This Day In History

Summary of Events for  No. 439 (CAN) Squadron 

as compiled by J23040 F/L Vic LeGear & C20089 F/L M. Harrison  in the  439 Squadron Operations Record Book

for

24 March  1945

B-78 Holland

The weather was perfect today with a cloudless sky but the light ground haze all day was disturbing not only here, but also over the target areas in Germany. The Squadron was awakened at 0400 hrs for breakfast, briefing then battle. It was a hectic day for us, the kites were going up all the time, those who did not fly were playing horse shoes, eating or sleeping. The boys were fagged out in the evening after having carried out nine operations, which totalled 48 sorties; the other flying consisted of 5 A&E tests. 

It was really an amazing sight, Typhies all over the sky, also heavies, mediums, Spits and all the Daks. coming out of Germany around 1030 hours after dumping off their loads of paratroopers who were subjected to terrific flak right in their masses. The pilots take off their hats to these fellows who must have a lot of intestinal fortitude.

The day was not without its sadness. We lost J36997 F/O Andy Anderson who was on the bombing of Dingden, Germany as explained in the attached 541. He had done 65 sorties totalling 75:25 operational hours and making a grand total of 501:00 flying hours.

J85728 F/O Mac McBride has been withdrawn from further ops and considered as tour expired with 88 trips and 102:20 operational hours with a total of 1006:50 flying hours. He has shown a little fatigue in the last month and was consequently taken out a little prematurely. 

F/O's Staff Marlatt and Hugh Fraser also had prangs, the former's aircraft was badly beaten by flak. One more pilot was posted to us from 83 G.S.U. , J16549 F/L A.B. McCully and has had operational experience with 32 sorties and 32:25 operational hours under his belt with 263 Squadron on R.P.'s and dive bombing before being repatriated to Canada after serving more than three years overseas. This makes the pilot strength as 25 excluding the two tour expired types.

WO2 Dick Roach went to Sick Quarters in the afternoon with a cold but should be serviceable in a few days. The evening saw many of the flying types down at the Officers club at Aolst, as they say, to keep up the morale of the civilian members of the weaker sex. Our serviceability dropped, leaving 15 out of 18 aircraft serviceable.

 

Detail of Work Carried Out by  No. 439 RCAF Squadron 

as recorded by J20602 F/O R.H. Laurence, J29881 F/O W.G. Davis,  and C20089 F/L M. Harrison in the  439 Squadron Operations Record Book Form 541

