26
S.H.A.E.F. each evening for cover on the following day. The third task was
designed to provide an up-to-date order of battle of the German Air Force and to
watch for construction of new airfields or extensions to old ones and there were
usually about forty airfields on the Task Board at the beginning of the day. In
addition to these three there were many other tasks,such as River Lines, Woods
and Bridges as well as Bomb Damage Assessment for 2 Group.
The mention of bridges calls to mind five sorties which were flown together
on Aug 16th and were known in the Wing as "OPERATION CRIBB". Good dicing condi-
tions were promised by
Basil Rathbone
's Met. Section and five aircraft, led by
Peter Cribb
, took off to photograph a number of river bridges between CHARTRES
and the SEINE. Over France, they ran into very low cloud, the whole circus flew
over the middle of Paris and the "natter" on the R/T as they tried to keep in
touch with each other caused much amusement, especially when one pilot was heard
to exclaim, "Gosh! did you see that lightning?" and the answer came back, "That's
not lightning - it's flak!" However, some useful photographs were taken and all
returned without damage, except that the hood of
Willy Willshaw
's aircraft was
blown off by flak.
By August,
Mike Goodale
had finished his tour and, on Aug 13th,
Ron Atkinson
arrived to replace him as C.O. of 16 Squadron. The next day, however, this Officer
was tragically killed, being hit by the airscrew of one of the
Spitfires
the noise
of which was drowned by other
Spitfires
which were "running up" nearby.
Tony Davis
returned from rest to take over the Squadron.
The night tasks at this time were mainly concerned with trying to watch for
German movement of reinforcements in the areas immediately behind their forward
-
+
Sorry, your browser does not support inline SVG.