Chapter 1 RAAF Wings Over Europe; Out of the Drink; Blood Brothers

RAAF WINGS OVER EUROPE

0N June 6, 1944, began the biggest military operation in world history-Allied armies breached the western wall of Hitler's Europe. Invasion-that magic word-had become reality. It was the beginning of the end in the European war. Outmaneuvered, outfought, the Germans fell back, back towards the Fatherland, back towards the last ditches that fenced Hitler's Reich from the fury of peoples his barbarians had despoiled, dishonoured and betrayed.

Above and before the gigantic mechanized armies of justice went equally gigantic air armadas, integral, indispensable, part of the incredible, skilfully fashioned blueprint of victory. Historians must draw the whole stupendous picture of these events in which air power was co-ordinated, as never before, with land forces, consolidating into the most invincible double-edged war weapon of historic times. Here, however, we pinpoint Australia's share, a share which places Australian airmen alongside the Australian Imperial Forces in the glorious annals of Australian military history.

"Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain."

Before we begin, we must be sure that we have a true sense of proportion. In the invasion of Normandy-that is invasion in the physical sense of forces actually landing there -the Australian part was gallant but quite small. In the three critical months that followed D-day Australian Spitfire and Mosquito pilots alone shared directly in this colossal drama.

That is the immediate picture. The long range picture is, of course, far different. It is one in which every R.A.A.F. operational squadron falls into place as a very definite part. Three months before D-day, invasion preliminaries involved all the Allied air forces in the European theatre. Practically every member of the R.A.A.F. in R.A.F. operational squadrons had a share. But it isn't easy to get a detached view of the R.A.A.F. share in these final onslaughts from the air. It isn't easy for a very good and significant reason. The final victory has come essentially because of the masterly way in which all these forces were blended into the greatest war machine the world has ever known. We must admit that fact very consciously into our minds. Having done so we are free to recognize that the R.A.A.F. contribution in Europe has been notable. It is all the more notable when seen against the whole background of Australian obligations and achievements in the Pacific.

There is no call for undue modesty.

The courage and skill and capacity for getting the job done displayed by R.A.A.F. airmen have been widely and readily acclaimed and no forces anywhere in the world have been fighting so far from their homeland; a homeland which has been itself seriously threatened.

Geographically, strategically, tactically. even emotionally, the European scene in which these men fought has been immense and their numbers relatively small.

It is, therefore, no more than simple justice to hold a spotlight over their achievements.

In doing so we need to remember that all R.A.A.F. squadrons serving overseas have been integral in the Royal Air Force.

For every airman serving with an R.A.A.F. squadron there have been at least three Australians serving in R.A.F. squadrons.

During the four and a half years before D-day, the air war over Europe was hard slogging, and concentrated smashing at strategic targets spread over the Continent. Australia's bomber squadrons and Australians in R.A.F. squadrons played an indispensable part in this offensive. As the power of Bomber Command multiplied, the mounting effort reached immense proportions and provided innumerable examples of superb heroism and determination among the men who flew the heavy bombers. While many applauded, there were others who doubted the real worth of the strategic attacks. At that time the pattern of victory was vague. The significance of those tremendous blows could not be explained by the men who knew. But, though some doubted the wisdom of the strategy, 'all were united in praise of the men who were doing the job.

Today that four and a half years of mighty effort has been dimmed by even greater happenings. It is difficult to see beyond the glare of the electrifying events since D-day. People, tired of war, excited by the incredible swiftness of success, just haven't been able to comprehend the true significance of what preceded it. But long before D-day the heavy bombers were already doing their part to make the success of the coming invasion a swift and devastating certainty. In those vital months thousands of Australians helped to smash enemy aircraft plants, tank factories, heavy industry, U-boat pens and communications.

Throughout the winter of 1943-4 the heavy bombers, taking advantage of the long black nights, fought their way through formidable fighter defences and intense flak to smash at the vitals of the enemy war machine far inside Europe. Australian aircrews, contributing nine per cent of the strength of Bomber Command, either as members of their own R.A.A.F. squadrons or flying in R.A.F. bombers, experienced all the hazards of the long hauls to distant and heavily protected targets. There was no mercy from either elements or foe.

From the moment the heavy bomber force started out over the English coast the enemy was listening, plotting and planning the probable target and the route they would take. From every airfield within reach well-trained, skilful night fighters sped to attack. Countless flak batteries listened and waited for the bombers to come within range. And the bomber crews, using every trick which experience taught them, flew weaving paths avoiding, where possible, the greatest nests of flak and using cloud cover when they could to evade these swarming fighters.

