WALTER RALPH RIGGS
Born on the 23th June 1922, Spetibury, Blandford Forum Dorset
Died 25th March 2008 Blandford Forum Dorset
His service no was 1600344
He enlisted in Oxford in September 1941.
He served as a Flt Sgt in the RAF in 138 Sqn, based at RAF Tempsford which is on the Hertfordshire/ Bedfordshire border in the parish of Everton.
Part of the airfield included Gibraltar Farm which had to be abandoned by the owners,
Gibraltar Farm, Tempsford prior to its demolition
The barn was used to hold SOE agents before their flights to enemy territory. There is a plaque on the wall of the building commemorating this fact.
No. 138 Special Duties Squadron supported SOE, MI6, MI9, the Free French and resistance movements throughout occupied Europe. Apart from dropping agents by parachute most of the weapons, sabotage stores and money to finance resistance arrived by parachute during moon periods.
On the night of 10-11 December 1943, a Halifax II bomber (BB 378) of No.138 Special Duty Squadron took off from RAF Tempsford to commence Operations Table jam 18 and Table jam 19 to support the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Danish Resistance. Table jam 18 was the dropping of SOE agent Flemming B. Muss by parachute near Ringsted Gyldenløves before proceeding to another remote location (TableJam 19) to drop nine containers of weapons near lake Tisso, where members of the resistance were waiting delivery. Whilst approaching the first drop zone (Table jam 18) the Halifax was intercepted by a night fighter said to be a JU 88 and during the attack the Halifax caught fire and at 01:54 hours crash landed on farmland near Ugerløse.
The wreck of Halifax BB 378 (Federal German Archives)
After getting out of the burning aircraft Muus divided the crew into two teams. The three officers formed one team and the fiver sergeants formed another.
The officers who were Pilot F/Lt A.C. Barter, Navigator F/O C.W. Fry and Wop F/O E. Howel were sent east heading for “Ryegaard”. Saturday evening they reached the main road between Holbæk and Roskilde and met a man named Svend Ove Frederiksen of “Møllegaard” farm. He spoke no English but took them to Mr. Krügermeir who spoke the language. The flyers were given food and a place to sleep while Count Scheel of Ryegaard was contacted. Sunday morning he arrived at Krügermeirs house bringing two set of civilian clothes for the flyers while Krügermeir supplied one set. Arrangement was made for the flyers continued journey and in the afternoon they were driven to København in a ambulance. They were met by Inspector Lindell and after a couple of days they were shipped over to Sweden.
Although flight sergeants Nick Anderson (engineer), Brian Atkins (second pilot/bomber), Sydney Smith (mid upper gunner) and Ralph Riggs (rear gunner) The sergeants who were Flt. Engr. Sgt N. Anderson, Bombardier F/S B.H. Atkins, 2nd Pilot W/O E. Turvil, Air Gnr. S.G. Smith and Air Gnr. W.R. Riggs were given a telephone number and sent in a north westerly direction with instructions to find priest or doctor and from them call “Tom” on Central 16501. They walked for six miles before they found a barn where they hid for the rest of the night and the following day. In the evening they set out again and at 03:00 hours knocked on the door of a lonely farmhouse. After some difficulty in trying to explain their identity they were given food and a place to sleep until the next evening. In the evening they started out again and after being lost they knocked on the door of another farm where the farmer very reluctantly gave them their bearings as on the south-east corner of Roskilde Fjord. The flyers were given milk and bread but were refused to stay. They continued along the east side of the fjord and got food and shelter at another farm for the following day. At night they continued and after failing to get shelter from five different farms, it was getting very near daylight when they were taken in by an old man at a farm in Ølstykke near Frederikssund, after they had explained who they were. They were put up in the barn where they went to sleep.
The farmer called the police who in turn informed the Wehrmacht who picked the flyers up and took them to Høvelte barracks.
They were sent to Dulag Luft at Oberursel for questioning. After a while Anderson, Atkins, Smith and Riggs were sent to Stalag IVB Mühlberg a.d.Elbe while it is not clear where Turvil was sent.
Flemming Muus hid in a nearby haystack for a day and a half before he borrowed a bicycle from a farmer and rode to Sorø where he got on the train to København. Muss is known to have continued his resistance work and was later SOE’s senior agent in Denmark. His wife Varinka was also a member of the resistance and her mother Monica Wichfeld is thought to be the first Danish woman executed by the Germans for being a member of the resistance. In fact she died of TB in a POW camp 1945
Flemming B. Muss
W.R. Riggs was taken prisoner No was267473 And became a POW in at Stalag 4B Muhlberg which is about 30 kilometers norths of Dresden, this was the biggest POW camp in Germany and conditions were rough.
