‘It’s a real death-or-glory show, boys’ – that was how Group Captain Percy Pickard ended the briefing for one of the RAF’s most daring and dangerous raids of WWII; ‘Operation Jericho’, the Amiens Gaol Raid of February 1944. Requested by the French Resistance to free, or to sacrifice, up to 700 prisoners held by the Gestapo at Amiens, 18 Mosquito FBVIs of 140 Wing were prepared at short notice to attack the prison at low-level and high speed, the objective being to break the walls.
Led by Pickard in Mosquito HX922, 140 Wing attacked with completesurprise causing utter chaos inside the prison. 258 prisoners escaped through the breached walls, with 102 killed. Warned of collateral damage, the Resistance said death from RAF bombs was preferable to Gestapo torture and execution. Only two Mosquitoes were lost, one of which was HX922. Pickard and his navigator, ‘Bill’ Broadley, failed to return and are buried at Amiens.