7
As far as Operations were concerned, October and November were extremely
unproductive and December was not much better but, towards the end of the month,
the Wing started to photograph Military Installations in the Pas de Calais area
and these were interesting at a later date when South-East England was attacked
by the dreaded Buzz Bomb. There was panic in England about these photographs
and prints were required almost before the aircraft had landed! 34 Wing rose to
the occasion magnificently when prints of pictures taken on the same afternoon
were flown by
Harry Cartmell
at night to Swanton Morley for 2 Group.
Christmas was celebrated with perhaps rather more than the usual zest because
it was the first Christmas of the Wing. The airmen were entertained on the 25th
by Officers and Sergeants and there was an "All Ranks" Dance in the evening.
The Officers held a more sedate dinner party on the 26th at which speeches were
called for but produced only one outstanding orator in
Tony Davis
, who made a
singularly apt reference to the 16 Squadron motto "Operta Aperta."
Mosquitos
and
Spitfires
continued to be allotted and, by February, 16 Sqn
were almost fully equipped and 140 were now taking an active part again in Day-
light Operations in
Mosquitos
. The weather improved and tasks became more and
more numerous so that, on Feb 24th, we were able to fly 31 sorties of which 29
were successful and produced 7,451 negatives and 23,466 prints.
At this period 140 were given an interesting and important new task which
had been started by 106 Group but which that Group was unable to complete. 91
small areas in Normandy were to be covered, using survey cameras, in order to
select sites on which the future airfields of 2nd Tactical Air Force and the
Unites States Army Air Forces were to be built when the ground had been captured.
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