Report 277 – Chuckie and his crew took off from Harrington on 23 April 1944 on S E C R E T Operation “Peter 5v” at 9:50PM in the evening and returned back to home base at 5:00AM the next morning. It was the Ambrose Crew’s second successful Carpetbagger operation – “Completed.”

They reached the target in France at 2:15AM in the morning and dropped 12 Containers and 10 Packages “as briefed” directly on their pinpoint target which the report notes they easily identified “By lights – three amber” the French resistance members set up on the ground. It took them two runs but the drop was made “on lights“ at a low flying altitude of just 450 feet above the ground. They were out “O.K.” and 10 leaflets were “dropped on route back at towns.” No enemy opposition was encountered.

“Could get very little of conversation”

This operation must have been occurred during a non-moon period. The report references the “Rebecca” short-range radio navigation system used for the dropping of airborne forces and their supplies. The system was used by Carpetbaggers for dropping supplies to resistance fighters in occupied Europe, after delivery of the portable Eureka unit that was used as a homing device on the ground.

Beacon transmitters, “Eureka,” were used by agents on the ground to signal the location of a desired air drop to the transmitter “Rebecca” on the aircraft. These signals could be activated from up to seventy miles away to enable the aircraft crew to pin-point its drop zone.

Rebecca calculated the range to the Eureka based on the timing of the return signals, and its relative position using a highly directional antenna.

On this mission the system did not seem to work. In his personal report after the mission, the pilot Ambrose noted “15 Nis on Rebecca – picked up “P” – “S” phone poor – could get very little of conversation 10 Nis from target”

Eureka sets weighed up to 100 lbs and had to be parachuted in to Resistance groups in advance of future drops. Many Resistance radio-operators refused to use Eureka because they didn’t want to lug the set, which was heavy, or run the risk of being caught by the Germans with it in their possession.

The ‘Rebecca’ name comes from the phrase “Recognition of beacons“. The ‘Eureka’ name comes from the Greek word meaning “I have found it!“.