Frequently ice formed in the cloud blanket -ice that weighed down the already heavily laden bombers and forced them to emerge into the open, where the fighters waited. They were tossed by winter storms and, even when they reached the safety of England, the tired crews often faced the hazard of landing their huge aircraft in the dark on cloud shrouded airfields. There were nights when conditions were good, when the strategy of Bomber Command outwitted the enemy and losses were few. There were other nights, the bad ones, when the enemy harassed the bombers for hours and men came back to bases with reports of blazing aircraft falling through the night sky and told of comrades who would not return.

Men were wounded and men were killed. Air gunners were frozen in their turrets or, with oxygen supply lines severed by enemy shells or bullets, gasped for air and were carried unconscious from their stations in the aircraft. Aircraft were brought back and successfully landed so badly damaged that even experienced maintenance crews marvelled that they returned at all.

Certain targets vital to the enemy's war potential were visited frequently. Because they were vital, the enemy massed his defences around them. Veteran crews called one particular route "Flak Alley". The Ruhr was always known ironically as "Happy Valley". Of all targets Berlin was the heart of Nazi Germany - the city which Goering had boasted could not be attacked by Allied bombers. To attack Berlin meant a long journey through many belts of heavy defences and an assault upon the one point which the enemy knew must be defended with every device at his command.

To aircrews a Berlin raid meant the toughest of all air fighting - a gruelling journey, a merciless fight against a determined, skilful tough enemy, and another gruelling flight home again. And to the world who watched and waited for victory a Berlin raid meant all the drama of air war and all the revengeful satisfaction of knowing that here was atonement for the Luftwaffe raids on London.

Berlin was first bombed on the night of August 25, 1940. Although no R.A.A.F. squadron was operating in Britain at that time, there were Australians serving in bomber crews with the R.A.F. The first R.A.A.F. attack on the enemy capital occurred on September 2, 1941, when R.A.A.F. twin-engined Hampdens took part. In August 1943 the first major air attack was made. In the preceding eight months R.A.A.F. Lancasters, had joined the Berlin bound bomber forces on five occasions. Group-Captain H. I. Edwards, of Western Australia, first Australian air V.C. (he also holds the D.S.O. and D.F.C.), led a formation containing the R.A.A.F. heavies in the big attack on August 23, with Pilot-Officer R. C. Dunstan of Mount Eliza, Victoria, an Australian one-legged air gunner, in the rear turret of his Lancaster.

From that August night Australia's part in the assault on Berlin increased steadily, not only by the dispatch of more aircraft from each squadron, but by the advent of new heavy-bomber squadrons and by conversion from Wellingtons to Halifaxes. R.A.A.F. Lancasters, after that first heavy attack, bombed the Reich capital again eleven more times that year. On November 26, 1943, a new Australian Lancaster squadron carried out its first operation by joining the big attack on Berlin and, with other R.A.A.F. bomber units, added to Berlin's devastation on four more raids before the year ended. Australian Halifaxes joined in a mass assault on Berlin on January 20 and were with the Lancasters on each subsequent Berlin mission. In the early months of 1944 Australian Lancasters and Halifaxes took part in all the saturation raids which blasted and burned one German city after another.

The vast strategic plan to wreck the enemy war potential was carried out in carefully calculated detail. Gradually the targets began to change and by April the heavy bombers were already launched upon their share of the invasion plans. Heavy bomber streams began to smash the enemy's aerodromes and all important communications - the railway marshalling yards and junction towns through which he supplied his forces in France and the Low Countries.

Imperceptibly - above all things the tremendous secret of the Allies' intentions had to be kept - blows were concentrated on the area selected for the invasion, with many major strikes elsewhere designed, in part, to distract attention. Month by month the weight of these attacks increased until, in the pre-invasion month of May, the heavy bombers dropped the record weight of more than 30,000 tons of bombs on targets, most of which directly concerned the imminent invasion. Of this total nearly ten per cent was dropped by the Lancasters and Halifaxes of the R.A.A.F.

The concentration on invasion targets increased during the first days of June and then, on the night before the invasion, the tremendous weight of Bomber Command was hurled upon the coastal defences covering the invasion beaches. In that one operation R.A.F. Bomber Command proved that it could be as effective in tactical bombing directly supporting ground forces as it had been in the many months of super-strategic bombing. In that one night the heavies dropped 5,000 tons of bombs on the German coastal batteries with such precision that most of them were silenced for ever.

