Prison Break- One of the Most Daring Aerial Missions in Military History

As the clocks struck noon on February 18, 1944, the citizens of Amiens, France, heard an ominous rumbling in the air and the crackling of anti-aircraft guns. Suddenly, from a blustery, overcast sky burst a flight of British de Havilland Mosquito light bombers. Roaring along at treetop level, the aircraft followed the long, straight Avenue de la Défence Passive towards their target: the looming brick and concrete hulk of Amiens Prison. A series of deafening blasts ripped through the air, and within minutes the aircraft were gone, leaving the prison walls a smoking ruin. In the ensuing chaos hundreds of prisoners, many of them members of the French Resistance, clambered out through the breaches and into the safety of the countryside, free to continue the fight against the occupying Nazis. Ramrod 564, better known as Operation Jericho, was one of the most daring air raids of the Second World War, dramatically showcasing the Royal Air Force’s ability to carry out pinpoint strikes and work in concert with allied resistance movements. But over the past 80 years the operation has become the subject of considerable controversy, with  historians questioning whether it was worth the considerable collateral damage inflicted and even the motivations for the raid itself. This is the story of one of World War Two’s most contentious aerial operations. 

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