Walking in the footsteps of my war hero great-grandfather

Having survived the devastating crash that cost his crew their lives during a secret wartime mission, Frank Griffiths spent months on the run. Eight decades later, his great-grandson retraced his journey to meet the descendants of those who helped him

- By Adam Hart

IT IS three weeks before the Allied invasion of Italy and a Halifax bomber is surging down a runway and lifting off into a darkening sky from a top-secret RAF airfield in Bedfordshire. Seven young airmen are on board. Their mission, codenamed Operation Pimento, involves parachuting vital war materiel to members of the Resistance deep in the French Alps.

The Allies have taken Sicily and a full-scale invasion of Italy is due in three weeks’ time. The French guerrillas need the heavy explosives aboard the Halifax in order to sabotage the German counter-offensive that is expected to follow. Failure could prolong the war.

Flying low and by moonlight, the huge four-engined bomber arrives at the drop zone near Annecy in south-eastern France at around 3am, but the crew can’t spot their reception party’s torchlights. The skipper circles the valley, perilously low. Snowcapped mountains loom either side of the aircraft and church spires whizz past. No lights flicker.

Just as the captain is thinking about aborting the mission, the aircraft shudders violently and the outer starboard engine conks out. Over the intercom, he orders the crew to jettison their load before telling the flight engineer to switch over the fuel tanks. But moments later, the inner starboard engine splutters and dies too, locking the Halifax in a permanent, downward turn. What little altitude the aircraft had begins to dwindle.

The pilot orders the crew to crash stations, but already buildings are rushing up towards the Halifax, their tiles twinkling in the moonlight. He wracks his mind for a solution as the engines roar in protest and the smell of burning petrol fills the cockpit. The Halifax’s starboard wing clips a house, demolishing its upper half and setting it on fire. The fuselage slams into another building, killing six of the seven airmen instantly. Petrol in the fuel tanks catches fire and explodes, burning ferociously.