The degree of skill required to hit these pinpointed heavy-gun batteries can hardly be exaggerated. The targets were minute in terms of heavy bombing, and they were attacked by night. The gun batteries were extremely well protected, either by casements of thick concrete or by solid earthworks. Only a direct hit with a heavy explosive bomb could destroy them completely, and yet many were destroyed. Australian and R.A.F. crews, knowing how vital it was to make sure of their aim dived through cloud to bomb from 1,000 feet or even less.

These smashing attacks were made on the night of June 5 and from then on the men of the Australian heavy-bomber squadrons with their comrades of the R.A.F. the R.C.A.F. and the R.N.Z.A.F. worked tirelessly and with great effect in the massive operations with which Bomber Command supported the invading armies. Australians flew on as many as ten operations in the first thirteen nights. On the night of Tuesday. June 6, the first night the Allied armies spent on French soil, the Australian heavy-bomber squadrons flew with 1,000 other aircraft to smash targets just beyond the invasion area.

The following night Australian Halifaxes attacked railway yards in France and Australian Lancasters blasted troop and motor-transport concentrations. Next night the R.A.A.F. Lancasters smashed at a French railway centre and the night after the Halifaxes provided part of a bombing force which cratered airfields just behind the battle area to prevent enemy aircraft from taking off to interfere in the land fighting. And so the enemy was smashed and blasted night after night - as the heavy bomber increased the paralysing effect of tactical attacks - they were sharing now more intimately than ever before. in the battle below.

The Australian squadrons attacked forty-five targets in June. They dropped nearly 4,500 tons of bombs-nearly 100 tons more than they dropped in the record month of May - and flew half as many more sorties than in May. This record was beaten again in August when 5,800 tons of bombs were dropped and Australian heavies flew over 1,000 sorties. A week after D-day Australian Lancasters took part in the first high-level daylight precision attack to be made by Bomber Command. It was the first daylight raid made by an Australian heavy-bomber squadron in Europe. Escorted by Spitfires, a force of more than 300 Lancasters attacked a concentration of boats at their moorings, E-boat pens, torpedo boats and the dockside at Le Havre.

It was Bomber Command's first heavy daylight attack since 1942. A few very light attacks were carried out by a handful of aircraft in 1943 but in October 1942 two daylight attacks were made with a force of ninety Lancasters. Armament works at Le Creusot were attacked on October 17 of that year and exactly a week later a daylight attack was made on Milan. Australians flew in R.A.F. crews who took part in both raids. The technique employed on these raids was entirely different from that used in the great daylight attack on Le Havre.

In the 1942 raids the bombers flew without escort and attacked from very low level. The Le Havre raid was made from high level, the bombers using precision methods to drop their loads after the target had been accurately marked by Pathfinders. When the target became shrouded in smoke the Pathfinders dropped more marking flares so that following aircraft could bomb with accuracy. The Lancasters began their attack from above 15,000 feet at 10-30 p.m. in full light and a perfectly clear sky. In twenty minutes the 300 Lancasters had dropped their bombs, including a number of 12,000-pounders.

Some of the 12,000-pounders were deliberately dropped in the E-boat basins to set up great tidal waves which washed in the heavily protected pens undermining their foundations and rendering them useless. Other E-boats and torpedo boats were sunk at their moorings and huge fires were started at the dockside. Although the target was soon obscured by heavy smoke which billowed up from the blazing docks, the Pathfinders continued dropping flares which kept the target accurately marked. No enemy fighters attempted to interfere with the raid but flak was accurate and intense and many Lancasters returned on three engines or with other flak damage.

The attack showed Allied mastery of the sky to be so complete that a large force of heavy night bombers without the heavier armament or the armour protection of the American heavy day bombers were able to carry out a completely successful daylight raid with very light losses.

From that day a daylight attack became part of the regular work of Bomber Command.

Out of the forty-five targets the Australian squadrons attacked in June, eight were blasted in daylight. In July they made thirteen daylight attacks out of a total of thirty-eight and in August more than half their missions were in daylight.

Of a record total of forty-nine targets attacked by an Australian squadron in August, twenty-nine of the attacks were made in daylight.

One of these was made on enemy synthetic-oil plants in the Ruhr when a force of Halifaxes, including a R.A.A.F. squadron, were escorted all the way by Spitfires.

In this operation they attacked an area which throughout the war has been notorious for its heavy defences.

Another and dramatic phase of daylight bombing by the heavies began on Tuesday, July 18-six weeks after D-day. At dawn on that morning Australian Lancasters and Halifaxes formed part of a force of iooo heavy bombers which attacked the German positions east of Caen immediately before an attack by the Allied armies. Never before had heavy bombers been used as close support for troops. Infantry, tensed for their own attack, which was to open as soon as the bombing ended, watched swarms of
heavy bombers pulverize enemy lines less than two miles away.

