F/O Bob Laurence

On 20 August the weather began to deteriorate. An early morning operation was frustrated by low cloud over the reconnaissance area, and a second in the late afternoon was almost equally uneventful. Everything appeared to be very quiet on the ground around Orbex; there was no flak, virtually no movement, and the net result was merely one flamer. It drizzled throughout the 21^st - a miserable, clammy day; the only dry thing on the airfield was the bar! The next day was a bit better, permitting one quite lucrative armed recce in the area around Bernay. F/O Bob Laurence spotted two vehicles which he and F/O G.W. Hewson quickly sent up in flames. The other pilots found some more widely scattered MET, ten of which they damaged. Laurence's aircraft was somewhat shot about by light flak over Lisieux.

Then more rain fell, making the runway and perimeter track unserviceable until the 25^th. The weather was lovely that day, but the fluctuating bomb-line had now moved well to the east beyond the Seine and the battle was drawing out of range of the Tiffies at Lantheuil.  The day's one operations was noteworthy because the aircraft carried bombs for the first time in over a week; but the results were disappointing. The target assigned at briefing was a MET concentration which a Spitfire squadron had reported but not pinpointed accurately. Great banks of cumulus cloud made the search for the target "a nerve-wracking tail chase" at 2000 feet, and finally the pilots, unable to find any vehicles, dive-bombed a wood near Gournay. They reported that once again, as on some previous occasions, many of the bombs did not explode. The next morning the Squadron again went hunting for MET in the area east of Rouen. Just as the formation of nine F/Os led by Royce Johns set course from base, the controller informed them that enemy aircraft were abroad, but they encountered neither Jerries nor flak. Nor did they see any vehicles. Their bombs were dropped on a road running through the woods between Fleury and Lyons la Foret and all were seen to detonate.

F/O G.W. Hewson Photo source GW Hewson Used with permission.

In the afternoon and evening of 27 August two attacks were made on Mailleraye-sur-Seine, between Rouen and La Havre, where enemy troops, vehicles and equipment were queued up waiting to be ferried across the river. The bottleneck was a nice ripe target which No. 439 sought to uncork with thirty 500 lb. loads of TNT.  As the first formation led by S/L Norsworthy started its bombing dive every gun in the area opened fire; through the intense barrage the Tiffies plunged in line astern, released their bombs, pulled out and streaked for home, each one with a whole skin. The bombing was excellent, every burst being well in the centre of the target. One bomb apparently hit a petrol dump or truck which exploded in a great sheet of flame followed by a huge column of black smoke. The second formation, led by F/O Jimmy Hogg, took off just as the dusk was beginning to thicken and Allied air activity was diminishing. Any hopes of catching the enemy "asleep at the switch" were futile, however, for the flak batteries once again hung a curtain of fire over the target. Detailed results of the bombing could not be observed, although the presence of numerous vehicles on the roads leading into Mail1eraye encouraged hopes that the missiles had good effect. From the lurid, flak-filled sky over the Seine the pilots turned westward "into the soothing quiet of the rapidly gathering darkness" and landed safety at Lantheuil.

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