Pilots of No.161 (Special Duties) Squadron RAF standing in the garden of ‘The Cottage’ at Tangmere in West Sussex. February 1943.
They are (left to right): Flying Officer James A. McCairns, Squadron Leader Hugh Verity, Group Captain Percy Charles “Pick” Pickard (Squadron Commander), Flight Lieutenant Peter Vaughan-Fowler and Flying Officer Frank “Bunny” Rymills.
In front of Pickard sits his sheepdog ‘Ming’, and to the right, Rymill’s spaniel ‘Henry’.
Also a pic of them all standing in front of Verity’s Westland Lysander Mk III ‘Jiminy Cricket’ MA-F
The squadron was a highly secretive unit of the RAF, which, together with 138 Squadron, was tasked with missions of the Special Operations Executive during the war. Their primary role was to drop and collect secret agents and equipment into and from Nazi-occupied Europe. The squadron had a secondary role in acting as the King’s Flight.
Charles Pickard, was KIA 18/2/44 and James McCairns died in a flying accident 15/6/48, the others lived on after the war.
Image: IWM (HU 60542)