A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
SW453 PD461 SW443 MN191 RB452 SW146 EK219 RB326 RB369 RB439 SW423	W/C Grant F.G. F/L Whelan M.J F/O Cleghorn D.G. F/O Johnson D.E. F/L LeGear V.H. F/O Derouin A.E. F/O Fraser A.H. F/O Kubicki W. F/O Anderson W. F/O Saunders A.W. F/O Hallford F.M.	Dive Bombing	0625	07:15
Details of Sortie or Flight The first mission to aid the Army in their Rhine crossing was made against military installations at Ostrich. The target consisted of two groups of buildings and a flak and searchlight emplacement. 439 Squadron led by W/C Grant went in on target first with 440 following a minute later. The aircraft were bombed up with 1000 pounders, instantaneous nose and 11 second tail fuses being used. F/O Tex Gray was left behind when his aircraft caught fire on starting. The Squadron took off at 06:25 hours and headed directly for the target area. They passed over the Rhine at 7500 feet and took the opportunity to watch the Army at work. The heavy bomber force had been over during the night so visibility was poor due to heavy resultant smoke and haze. Red Section lost their target because of poor visibility. A shallow dive resulted and their bombs overshot the flak positions. F/L Vic LeGear maneuvered Blue Section until it was up in the sun then vertically dived the first group of buildings. A single flak gun was the only opposition. Yellow Section dived steeply on the second group and they were left obscured in smoke. The Squadron formed up north of the target and returned directly to base. All aircraft returned safely to base landing at 07:15 hours. Claims - Military Installation damaged.
A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
RB456 PD461 SW443	F/L Davis W.G. F/O Harrison J.L. W/O Roach R.J.	Dive Bombing	09:10	10:25
Details of Sortie or Flight Four aircraft, led by F/L Bill Davis, carrying 2 x 500 lb. cluster bombs became airborne on a Ramrod. Red 3 ( F/O Cleghorn) did not get airborne, as his tail tire blew whilst taxiing. Previously the starter disk blew on his first aircraft, so this trip was definitely not to be, for one F/O Don Cleghorn. This Section was the first to start the Cab-rank effort. The idea was this - as soon as the Section reached 8000 feet over the Rees area, the leader was to contact Limejuice on Button "B". Limejuice was a forward control post which had crossed the Rhine the previous night with the Army. This was done, but Limejuice had no target for our boys, so they were told to patrol the area looking for targets of opportunity. The boys noticed the rocket merchants doing a job on a small town at A109589 which still had plenty of flak, even after the rocket boys had finished.  Our lads went into a 60 degree five from 7000 to 3000 feet, breaking starboard after the attack. Good results were observed, with fires starting in the town and a definite decrease in flak. Red 4 (W/O Roach) had engine trouble and returned to base, landing safely. The remaining two aircraft carried out an armed recce at 1000 to 3000 feet, looking for flak positions. It was then the airborne troops started coming in, and F/L Davis, noticing a flak post at A1050? which was working on the airborne boys, went down and silenced same. Red 2 (F/O Harrison) became separated due to the large number of aircraft in the area. The aircraft returned to base, all by themselves, but each landed safely. Claims - 2 flak positions wiped out.
A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
RB452 ** SW146 RB477 RB326 ** Not a 439 aircraft	F/O Marlatt S.D. F/O Herod H.R. F/O Kubicki W. F/O Bullock J.W.	Dive Bombing	09:45	10:50
Details of Sortie or Flight F/O Staff Marlatt led Blue Section on an Army support operation. Four aircraft carried 500 lb anti-personnel bombs against enemy artillery firing on our Rees crossing. The Section took off at 09:45 hours and headed directly for the target at 7500 feet. The target was hidden in a woods at A089630. They found the area quite hazy due to the previous night's bombing and the smoke screen laid down by the Army.  Staff had no trouble spotting the target so continued flying East with the Section in echelon starboard. He could not raise the forward control post on his R.T. but decided to carry on as per briefing. Passing over the target they half-rolled and dived very steeply. On releasing bombs, the aircraft straightened out due west. The results could not be observed due to haze. They then cruised at 2500 feet up and down the bomb-line on the lookout for flak guns. The paratroopers and gliders just arriving so there was plenty of flak - light and heavy - directed against those aircraft. Some strafing was carried out but the haze obscured results. During this patrol Staff received a direct hit inboard on his port wing by a light shell so the aircraft returned to base. Staff found himself without brakes on landing, so went off the end of the runway. The aircraft nosed up in the soft earth and was a Cat AC. The rest landed safely. No Claims.
A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
SW423 EK219 PD608	F/L LeGear V.H. F/O Fraser A.H. F/L Gray J.O.	Dive Bombing	10:10	11:10
Details of Sortie or Flight F/L Vic LeGear led Yellow Section on another cab-rank show. Cluster bombs were carried by four aircraft. W/O Earl Kidd lost the fin of one of his bombs on taxiing out so was left behind. The rest took off at 10:10 hours and headed for Rees at 7500 feet.  LeGear's R.T. failed so F/O Hugh Fraser took the lead. Limejuice vectored them into a crossroads north-east of Wesel at A2645 where a mobile 88 MM was wrecking havoc among the Dakotas. A rather shallow dive East to West resulted in direct hits and the gun and crew were no more. That practically finished heavy caliber flak resistance. Vic LeGear after cruising around for awhile returned to base while the other two carried on. A 20 MM gun was strafed at A2154 and strikes seen around the gun. Another gun, a multi-barreled  affair was shot at but no results were observed. (A2154) Pulling up from the last effort, Hugh had the unpleasant experience of being hit by a 40 MM shell just back of the well on the fuselage, his kite was found to be a Cat AC in inspection. They hastily beat a retreat to base landing at 11:10 hours. Claims - 1, 88 MM gun destroyed; 1, 20 MM gun strafed.