Not only were the enemy strong fronts smashed with precision but bomb types were varied so that wide paths were free of deep craters for the Allied tanks. This was the first time that a thousand heavies of Bomber Command had attacked in daylight. It was the heaviest bombing attack any army in history had yet suffered.

As the great tide of Allied advance swept through France the German army was pounded repeatedly by the Lancasters and Halifaxes and the American heavy bombers. But the variation in the tasks set for the heavies had not ended. Soon after D-day began the Germans' biggest attack on southern England with their new weapon of the vaunted "flying bomb". Part of the plan to defeat the flying-bomb attacks called for a great effort by Bomber Command and the American Air Forces. Without slackening their attacks in support of the Allied armies the heavy bombers made hundreds of sorties against the flying-bomb launching sites and storage depots which the enemy had established in France. Some of these attacks were made in daylight, some at night.

The enemy was confident that by bombing London with the missiles he could affect the course of the war. The flying-bomb bases were ingeniously camouflaged and heavily defended. But the heavy bombers found the launching platforms, despite the camouflage and heavy flak, and destroyed them in large numbers. Small though these targets were, photographs taken after the raids showed almost incredible accuracy in the concentration of bombs.

As the invading armies swept on through France and the Low Countries the heavy-bomber forces still answered every call that was made upon them. And throughout it all the Australian squadrons did magnificent work. It is not possible to set down here a full appreciation of the exploits of the R.A.A.F. heavy-bomber squadrons and of the Australians in the R.A.F. heavy bombers throughout the war.

Dozens of names come to mind. Names of men who have done incredibly brave things. Men who have set superb examples of determination. Men who have helped to improve ever-changing, ever-improving technique of Bomber Command. Men who have died doing their part to bring victory. Security forbids the naming of some. Justice prompts the naming of all. That is not possible, but here is one story. It is the story of a Berlin attack by one heavy bomber which in itself interprets for all the tremendous deeds of the men and the aircraft of Bomber Command.

On the night of February 15, 1944, Flight Sergeant G. C. C. Smith, of Sydney, was an air gunner in a R.A.F. Lancaster flying to Berlin. Smith was the only Australian in the crew. They had been flying together since their first operation. Berlin was not a new target-they had been over the great enemy city on their very first operation and this was their sixth Berlin sortie. Smith had been living as mid-upper gunner, but on this night the squadron gunnery leader suggested that he should go to the rear turret and give his usual place to another air gunner who had newly arrived from a training unit and was entirely new to Lancasters.

The flight to the target was uneventful. There was the usual flak over the coast and each succeeding defence belt but the Hun fighters had not found them- yet. Berlin was in sight and they were preparing to make their bombing run when things begin to happen. Smith from his position in the rear turret was searching the port beam when he saw what appeared to be fighter flares in the sky. Then he recognized wing tip, nose and identification lights and knew that a night fighter was about to attack.

That instant Smith gave evasive direction to his captain, swung his turret swiftly and opened fire. By this time the fighter was five to six hundred yards off, and as he opened fire Smith saw the Hun's lights steadying - the enemy fighter had the Lancaster in his line of fire. In a second or two four lines of tracer and two lines of cannon streamed from the wings of the fighter, but before the Lancaster was hit Smith got in a good burst and the fighter exploded in the sky.

Before he died the Hun had found his mark. Smith was hit. He had Just told the captain over the intercom. that he had been hit, when he saw more tracer coming from dead astern. Two lines of tracer seemed to pass underneath and two more right through the Lancaster. The captain took swift evasive action which broke off the attack and the second fighter was not seen again.

A cannon shell had shattered one of Smith's legs, machine-gun bullets had wounded him under the knee and in the leg, his turret was unserviceable and his parachute cover was on fire. Cannon shells had raked the Lancaster from the tall along the fuselage to the mid-upper turret which was out of action. Shell had exploded, breaking the mid-upper gunner's left leg and tearing the muscle of his calf. The oil pipe at the bottom of the turret had been pierced and the oil was blazing. Instruments had been blown to bits, the rear wheel shot away, hydraulics shattered, the starboard wheel damaged and the flaps, also damaged, had gone down and could not be raised again. A cannon-shell fragment had pierced one engine and the bomb doors were jammed shut.

When the captain called his crew to check for casualties there was no answer from the mid-upper gunner. The wireless operator went back to see what had happened and found the gunner lying on the floor without his oxygen mask and almost unconscious. Despite a broken leg he had gone down to beat out the oil fire with his helmet and then had attempted to crawl forward and inform the pilot. Oxygen revived him and he was laid out on the floor of the bomber while the wireless operator climbed into the mid-upper turret to continue to watch for enemy fighters, remaining there for the rest of the flight.

