In the light these failures, it was decided that no matter how important the operation might be, it had to be carried out by volunteers. This was the opinion of Air-Marshal A.S.Barratt. The appeal went to the men of 12 Squadron, the “Dirty Dozen”, and all stepped forward. This time six Fairey Battle “Sitting Ducks” would be sent in two flights of three aircraft. The pilots received the same orders as had the Belgian and British crews previously: drop bombs on the bridges, this time 100 kg bombs.

One aircraft dropped out with a mechanical problem, and so five Fairey Battles took off from Amifontaine towards 0930 hrs on 12 May. They met their Hurricane escort at the moment when the bombers of 15 and 107 Squadrons were attacking the bridges. The RAF fighters, which had taken off from Wassincourt, were intercepted by the Luftwaffe near Liège. Two Hurricanes were shot down, both pilots parachuting to earth safely. Meanwhile the five bombers had reached the Albert Canal zone. There was only scattered cloud over the region and the 20-mm flak saw their targets early.

The RAF Fairey Battle Attack on Vroenhoven Bridge

Flying Officer Thomas led the two machines of the second wave (his own, P2332 PH-F and Davy’s L5241 PH-G) towards Vroenhoven, where he dived from an altitude of 1,800 metres on the bridge. Because of the intense flak he had difficulty in bombing. Although one bomb exploded on the west bank very near the bridge there was little damage. His engine was hit and Thomas was forced to put down three kilometres away where he and his two crew, Sgt Carey and the pilot Campion, were taken prisoner.

Davy’s bomber was hit by flak, with the left wing burning Davy struggled to drop his bombload which missed Vroenhoven bridge. Because of the state of the aircraft, he ordered his crew to bale out, both being captured on the ground, although later Sgt Mansell escaped and reached the French lines. The Canadian, Patterson, broke a bone in his left foot on landing and allegedly became the first Canadian to be taken prisoner in the war⁶. Davy managed to fly the machine to the French border and made a successful emergency landing at Amifontaine.