Marie-Madeleine and 2 airmen (Lucien Poulard and Andre Liess) embarked while 3 agents disembarked (George Lamarque alias Pétrel, Pierre Bocher and Michel Gaveau alias Tatou). In England Marie-Madeleine continued to run the network from a house in Chelsea. On the 5th July 1944 Marie-Madeleine together with 7 other passengers returned to France in a 161 Squadron Lockheed Hudson. Unfortunately Marie-Madeleine was soon captured by the Gestapo but once again managed to escape and get back to Allied lines. Sadly 438 members of Marie-Madeleine's network were executed during the war. Marie-Madeleine Fourcade died on the 20th July 1989. The original aircraft coded V9367 was destroyed in the early hours of 17 December 1943 whilst returning to RAF Tangmere from an SOE agent pick up in France. The aircraft was being flown by 25 year old F/O James McAllister McBride (113888) RAFVR and was returning with two agents collected from France as part of Operation Diable. Due to extreme fog blanketing the whole of the South of England, there were no alternative airfields available. F/O McBride made a number of attempts at a landing guided by radio transmissions, but crashed on approach to the airfield. Sadly he died after becoming trapped in the burning wreckage of the aircraft. His two passengers survived. The aircraft was written off. a second Lysander, engaged on the same operation, crashed into a nearby hillside attempting to land at nearby Ford Aerodrome, killing 28 year old pilot Flt. Lt. Stephen Hankey and his two agent passengers. On the same night, 4 Halifax Bombers also returning from France on Special Duties Operations, were also lost due to the severe fog, resulting in the death of 13 other aircrew. The aircraft is owned and operated by the Shuttleworth Collection, from their base at Old Warden in Bedfordshire. The aircrafts true identity is serial Y1536 serial number 2355 built by Westlands in 1942, when it was sent to Canada as a target tug for the Royal Canadian Air Force as part of the Commonwealth Air Training plan. Post WWII it was sold to a Canadian collector and then, in 1971, went to the Strathallan Collection in Scotland where it was restored to flying condition by late 1979. Grounded in 1986 it was stored, then went Duxford in 1997 for restoration. It was purchased by the Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society and joined the Shuttleworth Collection in 1998. During autumn 1999, helped by a donation from the family of Peter Vaughan Fowler who had flown with 161 Squadron on Lysander operations during World War II, it was repainted in black overall with the markings of his aircraft, bearing the serial V9367. A fixed ladder was installed to allow rapid access to the rear cockpit – as fitted to facilitate picking up agents; a dummy 150 gallon long range fuel tank was attached below the fuselage. In this configuration the Lysander III S.D. (Special Duties) was employed by No. 161 RAF Squadron on clandestine night flying operations from RAF Tempsford and Tangmere between 1942 and 1945. Video and Audio content is Copyright © High Flight This video and audio material may not be reproduced in any form (except as the videos Youtube embedded video option on any other website), without written permission.

• published: 15 Jan 2020
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