Smith was told that the rest of the crew were coming down to get him out of his turret. Knowing that the mid-upper gunner was wounded and the turret out of action Smith refused to be moved. He insisted on remaining in his turret despite appalling pain from his shattered leg. The navigator extinguished the fire with his parachute and Smith continued to operate his turret manually.

The Lancaster, now headed for home, was almost unmanageable. With damaged instruments it strayed off course and flew into a heavily defended area. The captain threw the aircraft into such violent evasive action that at one time the crew thought he must have lost control. Eventually they flew clear of the flak and straightening out, crossed the coast to the sea.

By this time Smith's oxygen mask had frozen up. Unable to get any oxygen through it he took it off and breathed the outer atmosphere. As they flew out over the sea the crew chopped the bombs away and then went to the rear turret to extricate Smith. The door of the turret was frozen hard. They had to chop it away with a crash axe. Still fully conscious, Smith tried to pull himself out by using his left leg and hands, but he was caught on the right side. The bomb-aimer found that his right leg, completely shattered, had caught in the ammunition belt and controls. It took almost an hour to get Smith free. They carried him from his turret, gave him morphia and laid him on the floor of the fuselage.

The pilot headed for the nearest base where he intended making a belly landing, but the bomb-bay doors, which had been opened when the crew cut the bombs away, could not be closed. He decided to come down on the damaged undercarriage. The bomb-aimer and wireless operator lay down on either side of Smith to protect him if they crashed. The pilot made his approach and brought the crippled bomber down in what Smith later described as the most beautiful landing he could imagine. The fuselage was hacked away and Smith and the mid-upper gunner were carried out of the aircraft. Next morning Smith's leg was amputated. In addition to his shattered leg Smith had been terribly frostbitten on both hands, his forehead and cheekbones.

That is one story from Bomber Command. Today Flight-Sergeant Geoffrey Smith, R.A.A.F., wears the ribbon of the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

OUT OF THE DRINK

WHEN an Allied fighter pilot leaves his crippled aircraft and parachutes into the Channel, when the crew of a battered bomber hear the order to "ditch" and stand by for the moment when their aircraft splashes into the icy waters of the North Sea, their call for aid flashes to the men of the Air Sea Rescue Service. These are the men who impartially serve all Air Force commands and airmen of all nationalities.

Britain is an island; enemy territory lies across the sea, consequently men of the Air Sea Rescue Service are always on the alert. Among them are men who fly Spitfires and Walrus Amphibians and others who have forsaken the air for the sea to pilot swift rescue launches to drifting fliers. Since war began hundreds of airmen have been saved from the sea. Keen-eyed pilots in Spitfires help to locate the stranded fliers and keep watch over the lumbering Walruses, protecting them from enemy attack while they alight close to drifting fliers and take them aboard. In this highly specialized service fly members of the R.A.A.F., making hazardous landings in stormy seas or facing the threat of enemy batteries while covering airmen who have parachuted or ditched their aircraft in the sea close to a hostile shore.

Flight-Lieutenant F. E. Wilson, a R.A.A.F. gunner flying in a Walrus, was awarded the D.F.C. in May 1944 for outstanding work in the rescue of eighteen airmen. On one occasion Wilson hauled an airman out of a drifting, dinghy into the Walrus, enabling his pilot to taxi out of range before they could be hit by shore batteries. The pilot in distress was a pilot who had baled out into the sea off the enemy coast rather than come down in France and risk falling into the hands of the Germans. He was too close to the enemy shore for a rescue launch so the Walrus was put down on a heavy sea. The sea was too rough for the aircraft to take off again so the pilot decided to taxi towards England.

The enemy began shelling the aircraft and two 4-inch Shells landed within twenty yards. The Walrus zigzagged across the water as fast as the heavy seas would permit and continued taxiing for four hours until an Air Sea Rescue launch took them in tow. They were only a short distance from a floating minefield when the launch found them and were heading straight towards it. Eventually the launch brought them under the lee of the shore. The waterlogged aircraft was finally baled out by Wilson after six hours' pumping and was able to take off and return to its base.

