45 return and, though all serviceable aircraft in the Wing made a wide search for him the next day, no trace could be found. Pat Ogilvie had done much for the Wing during the months he had been in command and his tremendous courage and sound judgement, based on a wide experience, combined with his almost uncanny ability to grasp the essentials of a problem were admired by all. His place was taken on December 24th by Richard Bowen, who had just completed the Staff College Course.     By Christmas, the Hun offensive in the Ardennes, which had started on Dec 16th had been checked and, on 23rd Dec, the weather improved so that on Christmas Day 29 sorties were flown. This was a welcome change for most of us after the long periods of bad weather although it caused some dislocation of the Christmas fest- ivities, but time was found for most of the traditional items and, perhaps because we were busy, the Season was thoroughly enjoyed; in addition to our own parties, the Wing entertained 700 local children on Dec 29th and both they and their Mothers will long remember the day. On Christmas Day, "Butch" Baker flew a sortie over Heligoland from which the Air Survey Liaison Section, which was an R.E. Section attached to the Wing to advise on all matters relating to survey and was commanded by Freddy Hore, prepared the maps which Bomber Command used during their raid on April 18th.     On January 1st, Melsbroek was attacked at 0900 hrs by about 40 FW 190's and ME 109's who fired off all their ammunition in the course of 25 minutes, during which they were almost unopposed, as our Bofors guns had been converted to their anti-tank role in deference to the Hun Ardennes offensive and were loaded with A/Tk shells. Six Spitfires, six Mosquitos and eleven Wellingtons of the -+ Sorry, your browser does not support inline SVG.