MN561

MN348

MN145

MP151

PD854

MN402

PD492

PD481

F/L J.Carr

P/O B.E. Bell

F/L J.A. Cote

F/O J. Roberts

F/L R.G. Crosby

P/O W.G. Davis

P/O W. Anderson

F/O R.H. Laurence

F/O J. Sweeney

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Fighter Cover

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Details of Sortie or Flight

Webmasters note....this entry extremely difficult to decipher due to the illegibility of the copy

F/L Carr led the Squadron accompanied by two aircraft without bombs as fighter cover to bomb the railway heading northeast from D****, Germany at A.7464. The approach was routine, heavy flak was encountered over the Meuse River, ******* the target , a train was visible on the track beneath and it was intended to bomb the train at the same time. The bombing was quite accurate, one pair  cutting the rails completely at A.725615; none however , landed on the train which was fortunate as it turned out to be an ambulance train. A short recce was made after the bombing and a train discovered south of Coesfeld. Red Flight went down on it and left the locomotive damaged and hissing smoke and steam at *.3372. Blue Flight was posed to make an attack but the flak was too intense, so they left it the way it was. The return to base was uneventful except for ******** flak at ***** ***** which proved comparatively ineffective as all aircraft landed safely without a scratch.

RB198

MP482

F/L R.G. Crosby

W/O S.A. Church

F/O  **********

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Webmasters note....this entry extremely difficult to decipher due to the illegibility of the copy

The target this time was one that always takes the pilots imagination, an old castle on the Meuse at *.834299, now turned into a garrison and  defended by half a hundred  tanks with small arms ****. It was intended to dive bomb this but due to the weather  it became necessary to put 11 second delay fuses in the thousand pounders and do a low level job of it. F/L Crosby led three aircraft, the fourth being unable to start. They found the target and did one orbit, waiting for the red smoke from the Army to indicate the target; the smoke was bang on and they went in from 3500 feet, a little small-arms fire was seen but otherwise no opposition was met. F/L Crosby's bombs found their mark and demolished one of the buildings, the other bombs appeared to overshoot and went off in the river. The aircraft returned safely.

PD461

MD554

MN581

F/L J. Carr

F/O L.C. Shaver

F/L J.A. Cote

P/O B.E. Bell

Details of Sortie or Flight

F/L Carr led a flight of four aircraft back to the target that had previously been attacked by F/L Crosby; the intention was to further demolish it and they carried the same type of bombs and fusing (1000 lb bombs, 11 sec delay). They found the target without any trouble and then did two orbits waiting for red smoke. Red one and two went in first, bombing south to north. One pair of bombs fell  a little short and the other very close to the east building, probably damaging it by blast. Red three and four then went down  and all their bombs found their mark, brick and steel flew high in the air and when it settled down only one corner of the building still remained standing. Flak was thrown up from gun positions across the Rhine and a little machine gun was ***** from the building itself - all four pilots returned safely. Note: the buildings bombed were on the ****** bank of the Meuse at map reference  E.834299.