01
January 1945
while
stationed at B.78 - Holland
Scattered
cloud all day hanging quite low. The first day of the new year
is one which will not soon be forgotten. The early morning saw
approximately 75 plus German aircraft swoop
down on the airfield seemingly out of nowhere, in fact they came
right on the deck. The first warning was at 0914 hours when the
boys were sitting around the crew room awaiting the return of
the pilots on the weather recce when a sporadic burst of gunfire
was heard resulting in the usual dash for the door to see
what's cooking. A Focke-Wulf 190 came in across the drome,
instinctively everyone reached for a .38, .45 or whatever have
you when all hell seemed to break loose.
Focke-Wulfs,
Messerechmitts and a few jet jobs as top cover dove on the drome
and for twenty minutes proceeded to carry out one of the finest
strafing jobs one would want to see. By the way, Mustangs with
German markings were also seen, this was reported to our
Intelligence. And what were the lads on the ground doing during
this hectic session? Naturally the law of self preservation was
rigidly observed and a mad scramble was made for whatever cover
first presented itself. Several of the pilots made for the
trench behind our crew room only to find it filled with three
feet of water with a top cover of two inches of ice. But
pride was cast asunder as Sgt King, one of our maintenance N.C.O.'s
led a disorganized formation to its refuge where they lay flat
until an excessive number of stragglers unthinkingly in their
haste made a low level dive into the trench, breaking the ice
and submerging several in hiding.
And
where was our C.O., Squadron Leader Bing Crosby. He happened to
be jeeping down from the Mess with F/L Johnny Carr nonchalantly,
but only got as far as the Sally Ann Building, no further! Their
next twenty minutes were spent in a ditch in front of this
building with Johnny Carr taking the initiative by finding safer
quarters in a culvert. There were many humorous incidents that
happened during the Hun visit. Some of the highlights on the
ground were F/O Johnny Johnson and F/O Jack Roberts who were on
their way over to Maintenance in a truck when the Iron Crosses
on the aircraft and cannon fire seemed a little out of place.
They, also the driver LAC Len Weir, baled out of the 3-tonner in
no seconds flat and scurried behind it for cover. Johnny was
hiding behind one of the wheels when a bullet punctured the tire
causing no little consternation to one P/O Johnson. It appears
that Jerry had it all his own way, the little flak that was
supposed to intercept seemed away off. The enemy aircraft
systematically climbed, dove, and strafed and took time off to
wave to some of our boys. The odd dog fight was seen, also one
Jerry bailing out and it is reported that a few aircraft were
brought down. It wasn't long before the whole drome was covered
with heavy clouds of billowing smoke. Explosions came from every
direction, fires were seen everywhere.
440
Squadron was badly hit, their aircraft and petrol burning. Then
their 1000 lb. bombs began exploding. Every time one went off,
everyone in our dispersal was either knocked down by the blast
or instinctively fell. Our airmen lost a hut which was occupied
five minutes before it was attacked with 20 M.M. ammo, by LAC
Zak, who was absorbed in profound slumber only to be rudely
awakened by one of his chums and directed to a protected haven.
As a 1000 pounder unleashed its vociferation and blast, so
one wall of the pilot's crew room was loosened to about a
three-inch extent, windows and doors opened and glass shattered!
This went on for about an hour anyway, so that even our pup
"Pitchdark" got the twitch. Injuries were sustained by
Sgt Cappleman R.H., Cpl Singerman M. and LAC Bews J.T. of our
Squadron and LAC Crinklaw of our Echelon, the first three being
admitted to hospital with minor injuries as a result of
shrapnel. Cpl Singerman receiving his wounds while lying flat on
the ground beside a newly erected toilet which was hit by a 20
M.M. explosive shell. Another 20 M.M. went through our Pilot's
crew room piercing an Irvine jacket (1) and trimming the peak of F/O
Lyal Shaver's peak cap.
Webmasters
note (1) The "Irvine jacket," named for the
Irvine Parachute Company, was a type of shearling-lined leather
flying jacket favored by Field Marshal Montgomery.
