SQUADRON LEADER JAMES LESLIE WILLIAM " WAGGY " WAGLAND 91 –
DOD 2 APRIL 2005

Squadron Leader James "Waggy" Wagland, who has died aged 91, was the senior navigator at RAF Tempsford, the home of the special duties squadrons flying clandestine operations for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) into Occupied Europe; he became one of the RAF's most highly decorated navigators, being honoured by four countries.

Pinpoint navigation was the key to success for the aircrews required to locate - after flying hundreds of miles - the lights from five or six torches in a farmer's field. This primitive arrangement marked the dropping or landing zone for delivering supplies and agents to enemy-occupied Europe.

The operations mounted by the two resident squadrons, Nos 138 and 161, ranged from Norway to the south of France, and Wagland was responsible for planning and co-ordinating the complex and dangerous routes and advising the aircrews.

He paid particular attention to the route-planning for the pilots who flew the single-engine Lysanders without the assistance of a navigator or of radar navigation aids. Relying entirely on map-reading, and flying during the periods of moonlight, the pilots used route "strip maps" on the long flights, which Wagland had helped to prepare. Not content with just fulfilling his crucial ground duties, he took part in many operations with both squadrons, sometimes flying long-range sorties in converted Halifax bombers to Poland and Norway, and at other times flying in Hudsons and Lysanders to land in rough fields in France prepared, manned and guarded by members of the Resistance.

Wagland's early sorties to France in a Hudson were flown with Group Captain " Mouse " Fielden - also captain of the King's Flight.

On one occasion they were taking two agents to a field south of Lyon when Fielden dived towards the ground because he thought he had seen a fighter. Wagland commented later: " This did not help navigation." They failed to make contact with the reception party and were forced to fly on to Maison Blanche in Algeria, where the Hudson was wrecked in a ground collision.

Wagland flew most of his sorties to France with the squadron commander, Wing Commander Bob Hodges (later Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges). On the night of September 14/15 1943 they took eight "Joes", as their unidentified passengers were known, to a field near Cosne. Some of the return passengers failed to arrive on time and Hodges had to leave the engines running for fear that, if stopped, they might not restart. After 10 anxious minutes he decided to take off with the four who had arrived, and asked if there were any volunteers for the spare seats. One young man stepped forward and came to England - they never discovered who he was.

A month later, Hodges and Wagland, accompanied by a second Hudson, flew to a field near Lons-le-Saunier where Paul Rivière, of the French Resistance, had 18 passengers for England. Using the bends in the River Loire as a final navigation checkpoint, Wagland led the two Hudsons to the torchlit field. Hodges landed first and delivered his passengers, collected those for England and took off again after just three minutes on the ground. In 1948 the President of France, Vincent Auriol, came to London on a State visit, the first since the war. He asked if it would be possible to trace the crew who had brought him out of France on that flight five years earlier. Wagland and Hodges were later invested as Officers of the Légion d'honneur.

Wagland was always seeking ways to ease the navigation workload, particularly for the Lysander pilots who flew alone. The radar navigation aid "Gee" was fitted to an aircraft, and Hodges and Wagland set off for France with it; but the set interfered with the compass, and they had to return when they ran into foul weather over the Loire. The next night they flew the sortie without the "Gee" and delivered a "Joe" to a field south of Poitiers. There they picked up two passengers, including one of their own squadron pilots who had been forced to abandon his Lysander a month earlier when it became bogged down in a field.

On their return they found England shrouded in fog, and conditions rapidly deteriorated. Hodges and Wagland saw the runway at Tangmere at the last minute and were able to land. By the time two other Lysanders had returned, the weather had become even worse. Their agents did not have parachutes, so both pilots attempted to land; both aircraft crashed, and both pilots and two of the agents were killed. In September 1943 Wagland was awarded a Bar to an earlier DFC.

James Leslie William Wagland was born on 4 November 1913 at West Ham, London.

He attended Palmers School, in Essex, before joining his father in the banking world. Just before the outbreak of war he volunteered for flying duties in the RAF. After completing his training in August 1940, he joined No 78 Squadron at Dishforth, in Yorkshire, which was equipped with the pre-war Whitley bomber.

With the most rudimentary navigation aids, the Whitleys of No 78 bombed Berlin, and in November they attacked the Fiat works in Turin, a round trip of almost 10 hours which included staggering over the Alps. The majority of Wagland's sorties were against industrial targets in Germany. After completing 30 operations he was awarded the DFC.

During his time with the Whitley force, Wagland's outstanding navigational ability had come to the attention of one of the squadron commanders, Percy Pickard, who later became the irrepressible leader of No 161 Squadron. In November 1942, after a short spell at HQ Bomber Command, Wagland found himself at Tempsford as the navigation leader working with Pickard. In charge of the map store of Wagland's navigation section was an attractive WAAF, whom he later married.

Throughout the war, Wagland sported a luxuriant moustache. Aircrew flying over enemy-occupied territory carried a series of photographs to be used on false identity papers if they were shot down. When it was pointed out to him that his RAF-style moustache would hinder his disguise, he said that, if necessary, he would shave it off. He was unable to explain how he would subsequently make use of the photographs.

Wagland was known for his conservative views. On one occasion he brought Francois Mitterrand, another future President of France, back to England. Years later he commented that perhaps this was the one flight on which he should have got lost.

Wagland remained at Tempsford until the end of the war.

In October 1945 the Queen of the Netherlands awarded him the Dutch Flying Cross for his services to Holland.

He was also awarded the Polish War Cross and was twice mentioned in dispatches.

After the war, he returned to banking, joining the London branch of Martin's Bank as a foreign exchange dealer before becoming assistant manager. Following the takeover of Martin's by Barclays in 1969, he left to join the management team of the Manufacturers Hanover Bank in London, retiring in 1974.

A man of great modesty, Wagland rarely spoke of his wartime service, referring to his most dangerous sorties as "a bit tricky".

He was a strong supporter of the Aircrew Association and the Tempsford Association, and continued to keep in touch with many of the "Joes" whom he had carried and with the members of the reception parties who manned the French fields used for his clandestine flights.

" Waggy " Wagland died on 2 April 2005.  He married his Tempsford WAAF, Molly Cleevely, in April 1945.  She died in 1999, and he is survived by a son and a daughter.

Special to www.historicalmilitaria.com – 2 April 2005