Operation Aphrodite

[APG85]

Some interesting stuff here. If I remember correctly, there were pieces of Joe Kennedy's B-24 in the Tower at the airfied at Framlingham...

http://www.orwelltoday.com/jfkbrother.shtml

[Matt Gunsch]

What I can't understand is how a family that can have 2 heros in WWII, both in the Navy, one died in Europe, and the other swam many miles while pulling a injured crew member with his teeth, could have a worthless POS like ted kennedy in the same family........

[hang the expense]

Matt they are going to get you for that remark.When you start taking flak you know your over the target.

[ACarey]

Some interesting stuff here. If I remember correctly, there were pieces of Joe Kennedy's B-24 in the Tower at the airfied at Framlingham...

http://www.orwelltoday.com/jfkbrother.shtml

What a dramatic story that sounds a movie script. He started out with VB-110 as a PPC and flew ASW missions and didn't see much action. A couple of vets on his crew didn't like him. One time he climbed into a jeep after a flight and left his crew out on the tarmac in freezing weather.

[APG85]

When I was stationed at RAF Woodbridge in the late 1980's, I had heard stories about the Op. I'd like to read more about it...

[ACarey]

It was really Project Anvil

[APG85]

Thanks, Project Anvil turned up this:

http://www.aviationmuseum.net/Joe_Kennedy.htm

[ACarey]

Thanks, Project Anvil turned up this:

http://www.aviationmuseum.net/Joe_Kennedy.htm

I wrote about it in a book and Dogfights did a story on Anvil.

[RandolphB]

There was also a made for TV movie about Joe. I think it had a B-25 in it instead of a B-24. I think that plane ended up with the Esso Tiger on the side of it...?

[Jerry O'Neill]

There was also a made for TV movie about Joe. I think it had a B-25 in it instead of a B-24. I think that plane ended up with the Esso Tiger on the side of it...?

They actually used Tallichet's B-24 "Delectable Doris".
The B-25 was used as the drone controller.
Mira Slovak also flew a W.A.R. replica FW-190 for the tV film.
Jerry

[Jack Cook]

Read the book Aphrodite Desperate Mission.

[Wilson]

I was watching the evening news several nights ago when they said Edward Kennedy would be buried next to his two brothers. I immediately thought "no, three" since Joe Jr., as a Navy Cross recipient, would certainly be buried at Arlington. I was surprised to find that no remains were recovered, even though the explosion was over land.

I stumbled into the following eyewitness report that I found very interesting.


The early evening of 12th August 1944 was typical of late summer, calm and warm after a very hot day. The air was filled with pleasant smells of harvest, and fields swaying with golden corn or with regimented rows of already cut sheaves. The sky hazy blue but cloudless. In the stillness, staccato sounds of Packard Merlin engines being ground-run on Mustang fighters of the 357th Fighter Group USAAF at nearby Leiston airfield could just be heard. As I played with my elder brother Peter in the garden of our house at Dresser's Cottage, Darsham, we heard a deeper drone approaching from the south. Although not yet ten, I was already fascinated by aircraft. I had amassed a collection of recognition material from the local Royal Observer Corps. As the noise grew louder I was very excited to see a loose formation of aircraft led by a Liberator bomber passing close to the east, on a northerly heading.

I immediately attempted to identify the accompanying types and listed two Hudsons (actually their larger brother - Venturas), two Lightnings, two Flying Fortresses, and a Mosquito. Several local Mustangs flew at a discreet distance. As this unique assembly passed by at about 1,500 ft, a thin trail of smoke was discernible coming from the rear of the Liberator's weapons bay. Then I watched in horror as the lead aircraft exploded in a huge fireball. I vividly remember seeing burning wreckage falling earthwards while engines with propellers still turning, and leaving comet-like trails of smoke, continued along the direction of flight before plummeting down. A Ventura broke high to starboard and a Lightning spun away to port eventually to regain control at tree-top height over Blythburgh Hospital. While I watched spellbound, a terrific explosion reached Dresser's Cottage in the form of a loud double thunderclap. Then all was quiet except for the drone of the circling Venturas' engines, as they remained for a few more minutes in the vicinity. The fireball changed to an enormous black pall of smoke resembling a huge octopus, the tentacles below indicating the earthward paths of burning fragments.

The explosion had occurred directly above my grandparents' house near New Delight Covert, Blythburgh Fen, and wreckage was strewn over a wide area. There were no casualties on the ground but damage to property was widespread. Grandfather listed 'roof tiles dislodged, all ceilings down, walls cracked, glass blown out of windows'. Similar damage occurred at a second cottage nearby and at Aunt Ada Westgate's Shepherd's Cottage one mile north-east of the datum point. A visit to the crash site next morning showed that most of the lighter wreckage had fallen directly below the point of detonation, where a fierce fire had burnt a large area of heathland. The heavier engines, propellers, and main undercarriage assemblies were found over a mile to the north. A poignant reminder that lives had been lost was provided by the tattered fragments of parachute silk and cord entwined amongst brambles bordering the B1125 Westleton to Blythburgh road.

Then, I had no idea what caused the disaster or the number of crew members involved. I assumed that it had been carrying the ten persons usual for USAAF Liberators, unaware that the doomed aircraft belonged to the US Navy, although the colour schemes of both it and the Venturas were new to me. Sixteen years passed before the reading of a newspaper article began the process of piecing together the story recounted in History Note 12. On that summer's day, Joe Kennedy Jnr, elder brother of a future United States President, had died.

Mick Muttitt, Blythburgh, April 1995

[APG85]

Fascinating first hand account. Thanks for posting that...

[Rajay]

It was really Project Anvil

Maybe this is a "no, duh" moment for most of you, but "Aphrodite" was the original Army Air Corps project. I assume that "Anvil" was the US Navy follow-up attempt to knock out the V-1 rocket sites near Peenemünde. (Apparently "Anvil" was also the original project name for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.)

It's been a very long time since I read Roger Freeman's "The Mighty Eighth" but I believe that was where I read about "Aphrodite". Of course, his emphasis was on the Air Corps' side of things, but I believe that because of Joe Jr's involvement with the Navy project, Freeman did touch on it briefly.

If I remember correctly, Freeman credited some "lowly" (no disrespect intended - just in relationship to all the "brass" involved in the projects) Army sergeant with predicting that the Navy's radio control system, supposedly developed at labs in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, was overly complicated and flawed - and that it would lead to disaster.

Freeman's book came out long before the 1995 eyewitness account posted above and he made it sound like the explosion was so great that there was nothing left of the airplane that was even identifiable. What was it, something like 20,000 lbs of Torpex?

He also made the case that the "accident" was not very thoroughly investigated at the time because Joe Sr. was (or had been) our ambassador to England and nobody wanted to admit or point out, especially to him (Joe Sr.), that negligence or incompetence was the cause - as would have been the case if that Army sergeant was correct in the first place.

[mustangdriver]

What I can't understand is how a family that can have 2 heros in WWII, both in the Navy, one died in Europe, and the other swam many miles while pulling a injured crew member with his teeth, could have a worthless POS like ted kennedy in the same family........

Matt, you and I are on the same page on that one brother. I was always amazed by presidents that served and how many of them I would call down right heros. Such as JFK, and George H Bush. JFK was a true hero as was his brother. JFK was in pain his whole life due to the wounds he sustained saving the life of another man after the wreck of PT 109.