A Very Short War

A Very Short War is a onehour documentary produced in 2010 by Karl Conti of Conti Bros Films. It was written by Susan Young and directed by Bill Young and Myles Conti. It was publicly and privately funded, with support from Screen Australia, The History Channel, and NRK2.

The nine RAF airmen who lost their lives that day,April 1940, were the first Allied servicemen to lose their lives in the defense of Norway. They are remembered with a special ceremony each year at their graves in the Sylling churchyard, north east of Oslo. There was one survivor Welshman Ogwyn George, the radio operator who fell 3,000 feet 900m without a parachute, hitting trees and landing in unusually deep snow. He was discovered and rescued by Norwegian Johan Brthen. The mission in the RAF Sunderland Flying Boat L2167 of 210 Squadron was a volunteer mission. A crew of ten were assembled They left onApril 1940 in Sunderland L2168 and flew north from Pembroke Dock on the south west tip of Wales to Holyhead in north Wales and overnighted there. The next morning they flew to Invergordon in Scotland where, for what was believed to be a mechanical problem, they changed aeroplane to Sunderland L2167. They took off at 1pm and opened sealed orders to learn of their destination Oslo, Norway. Mission general reconnaissance. According to the one survivor, Ogwyn George, the crew had no knowledge that Germany had invaded Norway on that day. The Sunderland arrived over Oslo around 5.30pm and was hit by flak from German ships in Oslo Harbour. The pilot turned the Sunderland northwest to escape but was pursued and fired upon by two Messerschmitt Bf 110s piloted by Oblt Werner Hansen and Oblt Helmut Lent. The Sunderland exploded and crashed in the mountains of Overskogen north of the village of Sylling. ........

Source: Wikipedia