MN989

MN401

MN691

JR500

MP136

MP134

MN379

MN765

S/L Norsworthy

F/O Henderson

F/O Porritt

F/O Rassenti

F/O Johns

F/O Burgess

F/O Bernhart

W/O Gray

F/O Laurence

Details of Sortie or Flight

This show, the first one led by S/L Norsworthy since his award of the Immediate DFC and his leave, turned out to be a rather successful armed recce. The Squadron was given the area from Livarot to Vimoutiers to Le Sap to patrol and take on any transport on the roads. Each aircraft carried a pair of 1000 lb bombs (with .025 tail fusing) so as a target the C.O. selected a likely-looking road junction on the side of a hill about 400 yards south of Vimoutiers (Q.4964) 9/10ths clouds at 6000 feet and 3/10 to 4/10 stratus just below it, made it necessary to fly at 5000 feet, but no flak took us on. The target was reached without incident and was attacked in a 60 degree angle dive from 6000 down to 1500 feet from the south. Only one pair of bombs was off target and they struck 200 yards to the right. The remainder of the bombs were right on the junction and after the vast column of dust had cleared, the road was seen to be cratered in two places and almost impassable.

The search for transport in the area then began and S/L Norsworthy sighted a truck at the road junction of Bellou (Q.5270). The entire Squadron attacked in pairs and the vehicle was left a smoker. The bulk of the vehicles seen in the area were bearing large Red Crosses, and since a hospital was seen at St Germain de Montgomer, the significance of the Red Crosses were carefully headed.

S/L Norsworthy took Red Section home and left Blue Section under command of F/O Johns to return at his own discretion. A few more attacks were carried out by Blue Section in which F/O Laurence claimed one damaged MET at Q.485675 and F/O Johns and F/O Burgess claimed a flamer at Q514680 as well as a damaged at Q480736. A small amount of flak was thrown up at our aircraft in the dive bombing attack but that was the only flak seen. All our aircraft and pilots returned safely to base.

MN379

MP136

MN352

MN869

PD448

MN691

MN796

F/O Fiset

F/O Stitt

F/O Laurence

F/O Monson

F/O Stelter

F/O Porritt

F/O Smith R.V.

F/O Smith I.W.

Details of Sortie or Flight

The show carried out this evening, was one of the very few flown by this Squadron without carrying bombs aloft. F/L Fiset led 8 aircraft into the air at 18:15 hours, but only 7 carried out the operation as F/O Smith had engine trouble and was forced to return early. F/O Smith did not miss much by returning early as the Squadron patrolled from Vimoutiers-Le Sap-Bernay-Lisieux without firing a shot. F/L Fiset spotted one truck but in turning into his attack he lost the vehicle and could not find it again. The entire show turned out to be a sad disappointment to the pilots who participated in it, especially since the previous show had proved to be lucrative. All aircraft returned safely to base at 19:20 hours and all further operations planned for the day were washed out by the rapidly lowering clouds and rain.