Operation Jericho

OPERATION JERICHO

BBC2

How on earth could telly manage without the Second World War?

Over the weekend, on terrestrial and Freeview channels alone, I counted no fewer than 22 dramas, documentaries, films and comedies based on what some old soldiers still refer to as The Last Lot.

Meanwhile the Yesterday channel is showing yet another repeat of the excellent World at War, twice nightly.

It all adds up to dozens of hours of WW2 viewing every week, plus Downton Abbey (ITV1) for those who prefer the First World War.

The fascination with 1939-45 shows no sign of fading especially when, with the passing of time, old versions of events can be challenged.

That's what Martin Shaw, actor and aviator, did in this re-telling of Operation Jericho.

For years we believed this low-level raid by Mosquito bombers was designed to flatten the walls of Amiens prison, releasing dozens of members of the French Resistance, some of whom were about to be executed. .

The freed prisoners would then plan acts of sabotage to coincide with D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy of June 6, 1944.

But even before the war was over, the motives for this precision attack were being questioned, not least by the people of Amiens, hurt and astonished that their neighbours had been killed by the English.

Of the 700 Resistance members in the jail, 100 were killed by RAF bombs and most of those who escaped were rounded up later. It emerged that none of them was due to be executed.

Rumours began to spread. A local resident said she had heard the Amiens raid was designed to release just two important prisoners. A French soldier said he had been told that a senior RAF prisoner-of-war in the prison had crucial information about D-Day which the Germans could not be allowed to discover.

Shaw recreated the flight from England to Amiens at wave-top level, navigating in a twin-engine plane flown by an ex-RAF officer.

Shaw suggested the attack might have been part of the grand deception to make the Germans believe D-Day would take place in the Calais area, not in Normandy.

There appears to be no official documents on who ordered the raid. There was rivalry between MI6 and the newly formed Special Operations Executive. A later letter suggested MI6 had requested the attack but the chain of command was unclear.

Despite much digging, Shaw came up with nothing more than speculation.

Perhaps the problem is that, in a time of peace, we expect clear-cut answers to everything. But in combat, the fog of war is everywhere.

It is perfectly possible that there was no conspiracy and no ulterior motive and that the RAF were asked to carry out the mission on intelligence that later proved to be wrong.

It happens all the time in war and if you doubt that, speak to any poor squaddie who fought at Arnhem or who was bombed by his own side on the bloody road to Caen.

What cannot be questioned is the courage of the young men who took part in this and other operations.

And how young they were.With his pipe and weary eyes, Group Captain Charles Pickard who led Operation Jericho and was killed on the return leg, looks middle-aged.

He was just 28.

By Peter Rhodes