On another rescue sortie Wilson stood on the wing of a damaged Walrus for four and a half hours while the pilot taxied through the wintry seas of the Channel after saving an American Thunderbolt pilot who had been forced down while returning from his first operation over Europe after fighting for a year in the South-west Pacific. After the rescue the Walrus pilot endeavoured to take off in a choppy sea and the float of the aircraft was tom off. The pilot throttled back and Wilson clambered on to the starboard wing to prevent the aircraft from capsizing. He was joined by the rear gunner and the pair stayed on the wing while the pilot taxied the Walrus f or two hours until it was taken in tow by a R.A.F. rescue launch. The pilot replaced the rear gunner on the wing but Wilson remained on the wing for four and a half hours with a wintry sea breaking over him the whole time.

Since D-day Australians have figured in many dramatic rescues. One Australian, Pilot Officer T. F. Murray, of Newcastle, rescued a Typhoon pilot after alighting in a fourteen foot sea. It was too rough to take off again and for more than four hours the Walrus taxied towards the English coast. The Walrus was shipping water fast and the R.A.F. navigator and wireless operator, lying on their faces, toiled at the bilge pump in turn. The sea had ripped off the starboard float and stripped the rudder. A minesweeper was sighted. The Walrus was doomed so the sweeper took them on board and then sank the aircraft.

R.A.A.F. SPITFIRES IN AT THE KILL

PILOTS and ground staff of an Australian Spitfire squadron are regarded as the luckiest members of the R.A.A.F. in the European war. They had the incomparable thrill of being in at the kill from the word "go". They were first to keep watch while the greatest armada of all time crossed the English Channel on that breath-taking day, June 6, 1944. They gave air cover as the great Allied armies surged inland.

They landed on a Normandy aerodrome on D + 19; shared in the attack and defeat of such remnants of the now vainglorious Luftwaffe as dared to show its swastikas over the battle areas; flew interminable sorties at nought feet shattering a terrified and fleeing enemy after Montgomery had broken through. Tense and dog-weary from the toil of battle the Spitfire pilots never let up. This was what they had waited for-the fleeing enemy square in the sights of their cannon, at long last being blasted into utter defeat.

It is appropriate that first impressions of D-day should be recorded by the commanding officer, Squadron-Leader Donald H. Smith, of Victor Harbour, S.A. Squadron-Leader Smith had already received the Soviet Medal for Valour in recognition of his splendid combat record in Spitfires over Malta. His leadership in the final campaign in Western Europe won him the D.F.C. Not long before the invasion began he succeeded another notable Spitfire pilot in command of this squadron Squadron-Leader Donald G. Andrews, D.F.C. With Andrews in command, the squadron had done fine service as a unit in the air defence of Great Britain.

Well before D-day the squadron had transferred to the 2nd Tactical Air Force and flew many sorties as escorts to American Marauders, Fortresses, Liberators and Mitchells over enemy targets in Europe. As invasion day grew nearer, enemy marshalling areas, headquarters, radio stations, road transport and railways became priority targets for the Spitfires. All this time the Luftwaffe was expected. But it failed to live up to these expectations. Then came D-day itself and still the Luftwaffe was absent.

"We knew it was on," Squadron-Leader Smith declared a few days after D-day, "when we went on patrol on the evening of June 5. We saw the greatest convoy the world has ever known. And when we got back to our base in England we attended a memorable mass briefing where we learned details of the tremendous invasion plan. On D-day we were out patrolling the coast and the Allied beachhead. We were sightseers. We saw this great battle begin.

"As the invasion fleet approached the enemy coast I watched Bomber Command's heavies go into action. High on the cliff of a small headland there was a battery of heavy German guns-six or eight of them in a great concrete emplacement. That battery was completely wiped out. I have seen some good bombing since the war began, but nothing to equal this. Later in the campaign I was able to visit the site of this battery. There was just a mass of wreckage where walls and roof of concrete, six to eight feet thick, had once sheltered guns fifteen feet long."

While the Spitfires, with thousands of other Allied aircraft from the 2nd Tactical Air Force and the Eighth and Ninth U.S. Air Forces, mounted guard over the Allied invasion forces or made swift and deadly sorties behind the German lines, the Luftwaffe was so impotent that it had no standing patrols. Those Huns who did dare cross into the invasion area just didn't stay, except as a mass of wreckage on the ground.

Before it had a permanent base in France the squadron flew from a temporary base in the invasion area. Peasants from a nearby village greeted the pilots with handshakes and "Bon soir, Australie". Airmen received gifts of flowers and German helmets and belts as souvenirs. The enemy, too, had been attracted and shells were soon whistling overhead. Pilots spent the night sharing slit trenches,
blankets, stew and tea with men of the Royal Engineers, who were constructing an airstrip.