A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
RB369 RB206 MN581	F/O Anderson W. F/O Hallford F.M. F/L Whelan	Dive Bombing	10:40	11:15 11:50 11:50
Details of Sortie or Flight F/O Bill Anderson led another "cab-rank* show. The four aircraft carried cluster bombs. F/O Adam Saunders blew a tire while taxiing so the other three pressed on without him. They took-off at 10:40 hours and headed for the Rees area at 6500 feet. After waiting over the area for five minutes with no reply from Limejuice, they headed for a pre-arranged target, a flak concentration in a woods at Dingden (A2453). An almost vertical dive from echelon starboard, east to west, was employed. No results were observed  due to thick haze and smoke. Some light flak greeted them on pullout. They cruised around north of Dingden at 2000 feet, then kept orbiting to starboard.  F/O Anderson spotted some flak positions so he called up the other two and told them to follow him down. F/O Hallford who was his No.2 tried hard to notice where the flak was emanating from and took a direct squirt at some flashes coming from a forest below. The next time that he looked up, Andy was on his back and heading earthward in a 20 degree dive from about 500 to 800 feet, and was lost sight of in the haze and smoke so that we do not know what happened to him. The other two aircraft landed safely at base without mishap.  No claims.
A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
RB456 PD461 MN191 RB198	F/L Davis W.G. F/O Herod H.R. F/O Cleghorn D.G. W/O Roach R.J.	Dive Bombing	11:50	12:50
Details of Sortie or Flight Four aircraft led by F/L Bill Davis, took off on a Ramrod to bomb the town of Brunan which was a strong flak position, causing considerable trouble to the troop carrying aircraft. The boys carried cluster bombs. They approached the town at 8000 feet diving to port at 50 degrees from 8000 to 3000 feet. On pulling up to port, good results were noticed, with small fires in the town. There was no flak noticeable. They then split into pairs, to carry on an armed recce for flak positions. The troop carrying and supply carrying aircraft were still coming in, in waves, but no flak was noticeable. a very definite pall of smoke up to 4000 feet covered the area, cutting horizontal visibility to less than 1/2 mile. After stooging over the airborne landing area at from 2-5000 feet for 15 minutes, the two sections set course for base. All aircraft landed safely.  Claims - 1 town damaged.
A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
****** RB477 SW443 SW420	W/C Grant F.G. F/O Derouin A.E. F/O Marlatt S.D. F/O Harrison J.L.	Dive Bombing	12:20	13:20
Details of Sortie or Flight Four more aircraft were sent off on a cab-rank show with W/C Frank Grant, DFC leading the way. As usual cluster bombs were carried. The Section was airborne at 12:20 hours and headed for the Rees area at 7000 feet. By now the haze was making any ground movement difficult to spot. They patrolled in the area, and since Limejuice could not be raised, they headed for the pre-arranged target, on artillery concentration, in a wooded area west of Isselburg. They used a very steep, east to west dive, but were unable to see results. No flak was raised. Cruising around at 2000 feet they spotted a lorry at A1660. This was strafed and strikes were seen. A light flak gun was also strafed at A1259 but nil results observed. They met scattered light flak most of which was aimed at the Dakotas and gliders. No more movement was seen due to haze, so all aircraft returned to base landing safely at 13:20 hours.  No claims.
A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
SW446 SW433 RB435 PD608	F/L LeGear V.H. F/L Cook J.H. F/O Saunders A.W. F/L Gray J.O.	Dive Bombing	12:55	13:50 13:50 13:50 14:00
Details of Sortie or Flight Another cab-rank show was led by F/l Vic LeGear. Four aircraft carried cluster bombs. They took off at 12:55 hours and headed for the Rees area at 6500 feet. F/O Adam Saunders took over when F/L LeGear's R/T failed again. They cruised in the Wesel-Rees area for ten minutes dodging supplies being dropped to the paratroopers below. Limejuice had no priority target for them, so they dive-bombed Dingden, the alternate target. A shallow dive east-to-west was used with no results being observed due to smoke and haze. They cruised in the area for awhile but there was no flak being tossed at the time, so they returned to base landing safely.  No claims.
A/C Type & Number	Crew	Duty	Up	Down
RB456 PD461 PD608 RB198 RB206 SW443 SW420 MN191 MN581 SW446 RB435 SW423	F/L Davis W.G. F/O Herod H.R. F/O Harrison J.L. F/L Whelan M.J. F/O Marlatt S.D. F/O Bullock J.W. F/O Fraser A.H. F/O Johnson D.E. F/O Cleghorn D.G. F/L Cook J.H. F/O Kubicki W. F/O Hallford F.M.	Dive Bombing	15:45	16:55
Details of Sortie or Flight Twelve aircraft became airborne on the last operation of the day, on a Ramrod. They each carried 2 x 1000 lb. bombs, with instantaneous nose fuses. The target was the town of Dingden, which contained the headquarters of a reinforcement unit and was also an important Jerry communication centre directly to the front. F/L Bill Davis led the show and on reaching 8000 feet over the Maas River the weather was very bad with 10/10ths smoke covering the whole battle area up to 8000 feet. Group Control was then contacted and after considerable vectoring and orbiting and still not arriving over the target, as petrol was running low, the boys unhappily jettisoned their bombs "live" which was later pinpointed by Control, as being in the woods east of Dingden. No results were observed. All aircraft returned to base, slightly perturbed by the shortage of petrol, but they got down safely.  No claims.

Copyright ©1998-2016 Michael T. Melnick. All rights reserved

the unofficial homepage of Tiger Squadron 

. .