this respect and, on April 18th,
Mike Shaw
flew the first anti-submarine patrol
off the Dutch Coast. The Germans had caused serious shipping losses in the
North Sea, and particularly near the entrances to the Ports of
Antwerp
and
Ostend
,
by using midget submarines based along the coast of Holland. 69 Squadron obtained
permission to send four aircraft each day to Knocke armed with depth charges in
order to carry out patrols for the purpose of discouraging this activity by the
Germans, and it is interesting to recall that in doing this, 69 were returning to
the sort of work on which they had been engaged before joining 34 Wing. However,
they did not have much luck as only one Biber Class submarine was sighted and, in
very poor visibility, it managed to escape by diving before an attack could be
made. 69 were also engaged on another task during this month in ferrying maps
and photographs from
Brussels
to Second Army Headquarters which, by this time,
had reached the Hannover area.
16 and 140, which was commanded by
Doug Frostick
when
Os Dobell
went to
the Naval Staff College on April 14th, were mainly engaged on Shipping Recon-
naissance along the North German Coast and the coasts of Denmark where, towards
the end of the month, the enemy was seen to be making desperate attempts to
evacuate troops by sea to Norway. Sorties were flown in daylight, at dusk and
at night and many sightings were reported, which culminated in May 3rd when
Tommy
Thompson
reported that, off the East Coast of Denmark, there was a convoy of 200
ships which was immediately attacked by aircraft of Coastal Command and 2nd T.A.F.
and the latter claimed to have destroyed 23 and damaged 115. On May 5th all
tasks were cancelled and on May 7th a confirmation was received of the rumours
that Germany had surrendered unconditionally, whereupon the squadrons were stood
-
+
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