page_title: Haddock Force
section_title: 11–17 June
hierarchical_section_title: Haddock Force / Operations / 11–17 June
caption_attribution_description: English: IWM caption&#160;: Whitley Mark V, T4162 'DY-S' "Ceylon", of No. 102 Squadron RAF, on the ground at Topcliffe, Yorkshire. It failed to return from a bombing raid on Cologne on the night of 1/2 March 1941.
context_page_description: Haddock Force was the name given to a number of Royal Air Force bombers dispatched to airfields in southern France to bomb northern Italian industrial targets, once Italy declared war, which was thought to be imminent. Italy entered the Second World War on 10 June and the plan was put into effect but at first, the local French authorities prevented the RAF Vickers Wellington bombers from taking off. Whitleys flying from England via the Channel Islands made the first raid on the night of 11/12 June 1940.
  After negotiations between the French and British governments and directives from Paris to the authorities in the south of France, the Wellingtons flew back. Operations commenced on the night of 14/15 June but all but one of the eight bombers returned without bombing due to bad weather. Eight Wellington crews tried again the next night and six claimed to have bombed Milan; the raid was the last by RAF Bomber Command from French bases until 1944.
context_section_description: Italy declared war at midnight on 10 June 1940 and a detachment of Wellingtons from 99 Squadron, part of 3 Group, RAF Bomber Command, left England for France and arrived at Salon at 15:30 hours on 11 June. French fighters based near the Italian border had been sent north against the Luftwaffe and despite the agreement to attack Italy, the French civilian authorities decided that bombing Italy would provoke attacks on the huge petrol dumps on the Étang de Berre, 25 km (16 mi) north-west of Marseille; retaliation against civilians could only fall on French cities and was to be avoided.
  General Jean Laurens, the commander of Zone d'opérations aériennes des Alpes (ZOAA) asserted that the French government opposed the raid and refused to allow the attack from bases under his command. While the bombers were refuelling, the force commander, Group Captain R. M. Field, received a telephone call from the commander of the local French bomber group, who told him that Italian targets were not to be attacked. Shortly afterwards, Field received orders from the Air Ministry in London that the aircraft should take off as planned. There was a flurry of telephone calls from various French authorities, culminating in a call at 9:45 p.m. from the Commander in Chief of the French Air Force, (général d'armée aérienne) Joseph Vuillemin to the headquarters of British Air Forces in France (BAAF, Air Marshal Arthur Barratt).
  Field followed the orders from the Air Ministry in Britain and those from Barratt in the evening. Around 0:30 a.m. as the first Wellington taxied into position for take-off, French troops blocked the runway with a line of lorries and carts; Field had no choice but to abort the mission and most of the Wellingtons returned to England the next day. On the evening of 11 June, the British diplomatic representatives in France heard that the French had stopped the British bombers from taking off from Salon and after strong protests Paul Reynaud, the French prime minister, agreed to order the French authorities to co-operate.
  From England, 4 Group sent 36 Whitleys from 10 Squadron, 51 Squadron, 58 Squadron, 77 Squadron and 102 Squadron. The Whitleys refuelled at the advanced bases on Jersey and Guernsey and flew to Italy. Severe storms and icing caused the majority of the aircraft to turn back and only 13 reached their targets at Turin and Genoa; two aircraft failed to return. Several bombers hit Geneva and Lausanne in Switzerland, 115 mi (185 km) from their targets, killing four civilians and wounding another eighty. After representations by both governments, the French authorities finally consented to raids on Italy after Toulon was bombed; six Wellingtons each from 99 Squadron and 149 Squadron returned to the south of France. Eight aircraft left on the evening of 15 June to bomb the Ansaldo works at Genoa. Thunderstorms made navigation difficult; only one aircraft arrived over the target and the rest returned with their bombs. The following night, another attempt was made by nine Wellingtons but only five reached their objective. The French armistice negotiations prevented further operations; British bombers did not fly from France again until 1944.
caption: A Whitley Mark V bomber of 102 Squadron.
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