On the night
of 24 February 1944 P/O Snape and F/L Fowler took off from
their base at West Raynham on a so-called
Serrate Patrol. These were Mosquito night
fighters with the newly developed Serrate
radar. The Germans
used the Liechtenstein radar to home in on
British bombers. The Serrate radar was able
to pick up the German radar from 100 miles
distance. This gave the British a great
advantage over the Germans.
141 Squadron
started operations with the Serrate equipped
Mosquito on 13 December 1943. At this time
the squadron still operated the Beaufighter
next to the mosquito. The Beaufighters were to be fased
out quickly, however. A typical mission for
a mosquito would be to fly
to a German operational/assembly area, where
the German night fighters would wait until
directed to a British bomber. Serrate
patrols were meant to pre-empt the Germans,
home in on them when they had their own
radar systems on, to track the bombers, and
shoot them down.
On 24 February
1944, 12 such patrols were sent out. The main
attack of Bomber Command was aimed at Schweinfurt in
Germany. A diversionary
attack was also flown. Aircraft of
Operational Training Units were tasked to
fly towards Denmark to entice the Luftwaffe
to come up and attack these planes. Over the
North Sea these O.T.U. planes would then
turn back. To protect this force,
141 squadron sent out five Mosquito's.
P/O Desmon
Snape took off in Mosquito HJ943 at 17.58
from their base West Raynham. The flight
and patrol over the North Sea and near Helgioland was uneventful. There was no
contact with enemy planes. P/O Snape
turned around and flew back. Then F/L Fowler got
a contact on his radar; a German plane
flying over sea towards Germany. After about
five minutes, P/O Snape finally saw the
German plane visually and maneuvered to get
into position to fire. Right at the moment
when he wanted to fire his guns, his plane
lost power in one of its engines, which
completely gave up a few moments later.
P/O Snape
turned the plane around and wanted to fly
the shortest possible route back to England.
Not long after, they made landfall over
The Netherlands. In the
meantime they had lost a lot of height; from
12.000 feet to 6.000 feet. The second engine
now also started to stutter and the plane
started to receive fire from the ground. P/O Snape ordered F/L Fowler to bail out of the
plane that could now crash at any time.
Desmon Snape followed him shortly but was
already too close to the ground for his
parachute to open completely.
Their
mosquito crashed at 21.48 near a farmhouse
near Garrelsweer.
P/O Snape is buried in Loppersum. He was 20 years
old.
P/O Snape's
mosquito was the only one to crash
this night. It was the first loss of the
Serrate mosquito's since they had come over
from Fighter Command to Bomber Command.
P/O Desmon
Snape (left) and his navigator F/L Ian
Fowler
(picture Mr. Snape via Ab A. Jansen in
Gevleugeld Verleden, pg425 - used by
permission)
(Picture by
Wim Bastiaanse)
His Duty
Fearlessly
And Nobly Done
Ever Remembered