Early in the morning of 29 October two pilots making a weather recce to the Dortmund canal at Rheine were surprised to see a vapour trail rising vertically from the ground near Osnabruck. They watched it travel straight upwards until it disappeared from sight; presumably it was the trail of one of the new German rocket bombs
(V.2). When the two weather pilots reported "oranges sweet" a strong formation set out to blast the sluice gates of the Dortmund Canal, at a point eight miles east of Rheine, in hope of releasing a flood of water that would hamper repair work in other sections of the Canal. The strike force was composed of 17 aircraft from 143
Wing, led by W/C Grant, with two other Typhoon squadrons as anti flak support and two Spitfire units as fighter cover. The operation was carried out according to plan, except that the gates were open and the whole canal appeared to be full of water and functioning
normally. The bombs were released from low level (50 feet), touching off a great explosion on an oil barge and damaging two houses beside the gates. Other results could not be ascertained because of smoke over the target. F/0 Bob Laurence came home with a large flak hole in the starboard tailplane.

V-2 Rocket and Launcher

Photo source unknown

Intentionally left blank

Then, after this deep penetration into Germany, it was back to railbusting again, with one hit on the line near Oldenzaal in Holland, and another on the tracks near Nordhorn in Germany. F/O Johnny Stelter, who led the first show, improved the shining hour by bursting wide open a locomotive which he found with steam up near Groenlo. His companions gave it a few more squirts from their
cannons for good measure. With this unusual spate of seven operations in two days (28 and 29 October) the month came to an end and for five days Eindhoven was shrouded in the all too familiar cloud and haze. 

(1) One day, if the squadron diarist is to be believed, the haze was "so thick you could chip it with a hatchet"!

In the last days of October the squadron moved its mess from the unheated ex German guard room on the airfield to a school in the nearby town. The building formerly had been used for prospective nuns a fact which, it was suggested, might have its effect upon the moral standards. That the move had at least one benefit was obvious a few nights later when some German aircraft hovering around the airfield dropped flares and a bomb which exploded near the former mess. On the airfield the airmen had by now abandoned their tents in favour of small wooden huts which they had constructed with lumber salvaged from blitzed hangars and buildings. Earlier reports that 15O prefabricated temporary buildings would be erected for them had proved to be just rumours. The area around the disporsal, which had looked like a carpentry school for some days, now resembled a squatter's settlement, amidst which the pilots' 
tent with its two huge smoke stack, stood out like a miniature foundry. Inside it, however, life was quite domestic at times with morning and afternoon tea and coffee, the enticing aroma of which seemed to attract every dog in the vicinity! In the two months since leaving Lantheuil on the Norman beach head the squadron's  bombing and strafing activities had yielded a rich harvest of vehicles, vessels, trains and rail lines. 

It is difficult to compile complete statistics of flamers, smokers, damaged and cuts, but the following figures may be taken as a conservative, minimum estimate of the results achieved in September and October: (1) 

MET 30 flamers, 14 smokers, 51 damaged 

HDT 3 damaged

Ammunition trains 1 destroyed

Locomotives 2 (at least) destroyed, 29 damaged

R.R. cars 12 (at least) damaged

Barges, tugs 1 destroyed, 1 smoker, 24 damaged and boats 

Bridges 2 destroyed, 1 damaged

Enemy aircraft 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Miscellaneous 1 petrol dump destroyed, 4 buildings (at least) damaged

(1) MET mechanized enemy transport 

     HDT horse drawn transport

Since embarking on the rail interdiction campaign on 26 September the squadron had made, at a minimum estimate, 58 cuts. Evidence of the efficacy of this aerial campaign to paralyze enemy rail traffic was found in the reports of the reconnaissance pilots who stated that all rail movement past the Dutch border had virtually ceased.

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