Intentionally left blank.

The next day, 14 August, was hazy and cloudy and the Squadron had a rest although the pilots were kept on 60 minutes readiness.  Two newcomers F/Os J. Roberts and J.G. Fraser, arrived as replacements for Allen and Moen (F/O R.N. MacDonald returned to the Squadron later in August after some months on the sick list.)

Operations from the landing-strips on the beach-head had been plagued by clouds of dust then the sun shone and sloughs of mud then the rain fell. Wire tracking had helped to solve the mud problem, but could not lay the dust. Take-offs and landings were frequently delayed while the pilots waited far the billowing clouds to clear. Finally a spray pipe-line was installed down both sides of the runway and was put into use for the first time on 1l August. It worked well until the 14^th when the pipes burst and made the strip unserviceable for a time.

Low cloud and haze persisted through the next three days (15-17 August), limiting operations to four strafing missions. S/L Norsworthy, who had just returned from leave, led one sortie over the escape roads between Vimoutiers and Livarot, on which the pilots cratered a road junction with their bombs and strafed some vehicles with their cannons. The count was one flamer, one smoker and two damaged. Most of the transport seen was marked with red crosses and as there was a hospital in the area the pilots assumed the emblem was being used legitimately. The next show, on the evening of the 15^th was a novelty as the aircraft did not carry bombs; as it turned out, the pilots did not even need their cannons for, much to their surprise, there were no targets to strafe. Another operation in the evening of the 16^th, after the low clouds had cleared, was likewise unproductive of obvious results other than the concentrated bursts of sixteen 1,000 lb. bombs in a wood where many enemy vehicles were believed to be concentrated. No transport could be seen, but the intense barrage of light flak, which discouraged strafing runs, suggested that the target was important. On the 17^th the Squadron was able to squeeze in one show before night fell, carrying out an armed recce along the Seine from Rouen to La Havre. The objective was to attack barges which the enemy was using to carry his troops across the river, all the bridges having been knocked out in the pre-D-Day aerial campaign. A few barges were seen and attacked with bombs in a "vicious" dive which resulted in four being sunk. S/L Norsworthy's section also strafed a small dredger, covering it from stem to stem with "bags of cannon strikes". Light flak was continuous throughout the attacks.

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