MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
When the Gestapo moved into Denmark the Danes realized they had been had and their non-aggression pact with Germany would not protect them from the Nazis. A resistance movement arose, and in response the Gestapo took over the Shell Oil HQ in Copenhagen, "Shell House" and turned it into their HQ. And to protect the Gestapo from air raids the attic of Shell House, on the 6th floor, was converted into cells for the more high value prisoners. Fearing that the Gestapo would interrogate the captives and destroy the entire resistance movement, the Danish Resistance asked that Shell House be bombed in order to not only disrupt the Gestapo but also kill the captives to prevent their from revealing the names of Resistance operatives.
On 21 March 1945 the RAF sent 18 Mosquito Mk VI of 21 Squadron, 464 Squadron (RAAF), and 487 Squadron (RNZAF) escorted by 28 Mustangs to attack Shell House.
One of the captives held on the Sixth Floor of Shell House was Paul Borking, a British SOE agent captured just a few weeks before. He was aware that plans had been made to attack Shell House. He was taken down to the 5th floor to be interrogated by the Gestapo. They seated Borking in a chair facing the windows, with the Gestapo agents facing him. They told him that he was known as a SOE agent and after further questioning he would be shot. He looked out the window over the interrogators' shoulders and saw five Mosquitoes in echelon right, obviously inbound to attack Shell House.
Borking knocked the table over and ran away from the astonished Gestapo agents before they could stop him. They no doubt figured that he could not go anywhere; after all there was machine gun emplacement in the lobby and guards outside. Borking made it down to the third floor before the first bombs hit. A German guard leaning against the wall said. "It is too late to run!" Borking replied, "No it is not!" By the time he got to the lobby on the first floor the Germans had too many things to worry about to stop him, with the building coming down around their ears. The guards who were in the front of the building were all dead. He made it out and headed for a shelter, but saw one of the German officers who had been guarding him on the 5th floor come in. So he ran out, boarded a train, and two weeks later was back in England, getting ready to go back to Denmark ahead of the liberation armies.
On 21 March 1945 the RAF sent 18 Mosquito Mk VI of 21 Squadron, 464 Squadron (RAAF), and 487 Squadron (RNZAF) escorted by 28 Mustangs to attack Shell House.
One of the captives held on the Sixth Floor of Shell House was Paul Borking, a British SOE agent captured just a few weeks before. He was aware that plans had been made to attack Shell House. He was taken down to the 5th floor to be interrogated by the Gestapo. They seated Borking in a chair facing the windows, with the Gestapo agents facing him. They told him that he was known as a SOE agent and after further questioning he would be shot. He looked out the window over the interrogators' shoulders and saw five Mosquitoes in echelon right, obviously inbound to attack Shell House.
Borking knocked the table over and ran away from the astonished Gestapo agents before they could stop him. They no doubt figured that he could not go anywhere; after all there was machine gun emplacement in the lobby and guards outside. Borking made it down to the third floor before the first bombs hit. A German guard leaning against the wall said. "It is too late to run!" Borking replied, "No it is not!" By the time he got to the lobby on the first floor the Germans had too many things to worry about to stop him, with the building coming down around their ears. The guards who were in the front of the building were all dead. He made it out and headed for a shelter, but saw one of the German officers who had been guarding him on the 5th floor come in. So he ran out, boarded a train, and two weeks later was back in England, getting ready to go back to Denmark ahead of the liberation armies.
