Expedition

Expedition ”Easy Elsie” 16th-17th june 2012 with call sign SE2EE

After reading a lot about the British Lancaster bomber “Easy Elsie” which crashed October 29, 1944, at Porjus, I thought that this could be an interesting target to visit and to operate radio from.
Much information was found on the web to read, among other things from Wikipedia and movies from YouTube. It was very interesting to read the story of the Lancaster bombers, its crew and their mission. There are several interesting videos on Youtube from BBC to look at.

The assignment for the “Easy Elsie” and the 617: squadron was to lower German battleship Tirpitz , which was located in Tromso bay. The name of operation was “ Operation Obviate”. Unfortunately, the task failed because in the last moment before the attack on the Tirpitz, low clouds drew over the Tirpitz and covered her completely, Tirpitz was not in the sight for the bombardiers in the lancasters . They released their “Tallboy”, and took a chance that you would get a hit, but none of the group's bombs hit the Tirpitz.

The crew of Easy Elsie tried to fly under the clouds to see the Tirpitz, which also meant she could be seen from the battleship. “Easy Elsie” was hit so badly that one engine is knocked out, and large holes in the wings did that fuel was leaking out at a rapid pace, even some hydraulic disappeared and made the plane difficult to fly.
The radio was also hit and damaged so the wireless operator could not communicate with the other Lancaster’s or the base in Lossiemouth.

They could not communicate about where they would fly and how injured they were. Later on the “Easy Elsie” was reported MIA when the rest of the squadron came safely back to base.

The pilot on Easy Elsie, Daniel.W Carey took aim at what he thought would be Sweden, after a discussion with his navigator Alexander. McKie.

If they could land safely in Sweden they where coming to a neutral country and be able to be cared for there.
After losing most of the fuel they saw a suitable place to land, but they needed lighten the load on the plane before landing. The crew threw out everything that was loose inside the plane. They also threw out all the weapons, machine guns, etc.., to reduce weight.

They have found equipment that was thrown from the plane but there is still equipment left out on the bog in Porjus .... Somewhere

As a radio amateur, it's always fun trying to find something interesting and exciting to do.

It should be fun to do this special "event", to operate short-wave radio and try to make contact with any of the RAF bases or the museums in England, since no others has been transmitting on HF bands from here, after her crash, 29 October 1944, 11.50 am.

Hope to hear you on the short wave bands, from Lancaster "Easy Elsie", in Porjus, the 16th-17th juni 2012!

Best regards from SM2TOS with crew