The move to Eindhoven marked the beginning of a rail interdiction Campaign to strangle all movement along the lines leading up to the battle front. For the next six months rail cutting dominated the Squadron's activities. The first in the long, long series was at 10 a.m. on the morning of 26 September when F/L Don Burton led a
formation of eight against a single track line near Arnhem.  Attacking in pairs, the pilots came down in a shallow 40 dgr. dive from 8,000 feet to 50 to release their 500 lb. bombs fitted with 11 second delay fuses. Three large craters were blown in the tracks; the other bombs were near misses. Another line close to Utrecht was
cut later in the day by another formation; this time the bombs were released at 3,000 feet in a steeper dive and the degree of accuracy was not as high as on the first show. 

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The last days of September were marked by a decided resurgence of enemy air activity, particularly in the vital Nijmegen-Arnhem sector. Most of the fighting fell to the Spitfire wings, naturally, but the Typhoon squadrons, as has already been indicated, were sometimes called on for offensive sweeps. Twice in the late afternoon of the 26th sections of No. 439's pilots were scrambled to patrol over Nijmegen, but there were no interceptions. 

One pilot saw a strange aircraft climbing steeply in the distance; it was probably one of the new ME.262 jet jobs. As the second section completed its stint a third formation of eight took off from Eindhoven to continue the patrol. An hour passed uneventfully. Then Red section turned homeward to escort one of its pilots who was having fuel tank trouble, leaving Blue section (F/L Monson,
WO Gray, F/Os Stitts and Burges) to carry on. Shortly after Red departed, Blue section was repeatedly bounced by over zealous Thunderbolt formations with the result that the pilots became separated.

By this time it was getting dark and almost time to call it a day and head for base. Suddenly parachute flares lit up the sky over  Nijmegen whereupon searchlights began to sweep about and the anti aircraft defences came into action. "Cody" Monson caught a fleeting glimpse of a Ju. 88 at which he fired a short burst before losing it in the black sky. Then Nick Cray, who also had had a crack at an 88, spotted an FW 190 caught in the searchlight beams and closing in to 150 yards he opened fire, making some damaging strikes on the engine cowling before the FockeWulf jettisoned its long range tank and dived down into the shelter of the night. Johnny Stitt too caught sight of some of the raiders. With Gray he engaged one Ju.
88 that disappeared in the darkness, Then he gave chase to another 88 which he hit with a long burst from dead astern. Cannon strikes flashed on the port engine and wing whereupon the Junkers burst into flames and crashed to earth. Over the R/T Red section heard the excited chatter of the other pilots and turned back to join in the sky battle, the position of which was clearly indicated by the flares and flak bursts. They were unable to find any opponents, however, and had to be content with watching Stitt's 88 crash and burn. On the homeward flight Chuck Burgess's tanks run dry just as he reached Eindhoven; displaying perfect judgment he made a beautiful dead stick landing on the flarepath. Johnny Stitt's
destroyed and Nick Gray,s damaged were the first successes won by 143 Wing in air combat and needless to say the pilots of No. 439 were in very high spirits that night. 

 

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