Scattered
cumulus cloud in the morning but the cloud closed in around 13:45
hours with a heavy gale and spasmodic showers in the afternoon.
Nevertheless four operations were carried out. On a morning show
J.28760 F/O J.A. Brown, one of our old timers failed to return. It is
presumed that he had gone in onto the target a little too low and that
he got a blast from his own bombs as he was pulling up. The aircraft
was streaming glycol, but F/O Brown set a southerly course for Allied
territory, reaching Deventer when flak started to come up. F/O
Brown took to the silk and shortly after the flak was intensified. We
do hope he landed safely. This pilot has done 77 operational sorties
totalling 80:25 operational hours and giving him a grand total of
703:05 flying hours.
A new
pilot J.44311 P/O B.E. Bell arrived today from 83 GSU and is a product
of Windsor, Ontario. A jet aeroplane dove out of nowhere this
afternoon and dropped a bomb near the salvation army truck that
created a little confusion.
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
| MN665
MP692
MN547
KB802
JR506
MN438
MP152
MN482 |
F/O
J. Stelter
F/O
*******
F/O
A.H. Fraser
F/O
A.C. McBride
F/O
J.A. Cote
F/O
Bernhart
F/O
J. *******
F/O
******** |
Dive
Bombing |
08:15 |
09:10
"
"
"
08:35
09:10
"
"
|
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
Webmasters
note: Much of this entry is illegible, so this is my best guess
as to contents. Note as always, text
in white
is suspect and is only my best interpretation of individual
words.
F/O
Johnny Stelter took-off with the squadron to start two days
operations. They carried 1000 lb bombs (.025 tail fusing) and
headed north to prang the rails between Apeldoorm and Deventer,
Holland. at B.9107
It was necessary to fly above a layer of cloud which extended
from base to the target area at a height of 8000 feet. F/O
Stelter's ********************
and they broke cloud over the town of Apeldoorm. They
circled the town **** and then went into their dive , going from
west to east in a *****
dive
from *****
to ******
feet. The
rest of this entry is totally illegible.
|
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
| ******
MN665
**202
MN547
MN482
MN357
JR506
**151 |
W/C
F.E. Grant
F/O
J. Stelter
F/O
J.A. Brown
F/O
N.H. Rassenti
F/O
B.P. Swingler
F/O
R.A. Hiltz
F/O
R.H. Laurence
W/O
S.A. Church |
Dive
Bombing |
10:40 |
11:55
"
11:10
11:45
"
11:55
"
"
|
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
W/C
Grant led the Squadron this time with the rails twelve miles
south of Zwello, Holland at B.9825
at a little town called Heine
as the target. The aircraft all took-off carrying 500 lb bombs
and after forming up, did two more orbits to gain sufficient
height to fly above cloud top (about 9000 feet). The target was
located and after changing into bombing formation, the pilots
peeled off to the left. The dive was quite difficult
necessitating an aileron turn to get on the target. Because of
this, the bombing was quite scattered only the Winco getting at
hit at B.582254. (in pulling out, F/O J.A. Brown was seen
streaming glycol and was notified of this by R/T. He immediately
set course for base losing height as he did so. However, as he
crossed Deventer he bailed out amid a hail of 40 MM flak. His
parachute was seen to open and it is hoped that he landed
safely, in which case he may be a prisoner of war. The remainder
of the squadron returned safely to base.
|
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
| MN144
MN691
MN547
MN989
PD554
MN894
MN537
PD492 |
F/L
C.L. Burgess
F/O
J. Sweeny
F/O
J. Roberts
F/O
A.C. McBride
F/O
I.W. Smith
F/O
R.A. Hiltz
F/O
J.H. Stitt
F/O
J.G. Martin |
Dive
Bombing |
13:20 |
14:35 |
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
F/L
Burgess took-off the squadron to cut the railroad at Nijverdal
(V.1319) a small town in Holland, ten miles west of Almelo. They
reached the area to find their target covered by dense
cloud extending as low as 2000 feet. they then turned about and
bombed the rails at a point half way between Coor and Delden,
Holland (V.290069) as an alternative target. the bombing was
quite successful and the rails left damaged. on taking off, F/L
Burgess lost his port bomb which fell off onto the runway, he
got off successfully however and the take-off of the remainder
was not impaired.
|
| A/C
Type & Number |
Crew |
Duty |
Up |
Down |
| MN869
MP151
MN691
MN547
JR506
PD554
MN894 |
F/L
J.H. Hogg
F/L
C.A. Lambert
F/O
N.H. Rassenti
F/O
J.G. Fraser
F/O
R.H. Laurence
W/O
S.A. Church
F/O
J.A. Cote |
Dive
Bombing |
16:05 |
17:15 |
|
Details
of Sortie or Flight
F/L
Hogg took the Squadron once again to cut the railroad running
south from Zwello, Holland at a little village called Derven
(B.9226). Seven pilots took-off, an eighth failing to start, and
set course climbing at the same time. The visibility was good
and the squadron flew straight to the target encountering a
little heavy accurate flak over Arnhem and Deventer. Once over
the target they rolled to the left in a nice dive, the bombing
was very accurate with several pairs of bombs falling on the
rails cutting them in three places between Z.917258 and
z..918245 and leaving large craters. no flak was seen over the
target and the squadron did a leisurely orbit to assess the
damage and then formed up and returned to base in good
formation. It is interesting to note that our intelligence
report the rails as having been out at the same pin-point and
which were probably repaired.
|
Tiger
Squadron