By Rene' Londoz, Belgium

     During World War II the OSS/SOE in London provided coded messages for the various Resistance Groups in the occupied countries designed to mislead the German listening stations. Our group in the Belgian Secret Army was given the code name “Quarion” and would be used during months containing 31days. Our messages would be negative, such as “The artichoke has no generous heart” for drop zone A and “The beet does not improve the salad” for drop zone B. During the other months with less than 31 days our code name was “Quebec” and the messages would be positive, such as “The artichoke has a generous heart” for drop zone A and “The beet does improve the salad” for drop zone B.

     Indeed it was on the night of May 28/29, 1944 we received a coded, message from the Belgian Information Service on the London BBC at 7:15 p.m. The message was in French. We received the first message, “Messages for Quarion”, our organization code name for May. The next two messages received were “Artichoke has no generous heart”, representing drop zone A. The second message was “The Beet does not improves the salad” for drop zone B. These secret messages informed us that supplies, arms and explosives would be dropped on field A for “Artichoke” and field B for “Beet”.

     The two crews to fly this mission were the William G. McKee crew and the Ernest Beaumont Fitzpatrick, Jr. crew. They were from the 801 Bomb Gp., stationed at Harrington, England. This Bomb Gp. was called the “Carpetbaggers”. Instead of dropping bombs, their mission was normally to transport supplies to for the Resistance Organizations. Occasionally they would transport and drop secret agents to assist the resistance forces. They flew at night in the light of the moon. Their planes consisted of older models of the B-24 without a nose turret. The crew consisted of only eight men where the regular bomber crews consisted of 9 to 10 men. The supplies were in round containers in the bomb bay. Each mission was flown at tree top level. The closer the flak, the lower they flew to over come the radar and the fighters.

     The McKee crew was assigned field A and the Fitzpatrick crew was assigned field B. The McKee crew arrived first on what they thought was signal A. Unfortunately it was signal B flashed by our resistance group. The McKee B-24 dropped their load and returned to their base in England. Then the Fitzpatrick crew arrived a little later and saw signal A flashed by the resistance but could not find signal B. The resistance proceeded to gather the supplies dropped by mistake in field B thinking it was the supplies intended for them and withdrew their signal. The Fitzpatrick crew began circling higher trying to locate the B signal. After flying around for 45 minutes they returned to their base without dropping their load of supplies. In the meantime, the Germans discovered the suspicious activity from German watchtowers at three Luftwaffe aerodromes. They immediately sent out motorcycle patrols to investigate. The resistance team for field B loaded their supplies on their horse-drawn wagon and proceeded on their way to their hiding place. The team leader instructed a man on a bicycle to ride 2 to 3 hundred meters in front and one on a bicycle in the rear at the same distance. Each was also instructed to sound his bell if danger appeared. The bicyclist in front soon ran into the sound of the German motorcycle patrol as he was following a turn in the road. He rang his bell franticly warning his comrades not far behind. The Secret Army guides then set a trap for the oncoming patrol. They opened fire killing two Germans and wounded another. The rest of the German patrol turned back. The Secret Army added three more weapons to their arsenal from the dead and wounded Germans. They soon arrived at their secret hiding place safely with the new supplies.

     The next day the Germans organized a very strong search of the area but could not find anything. However all the German units were put on alert. Fitzpatrick reported to his commander that he was not able to find the B signal and returned with the supplies. This resulted in a reprimand by his commanding officer and he was given instructions to return the next night to drop zone B find the signal and drop the supplies.

     London again sent out the “Message for Quarion”; “The Beet does not improve the salad”. The commanding officer of the Secret Army gave instructions to his wireless operator to notify London to cancel the scheduled mission in view of the German alert. He sent three observers to be on the site for the whole night. For some reason the message to cancel the mission was never received or acted on by London.

     On May 30, 1944 Fitzpatrick flew with his crew of 8 members plus a training navigator into a German ambush. Arriving at the location and not seeing the signal he again circled high and higher trying to find the signal. The higher he flew the more he was exposed to the danger of enemy night fighters. Three German fighter pilots were waiting for the unsuspecting carpetbagger crew at three different Luftwaffe aerodromes. A German pilot by the name of Charles Kern in his JU-88 saw the B-24. Bill Schack, the tail gunner, saw the German fighter first, but was not allowed to fire his guns until the mission was completed or before the enemy had opened fire. The German fighter Pilot, Charles Kern, opened fire first and hit the right wing of the Liberator causing it to catch fire, stopping two engines. Fitzpatrick went ahead and dropped the supplies at a clearing he thought was the drop zone. Indeed the containers dropped very near the B Field, but due to the altitude they were flying, the containers drifted over a much larger area than expected. Orders were then given to bail out. All the crew parachuted safely. My men located Bill Schack, Walter Swartz, Joseph Lasicki and Ernest Fitzpatrick. They were hidden in separate homes for two to three weeks maximum before being moved again to avoid the danger of being located by the Germans. Our group preferred this solution rather than the “Marathon Camps” in the Ardennes. For Fitzpatrick and Swartz this proved to be a good solution as they were liberated in September 1944. It was not so favorable a solution for Schack and Lasicki. During a transfer to another hiding place they were captured and were liberated by the advancing Russians in May 1945. Another Secret Army group found Richard Thiriot, Paul Kasza and James Sherwood. They successfully evaded and were liberated in September 1944. Two others Cornell DeGrothy and Williams declined our help and wanted to be on their own. Their efforts to evade were unsuccessful and they were captured and sent to German POW camps. They were liberated in May 1945.

     It is amazing how a small mistake, either on the ground with a bad, flashing signal B or in the plane having misread the signal, lead to an accident that could have been much worse.

     A search was made and we found Charles Kern, the German Ju-88 pilot. Fifty years later Charles Kern, Bill Schack and Walter Swartz gathered at my home in Genval, Belgium and spent the day, May 30, 1994 celebrating together. We had a great time talking about our mutual adventures.

     Figure 1 Lt-Rt Bill Schack, Walter Swartz, Charles Kern & Rene' Londoz