The Spitfires' first blood in invasion combat was on June 16. Over the Caen area a patrol met twelve M.E.109s. Two enemy aircraft destroyed, two probably destroyed and 1 damaged without loss to themselves, was the Australians' very satisfactory score. Flight Officer K. K. Lawrence, Adelaide, and Warrant-Officer C. A. Seeney, Toowong (Q.) (since reported missing, believed killed), shared the first one destroyed; Fight-Lieutenant V. Lancaster, North Fitzroy (V.), and Warrant-Officer C. A. Rice, Armidale (N.S.W.), accounted for the other.

First combat with the Luftwaffe after the squadron had moved to France came on the second day of operations. Four Spitfires led by Flight-Lieutenant Lancaster ran into eight F.W.19os. With the odds two to one against them, the Australians were still on top. After Lancaster had scored one probable and one damaged and the other three pilots had claimed one each damaged, the Germans made for base. Later in the same day, Lancaster and Flight-Sergeant Ralph Dutneall, Hawthorn (V.) (since reported killed), were "jumped" by six F.W.190s which had been skulking in the clouds. Lancaster's perspex was blown to pieces by cannon-fire and he was wounded in the head and neck by shrapnel, but he got his revenge by pumping a long burst into another F.W., which burst into flames.

It was about this period that the onslaught on enemy road transport began to mount. Not long after they had established their base in Normandy the men of the R.A.A.F. Spitfires got their first real taste of this ground attack -a task in which they were to become adept. Three aircraft on armed reconnaissance spotted nine large German fuel tankers moving along a road. "Seven of them went up in flames very smartly," Squadron-Leader Smith commented. Later an Allied tank commander sent a message of congratulation The destruction of those tankers had a marked effect on the course of the battle in that small section. The same sort of thing was going on all over Normandy, leading up to the utter rout of the enemy. About this time the Spitfires began carrying a 1,000-pound bomb load - a load that made them even more formidable.

From the beginning, army-air force co-operation was superb and though that June weather proved the worst June weather known in Normandy for many years the R.A.F. and R.A.A.F. Spitfires were always on the job; rarely were they unable to give the Army support at short notice. Almost without interruption they flew on patrol, on armed reconnaissance and on ground-attack sorties. It was
only when the Allied advance attained such incredible speed, and the squadrons had to move forward considerable distances to new bases, that there was any appreciable pause in their devastating attacks. In July alone the Australian squadron destroyed or damaged 150 mechanized enemy transport vehicles, tanks and armoured cars.

For more than two months-until the great avalanche of Allied land forces began to sweep towards and across the borders of Germany itself-the R.A.A.F. squadron lived and worked in picturesque Normandy. The base at which they spent the greater part of their time was notable for three things - dust, mud and the intense contrast between war and the rural countryside where the Normandy farmer-folk lived and carried on with their daily work, bringing in hay, milking tethered cows and congregating in what villages and towns bombs and shells had left standing. On the aerodrome and on the roads life was lived in an almost continual cloud of fine dust rising to a hundred feet; that was, of course, except when rain intervened and then everyone slopped through about six inches of thick mud.

The squadron camp itself could scarcely have been better situated for an open camp. The tents were tucked beneath high green hedges in the tiny patchwork fields or among aged trees in one or other of the hundreds of orchards. The scene was almost too sharply in contrast with the task the airmen were doing. Contemplation of it would be interrupted ruthlessly by such incidents as the return of a holed aircraft, news of one of the boys having "bought it", word that a patrol just in had "pranged a bunch of Nazi met. (mechanized enemy transport)".

One pilot told how Flight-Sergeant Dickie Peteies (of Bundarra, N.S.W.), out with an armed recce, dived to "have a crack at a mobile flak gun". He was just pulling out after his attack when a 20-MM. shell hit the back of the hood of his cockpit. Dickie called the C.O. and told him his aircraft had been hit but nothing more, though he had been wounded in the back of the head and the shoulder. The C.O. detailed another "kite" to escort him back to base. Just as he was coming in to land Dickie called up asking for an ambulance. "He made a beautiful landing and then passed out at the end of the run," the pilot added. "He must have lost a lot of blood on the flight back." Some days later news came that Dickie was getting along splendidly in hospital in England.

"We had six Spits out on recce when we ran into five F.W.190s," said Flying-Officer (now Flight-Lieutenant) Jack Olver, of Elsternwick, Melbourne, putting another incident into words. "We raced after them and by a stroke of luck I happened to be in the lead. They dived for the deck as soon as they saw us and we must have chased them for about thirty miles before we got within range. Three of us all got in bursts on the last of the 190s. We saw him dive into a field and blow up. The other four Huns turned and fought and there was quite a dogfight for a bit, but we got one more of them down. Roberts (Flight-Lieutenant G. Roberts of Balwyn, Victoria) and I shared him."

