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ications to T.A.F. and Army Group Headquarters. Petrol was in very short supply
even at
Amiens
and, before we could move there, 69 were given the task of ferrying
supplies to Glisy airfield. Starting on Sept 6th they made forty-four trips in
which they moved 15,590 gallons of petrol and 1,180 gallons of oil. On Sept 7th,
two
Spitfires
and two
Mosquitos
were sent to
Northolt
to carry out reconnaissance
under
Sandy Webb
's direction for the
Airborne Operation at ARNHEM
; Sandy himself
flew three outstanding sorties and the detachment met very strong opposition
and had bad weather conditions over the target areas as a result of which
John Brodby
and
Jerry Bastow
were missing, though the latter was hidden by the Dutch people
for some time and returned to England after many adventures.
A-12 was a very bare landing ground cut through the hedges of Normandy and we
had rather a lot of rain during the short time we were there, but most people
managed to enjoy themselves and some interesting tours of the recent battle areas were
made.
The move to
Amiens
was completed by Sept 10th but was complicated by the fact
that we were ordered to return to A-12 to ferry more petrol when most of the ground
staff were half way to
Amiens
and the convoy had to be split during the night by
Cliff Beer
, who landed beside it in an
Auster
.
Amiens
, though itself a rather
uninviting town was enjoyed by most members of the Wing and several of them were
to be seen in Paris about this time. Visits were also paid to V-1 sites in the
neighborhood and the remains of these abominable weapons examined though their
deathly rattle was temporarily suspended.
Night Operations were at a standstill because the armies were advancing so
quickly that they could not forecast the tasks and, anyhow, there was no quick
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