Operation Fungus (ii)

'Fungus' (ii) was a British air support operation over Yugoslavia (4/5 November 1944).

Undertaken at night from a base in Italy, the operation was designed to deliver weapons and equipment to the partisan forces in Yugoslavia, and involved 13 Vickers Wellington medium bomber of No. 37 Squadron, each carrying six Type 'K' containers and 12 packets of 'Nickel' propaganda leaflets. The weather was fair, with low clouds in the valleys and over the target, and the 13 aircraft dropped 78 containers between 00.30 and 00.39 from an altitude of between 700 to 1,800 ft (215 and 550 m) near the town of Kladusa, 40 miles (65 km) to the south of Zagreb. All the British crews saw the ground signal and the paradrop mission appeared to be entirely successful, and the 158 packets of leaflets were dropped en route to the drop zone. Accurate but slight small- and medium-calibre anti-aircraft fire was encountered over the towns of Knin and Bihać, but no aircraft were lost or damaged, and all the aircraft landed safely in Italy after the mission.