Operation Most III

From November 1943 onwards, the Intelligence Division of the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) obtained parts of the V-2 rocket, which was being tested at a missile launch site near Blizna, central Poland.

The availability of parts increased from April 1944, when numerous test rockets fell near Sarnaki village, in the vicinity of the Bug River, south of Siemiatycze.

The plan was to land the plane in territory surrounded with German military units retreating westward under pressure by the Soviet army and obtain the V-2 missile components.

At just past midnight, the Dakota circled above the landing location and the partisans (who had been previously informed through encrypted codes over BBC radio) recognized the transport plane.

On the return flight, Jerzy Chmielewski, Józef Retinger, Tomasz Arciszewski, Tadeusz Chciuk, and Czesław Miciński were ferried from occupied Poland to Brindisi, Italy.

The aircraft's crew included: F/Lt S.G. (George) Culliford (Captain), F/O Kazimierz Szrajer (Co-pilot and translator) (Polish), F/O J.P. Williams (Navigator), F/Sgt J. Appleby (Radio-operator).

Operation Most III was one of the major plot elements in Frozen Flashes ("Gefrorene Blitze"), a GDR movie about the development of the V2 and the history of the resistance movement in Peenemünde during the Second World War and its attempt to sabotage the V-2 programme.