Operation Caravan - The Airfield Attack

The Airfield Attack

To get to the airfield, which was to the north of Barce, T1 patrol skirted the eastern side of the town using the main road. They were passed by one Italian motorised unit with which friendly greetings were exchanged. As the unit approached the airfield Captain Wilder left his commander's jeep because he wanted to drive his old vehicle Tutira III; the others manning the truck were Troopers Parker and Holland. Near the airfield entrance the patrol was challenged by several sentries who were shot down; on reaching the airfield gates they were found to be shut but unlocked. Wilder opened the gates and the trucks drove through onto the airfield. The first target encountered was a truck and trailer unit carrying 52 cans of aviation fuel. Machine gun fire turned this into a fireball which illuminated much of the airfield, making it easier for the unit to find their way around.

Although the Italians were expecting an attack, they did not believe that it would be possible to do so from vehicles coming from the main road. Instead, they had been preparing to counter foot-soldiers attacking from the south. As a consequence T1 patrol were able to mount their attack with little opposition. The next target was the concrete administration building which also housed the mess and barracks. Grenades were thrown through the windows, which started a blaze inside. A hangar and other buildings, as well as some motorised transport, were shot-up and a petrol dump of 44-gallon drums was destroyed.

On the airfield proper T1 patrol headed clockwise in single file, shooting at parked bombers with a combination of tracer, incendiary and explosive ammunition. The firepower used by T1 Patrol was three pairs of .303 cal air-cooled Brownings, two .50 cal Vickers heavy machine guns and twinned and single.303 cal Vickers Ks, all of which used swivel mountings either in the back tray of the truck or on the passenger's doorpost. In addition to this firepower Corporal Merlyn Craw of T1 patrol had devised a small incendiary time-bomb made out of "Nobel's Gelignite" (also known as "808"). Craw and Yealands were in the last vehicle in the column, Te Paki III, which had a box full of the bombs. As they came to an aircraft which was not already burning the two men jumped off and ran to each aircraft, placing a bomb on top of a wing, above the fuel tanks. Corporal Craw started the fuse going and both men then had to dive to the ground as the aircraft exploded in flames. Merlyn Craw:

I started off with 13 bombs and I had got rid of 11 of them. Despite what was going on all around me I was too busy doing my job to worry about fear...Of the two bombs left, one had a broken safety fuse. So we joined them together and placed them on a small single-engined plane ...the small plane was blown to bits!

At least ten aircraft were destroyed in this way; Craw and Yealands escaped entirely unscathed.

Although T1 patrol spent about an hour on the airfield, none of the New Zealanders had been hit and none of their vehicles had been put out of action. The LRDG drivers were skilled at manoeuvering at high speed, thus making their vehicles difficult targets, while at the same time the gunners were capable of keeping up an accurate and heavy concentration of fire. Another possible factor in the lack of damage to the unit was that the numerous anti-aircraft guns defending the airfield had been unable to fire horizontally along the ground.

An after-action report written by Captain Wilder observed that the Italians were;

...waiting for us, but they seemed to be very panicky and their fire was very wild.

Based on Wilder's report it was thought that T1 patrol had destroyed or damaged 32 aircraft, mainly bombers. Official Italian figures quote 16 aircraft destroyed and seven damaged.