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This
Day In History
Summary
of Events for No.
439 (CAN) Squadron
as
recorded in the 439 Squadron Operations Record Book
for
14
June 1944
R.A.F.
Hurn
Good weather all day,
but with scattered cloud. The boys spent the afternoon doing a
little P.T (1) thus improving their physiques, but it was confined
to loading up the 30 cwt. with parachute boxes, flying equipment
and other items from the pilot's dispersal, so that we are
anxiously awaiting "THE" day when we receive our
flying papers. Eight typhoons wended their way angrily carrying
500 pounders together with 247 R.P. Squadron, to defend position
at Lingeures, France at 09:25 hrs. Our Squadron bombed the woods
north of this location scoring 14 hits. All aircraft returned
safely.
To make the situation
more exciting we did another "Ops" right after lunch.
This time ten machines took off at 12:55 hrs carrying 500 lb
bombs except two aircraft which provided fighter escort. The
target was the infantry and gun positions at Demouville woods,
east of Caen. To finish off the day we did the latest operation
in the history of 439 Squadron with ten aircraft led by S/L Norsworthy taking off at 21:50 hours. Our object was a small
bridge near Robehomme south of Caen. Since this bridge was
already destroyed by other squadrons preceding ours, we attacked
an adjacent bridge with 500 pounders and obtained good results. All
aircraft returned undamaged.
Webmaster's
Notes:
(1) Physical Training
Detail
of Work Carried Out by No. 439
RCAF Squadron
as
compiled by in the 439 Squadron Operations Record Book Form
541
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
|
Column is illegible |
F/L
Dadson
F/O Porritt
?????
F/O Allen
F/O Scharff
F/O Stitt
F/O Brown
???????
|
Dive Bombing
|
09:25 |
??:?? |
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
The
Squadron, F/L Dadson leading in conjunction with a
couple of R.P. Squadrons undertook to destroy a pocket
of resistance located at Lingeures
?? miles west of Villy. The R.P. Squadron and our own
Typhoons ????
M.C. bombs did a good job on the enemy units located there.
The actual dive bombing attack was made from 3000 ft
to 1000 ft because of low cloud. The aircraft flown by
F/L Dadson was struck in the mainplane by a 20 MM
shell which went through the cockpit (the
rest of this sentence is illegible).
All aircraft returned safely - all pilots unhurt.
|
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
|
Column is illegible
M |
S/L
Norsworthy
??????
F/O Laycock
F/O Rassenti
F/L Fiset
F/O Burgess
F/O Johns
F/O Hewson
(2)
F/O Smith
F/O Swingler
|
Dive
Bombing
|
12:55 |
??:?? |
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Details
of Sortie or Flight
S/L
Norsworthy, our Squadron Leader, led our Squadron and 440 in a combined
dive bombing attack on a town of ??????
just west
of Caen. A large number of enemy M.T. vehicles were
reported in that area. The aerial attack was carried
out South to North at 3000 ft to 1500 ft. The
target was well covered by (the
rest is illegible).
All aircraft returned safely to base.
Webmaster's
Notes:
(2) According to the Logbook of F/O GW
Hewson, the mission lasted 1.15 hours.
|
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
|
This
Column is illegible |
S/L
Norsworthy
F/O Bernhart
F/L Fiset
F/O Thomas
??????
??????
F/O Brown J
??????
??????
|
Dive
Bombing
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21:50 |
23:?? |
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Details
of Sortie or Flight
Together
with a number of other Typhoon squadrons, our Squadron
set out to bomb a small bridge in the area of Robehomme,
about five miles south of ?????.
The bridge had already been blown up by the time our
Squadron arrived, so we attacked a bridge nearby. Our
eight aircraft dropped 2 x 500 lb M.C. bombs (instantaneous)
with good results. No flak was reported
by our aircraft
and all returned safely.
Webmaster's Notes:
(3) The 541
Form for the month of June 1944 is extremely illegible, and
difficult to read, and may entail a trip to Ottawa to get a
better copy out of the Directorate of History. Hopefully theirs
will more legible.
In the meantime, illegible text is indicated by a
series of question " ? " marks.
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