The early morning was
favoured by unblemished sky but scattered cloud soon dispelled
our visions of a perfect day for Ops. The pilots scrambled out
of their Nissen huts at Hurn early this morning to do a quick
"Ops" before breakfast. Ten aircraft took off with 500
lb. bombs led by F/L Ken Fiset with intentions of polishing off
the bridge over the river Orne, west of Amaye-Sur-Orne. The
bombs were well concentrated around the target and a direct hit
was seen on the railway at the East end of the bridge, but the
bridge was still standing after the onslaught. In spite of
considerable light flak no damage was done to our
"Typhies".
At 08:05 hrs. ten of our aircraft led by
S/L Norsworthy screamed over the field and again headed in the
direction of the River Orne with 500 lb. bundles except for 2
machines which provided fighter escort. Bombs were dropped
near the east end of the bridge but it failed to crumble.
No damage was done by the considerable light and heavy flak.
Eight Typhies led by S/L
Norsworthy carrying 1000 lb bombs took off at 12:20 hrs again
towards the same bridge, near misses were scored but according
to Intelligence reports it is claimed to be unserviceable.
On this last "do'
we were very unfortunate in losing F/O "Jake" Ross
whose aircraft was hit by heavy flak. He baled out and was seen
floating down north of Caen Aerodrome. We presume and hope he
landed safely and are awaiting his return anxiously to hear his
blow by blow description of this experience.
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
|
Column is illegible |
F/L
Fiset
F/O Bernhart
F/O Smith
F/O Kalen
F/O Stitt
F/O Rassenti
F/O Monson
F/O Ross
F/O Burton
???????
|
Dive Bombing
|
???? |
??:?? |
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
This
Squadron was briefed to attack a small bridge over the
river Orne (the
rest of this particular mission report is illegible)
|
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
|
Column is illegible |
S/L
Norsworthy
F/O Monson
F/O Moen
F/O Burton
F/O Stetler
F/L Fiset
F/O Bernhart
F/O Smith
F/O Kalen
F/O Stitt
|
Dive
Bombing
|
08:05 |
09:25 |
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
The Squadron as soon as it had been re-armed, took off
to attack the same target as in the proceeding sortie.
This time the Squadron encountered a fair amount of
light and heavy flak from the area immediately
adjacent to the target. As before the target was
attacked in a steep dive from
???? to
????
and as before ?????
a large number of very near misses resulted. After
sustaining another 16 x 500 lb. bombs, the bridge
still stands. None of our aircraft were struck by flak
and all returned safely.
|
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
|
Column is illegible
M |
S/L
Norsworthy
F/O Hewson
F/O Burgess
F/L Dadson
F/O Brown J.
F/O Ross
F/O Allen
F/O Hogg
|
Dive
Bombing
|
12:20 |
13:55 |
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
Once
again the Squadron, as did other squadrons of 22
sector , took off for another attack on that stubborn
bridge at River Orne,
this time using 1000 lb drivers. Once again the Squadron
broke into a wild melee of diving and weaving Typhoons
over the target
(the rest of this sentence is illegible).
The
dive
bombing was made from 5000 ft to 2005 ft and resulted
again in a
series
of very near misses which looked very promising. As
the smoke cleared away, the darned thing was still
standing in one piece. As the Squadron was pulling out
of the target area, heavy flak from Caen ?????
destroyed the aircraft flown by F/O Jake Ross, the tail
section of his machine was shot-up, the engine caught
fire and crashed, but Jake bailed out and it is presumed
that he landed safely in the front line just 1 mile
north of Caen. His parachute opened nicely. All other
aircraft were undamaged.
Webmaster's
Notes:
(1) 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.
|
Tiger
Squadron