Felix James Mowles

Rank: Sergeant Flt. Engr.

Service Number: 648233

Date of Birth: 1921

Regiment: 161 Sqn, RAF

Date of Death: 14 March 1943

Age at death: 22

Cemetery / Memorial: Durnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria

Country: Germany

Grave / Reference: 7.D.21-23

Relatives: Husband of Beatrice Mowles (nee Ferguson)

Address: Angel Street., Hadleigh, Suffolk.

Felix James Mowles was born in Hadleigh in 1921. His early years were spent living with his parents and seven siblings in ‘Garden City’ Angel Street, Hadleigh. He attended the two Church of England schools; firstly Threadneedle Street Infants and then Bridge Street.

Early family photo c.1933 with Felix to the rear in his scout uniform.

Felix’s father, Walter is hidden to the left of the above photo. But his image is captured the the photo below. Seen wearing the flat cap and Felix again to the rear on the right.

As a boy Felix was in the 1st Hadleigh Scouts and he is seen in this photo of the scout band leading the British Legion church parade in Whatfield. There appears to be a large contingent of ‘Great War’ veterans following the band and so he would have heard tales from that earlier conflict.

Felix left school at age 14 to begin an apprenticeship at Dawson’s Garage in Pound Lane. He clearly showed an aptitude for mechanical engineering and so when joined the RAF just before the war, he was an ideal candidate for aircraft maintenance as a ground crew engineer. However, his ambition to fly led him to complete his training as a flight engineer, after which he was posted to Bomber Command as a Flight Sergeant.

He spent Christmas 1941 at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire, from where he sent this post card. Clearly morale was high at that Christmas.

After completing a full tour of night operations in the bombing offensive over Germany and occupied Europe, Felix was given extended leave and in early 1942 he married Beatrice Fergusson.

On return from leave Felix volunteered to join the Special Duties Squadron at RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire. It was known as ‘Black Squadron’ owing to the high level of security. No 161 Sqn was responsible for delivering supplies and agents to various groups of resistance fighters. They also collected returning agents, escaped prisoners of war and other allied personnel who found themselves stranded behind enemy lines. This last group also included downed aircrew.

By RAF - This is photograph COL 185 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17615601

The crew consisted of:

Flt Lt Alfred Ellis Prior DFM, RAFVR Sgt Francis Douglas Bell RAFVR Sgt John Henry Kempson RAFVR F/O Alfred John Kingham RAFVR P/O George McWilliam RAFVR Sgt Felix James Mowles RAF F/O Richard Taylor Winter DFC & Bar RCAF

Felix was clearly a young man with many talents and lots of potential. His lost was keenly felt by his grieving widow Beatrice who continued to live in Hadleigh after the war. She died in Hadleigh in 1986 age 63. Relatives of Felix still live in the town where his memory lives on.

He is remembered with on the town’s Second World War Memorial Wall on the High Street and on the Roll of Honour in St Mary’s Church.

As part of a seven man crew on a four engined Halifax bomber the pre flight duties of the flight engineer included checking that every part of the aircraft is fit for the mission. He would then monitor the aircraft throughout the flight. As a fully trained gunner, he was also able to take over in any of the three gun turrets if needed.

On Sunday 14 March 1943, a Hanley Page Halifax MkV DG245W, registration number MA-W of 161 Sqn took off from Tempsford airfield at 20:00hrs as part of the ongoing Operation Iridium. On board was Felix with his six crew mates and four Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents. Their mission was to deliver the agents to Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic).

This mission was the sixth attempt to insert the Iridium Team made up of; Miroslav Spot, Miroslav Kricensky, Vladimir Soukup and Bohumir Kobylka. Unfortunately the aircraft failed to make the landing and was returning home when it was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire somewhere to the South and East of Munich.

The crew were initially buried at Munich West Cemetery and the agents were buried in a forrest close to the crash site. In 1948 the crew were moved to Durnbach War Cemetery.

It appears from the grave registration document that Felix along with three of his crew mates were buried together in a single grave. This is not unusual for aircrew, whose remains were often recovered from the wreckage of an aircraft.