Leslie Blackmore

First Name: Leslie Initials: L Surname: Blackmore Birth County: Bedfordshire. Resided Town: North London Nationality: British Date of Death: 09/06/1943 Fate: Died of Wounds Information: Parents: William and Annie Blackmore, of Ryde, Isle of Wight. Rank: Serjeant Service Number: 2581311 Service: British Army Regiment: Royal Corps Of Signals Mission Roughshod, Special Operations Executive Place of Death: Middle East Sergeant Blackmore dropped into eastern Serbia on 10 April 1943 as the W/T operator for Major J. Sehmer who sought to contact the Chetniks of General Mihailović (Mission Roughshod). It was one of several missions operating in Bulgar controlled eastern central Serbia over the spring and summer of 1943. Several teams working together were involved in a major engagement with Bulgar forces in early June—Leading Aircraftman H. Thompson (W/T operator, Mission Fugue), and a New Zealander, Sergeant F. J. Lindstrom (Mission Kidmore) were killed in action on 4 June, Lieutenant S. Smith, Royal Engineers was killed in action on 5 June and Sergeant Blackmore was killed in action on 9 June 1943. Major Sehmer escaped and was extracted in May 1944 and dropped into Slovakia the following September. Captured in December 1944, he was murdered in Mauthausen concentration camp in January 1945, almost certainly unaware that he had been made an MBE for Roughshod. Originally buried near where they fell, the remains of all four men were later reinterred in Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia. Sergeant Blackmore is buried in a single grave with Lieutenant Smith