One
injury was unmentioned and is that sustained by F/L
Hart Massey when his shack was caught by the strafing. He received
injuries to his head, chest and posterior. It isn't expected
that he will return to our Squadron for some time, much to our
regret. He is as the fellows say "well clued up" in
the intelligence and operational data.
As
the result of the strafing
one of our aircraft completely burned up and another was slightly
damaged. One was lost on the morning recce when F/O Angelini
went missing after a dogfight with the Jerries. This pilot has
done 14 sorties totaling 16:50 operational hours and giving him
a total of 457:00 flying hours. This was his first operation
since the 5th of December and during most of the interval he was
in England waiting for the weather to clear up so that he could
ferry a Typhie back.
During the dog fight F/O's Bob Laurence and
Hugh Fraser shot down two Jerry aircraft apiece, giving Bob a
total of four to his credit. The recce landed at B.80- Vokel due
to our unserviceable drome, but returned at 1310 hours following
which one operation and one A & E test were carried out. Our
aircraft strength was 7 plus 6 transferred from 440 Squadron
temporarily of which 10 were serviceable. F/O Harrison is now
doing all the typing of returns, reports, correspondence as well
as completing several Committees of Adjustment due to Cpl
Singerman being temporarily indisposed, and is trying hard to practice
up for his "A" Group.
Detail
of Work Carried Out by
No. 439
RCAF Squadron
as
recorded by
J20602 F/O R.H. Laurence, J29881 F/O W.G.
Davis,
and
C20089 F/L M. Harrison in
the
439 Squadron Operations Record Book
Form 541
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
|
RB233
RB281
RB198
MN589 |
F/O
Laurence R.H.
F/O
Fraser A.H.
F/O
Anderson W.
F/O
Angelini S.
|
Armed
Weather Recce |
08:20
|
10:00
|
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
F/O
Laurence led four aircraft off on a weather recce to
cover the American battle front. They reached the area
flying cover over 10/10ths cloud, and over the area
itself the cloud thinned to 8 - 9/10ths with a base of
about 4500 - 6000 feet. After reporting the weather,
they flew north along the Meuse to take a recce over the
Munster area. Here the weather was clear and practically
no cloud, so they reported "oranges sweet" and
turned about to re-cross the Rhine.
At this point,
FW190's were reported heading east from Eindhoven, the
section immediately endeavoured to intercept them which
they did just east of Helmond, Holland. There were
approximately 15 FW190's engaged by the four Typhoons
and one or two friendly Spitfires. The dog-fight lasting
four or five minutes resulted in F/O Laurence and F/O
Fraser each destroying two aircraft. When the action
broke off the aircraft returned to base to find it
unserviceable due to enemy action and had to go to Vokel
where they landed and were refueled. However, Yellow 4
(F/O Angelini) is missing and was last heard of in the
circuit telling Pitchdark he had 10 gallons of fuel
left. Claims: 4 FW190's destroyed.
|
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
|
RB198
RB233
RB281
MN691
|
F/L
Carr J.
F/O
Roberts J.
F/O
Sweeny J.D.
F/O
Johnson D.E.
|
Armed
Recce |
14:55 |
16:15 |
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
Four
aircraft took off on an armed recce to St-Vith, Zulpich,
Myen, Brum, and Bullanges. Going down, the section flew
above 10/10ths cloud most of the way and when they got
over the area it was about 7 - 8/10ths. the section was
bounced by Thunderbolts but they recognized our aircraft
and departed. Finding a hole in the cloud east of
St-Vith, F/L Carr dove below cloud with the aircraft in
line astern. The ceiling was about 100 to 1500 feet. They
found about 7 trucks and one house amongst trees at the
side of the road. In the attack they got 3 flamers, and
two damaged. F/L Carr got hit with a 40 M. in his
starboard wing at the trailing edge rendering his aircraft
a Cat AC. It blew quite a hole! On the way out of the
area, enroute to base quite a lot of light flak was
encountered. All aircraft returned to base safely.
|
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