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As August opened leave for aircrew was reinstated for the first time in over two months; S/L Norsworthy and F/O Hewson were the first pair to draw seven days relaxation in Britain. The ground-crew had to wait a while longer.

Thick haze grounded the aircraft on 1 August and persisted until the afternoon of the 2^nd. Then it cleared and in the next six hours (1520 to 2120) the Squadron crowded in 34 sorties on four operations, all directed against enemy concentrations in the battle area below Caen. The first attack, in which the whole Wing participated, was on a wood at Bellengreville, near Falaise, where the pilots, after well concentrated bombing, strafed the area mercilessly. "All in all, anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be in that vicinity at the time mire caught hell." No specific details of damage could be ascertained because of the thick foliage, but dense smoke spread over the whole target. Then the attacks were shifted westward to the area between Aunay-sur-Odon and Conde-sur-Noireau where Intelligence reported that the 9^th Panzer Division was trying to pull out. A low cloud bank was responsible for rather scattered bombing on one sortie, but the next mission was able to make a steeper dive and got twelve bundles of explosives squarely on the target in the village of Pontecoulant. Then the pilots came down again, firing their cannons at a number of vehicles, one of which went up in flames while another was claimed as a “smoker". WO Nick Gray pulled up from his dive so sharply that rivets were popped from the main-planes. F/O "Babe" Swindler also pressed his attack to such close range that when he pulled out in a valley he was able to look up into the faces of some startled flak gunners on the hill beside him. It was getting late when the fourth "strike" went out and the sweating ground crews had to be content with a mixed assortment of 500 and 1,000 lb. bombs which the pilots delivered to a target hidden in the woods near Aunay. The total bomb-load for the day was just short of 31 tons.

After this concentrated burst of activity the next four days were very quiet, principally because of the persistent morning ground haze that limited activities to the afternoon and evening. On the 3^rd enemy guns and mortars were attacked in a wood by Thury-Harcount.  The next evening some MT were bombed on a road south of Falaise, at least one being destroyed while the road was blocked to traffic. The next operation, on the afternoon of 6 August, illustrated the difficulty of close support air bombing. Two squadrons of the Wing had gone out to attack enemy strong points near Aunay-sur-Odon, where the Army had agreed to pinpoint the target with red smoke because of the close proximity of our own lines. When no smoke signal was seen the Wing split up to attack individual targets. Through the haze the Wing leader had seen some vehicles on a road in the area and he led No. 439 down to bomb them.  Six bombs had whistled earthwards when F/O Ray Brown suddenly perceived that the transport bore Allied markings and the other pilots held their fire.  Unfortunately the bombs that had been released were quite accurate and half a dozen vehicles in the convoy were knocked out.  "Babe” Swingler had the satisfaction of depositing his two 1,000 lb. bundles squarely on a flak position that had bothered him considerably on an earlier sortie

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