At night the ground battle became extremely realistic-"a Guy Fawkes display free nearly every night" as one of the pilots put it. There was the heartening sound of Allied heavy and medium bombers going over, the flash of searchlights, the glare of flares lighting up the bombers' targets and the fantastic patterns of tracer fired from the enemy's ground defences. All this to -watch from the squadron's "grandstand", only a few miles off. Sometimes the enemy raided and bombed. Once he caused several casualties in the squadron's lines, but the airmen knew that the Allies were on the "up and up", were winning the war in Western Europe and no squadron's morale could have been higher.

Off duty the airmen learned something of the life of the French people. They learned to ask, haltingly perhaps, but with the desired results, for "six litres du lait" and "douzaine oeufs". More often than not they got the six litres of milk and one dozen eggs. At one village they found an ageing Frenchman who had fought with the Australians in the last war and was tremendously proud of the fact. There was no question that the Spitfires were welcome in Normandy. Between events the Australians tried to teach their R.A.F. comrades to play Australian Rules football. The football had come from the Australian Comforts Fund. It provided a lot of fun and well-earned relaxation. All this went on intermingled with hard toil for the ground staff and hard fighting for the aircrew.

Sometimes when rain and clouds favoured them the F.W.19os and M.E.109s took a chance. One day the C.O. was leading a formation of twelve Spitfires on armed reconnaissance. His quick eyes spotted the enemy. Over his radio he called: "Something interesting." It was a formation of fifty Focke-Wulfe and Messerschmitts. Some had yellow noses, suggesting to the Australians that they were led by the German fighter ace, Mantoni.

Twelve against fifty and the advantage of height with the enemy. Smith didn't hesitate. Weaving violently and firing his guns continuously he led his formation straight up to meet the diving Germans. The Huns split formation and, in their confusion, lost the advantage. They turned and made for their home base, the Spitfires hard on their tails.

Smith led his formation back to base without loss and an added score against the enemy of four destroyed, one probably destroyed and five damaged. Smith had shot one down and damaged another; three Warrant-Officers J. Steward, of Sunshine (V.); Keith Daff, Moorabbin (V.); and J. Boulton, Eden (N.S.W.)-had one each to their credit and Warrant-Officer C. A. Seeney established claim to one probable and one damaged.

In this way the Spitfires' war went on until the enemy ground forces began to crack. Air combat became a thing of the past and the squadron joined with R.A.F. Spitfires, Mustangs and Typhoons, many of them piloted by Australians serving in the R.A.F., in slaughtering the retreating German columns. In the now historic triangle formed by Vimoutiel, Orbec and Lisieux the German 7th Army was hopelessly trapped. There the 2nd Tactical Air Force had a clean-up. It was a massacre. In one day this force alone destroyed or damaged 2,035 mechanized enemy transport and 165 tanks. A formation of R.A.A.F. Spitfires accounted for fifty of these in one attack.

As the great battle went on the scene changed with almost incredible rapidity. Squadrons moved forward to new bases while other squadrons from the home bases moved in. The Tactical Air Force was tactical indeed. It was fighting almost as part of the great mobile Allied armies it supported. The ground organization was hard put to maintain the pace and do its job thoroughly all the time. On occasions officers and men were passing through villages scarcely touched by the immense mechanized tongues of the Army's fast moving columns.

On one occasion, the medical officer, Flight-Lieutenant Gordon Walker, one of the flight-commanders, Flight-Lieutenant Jack Olver and Flight-Sergeant F. ("Timber") Wood, fitter in charge of ground maintenance crews, drove into a village past which the Army's columns had already swept. They were hailed as "liberators". Wine was brought out and men of the gallant Maquis insisted, somewhat to the Australians' embarrassment, on embracing them, and kissing them traditionally on both cheeks.

As the airmen flew out on their sorties and returned to base they could trace the course of the battle by the great swathes of bomb and shell craters, the strange patterns inscribed on the landscape by thousands of tanks maneuvering in battle sectors, the pock-marking of foxholes and trenches and earthworks, where bitter infantry and artillery conflicts had been waged. Smashed bridges, uprooted woods and pulverized towns all told the same story. But that picture has faded. The great initial task set for the 2nd Tactical Air Force by Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces had been accomplished. The Allied Armies had swept on to Germany itself. Australians will find a deep national significance in the accomplishment of this task. Men of the Royal Australian Air Force fought with their comrades of the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces and acquitted themselves just as their fathers acquitted themselves twenty-six years before-and the battlefields were the same.

SIGN OF THE GOLDEN EAGLE

IN May 30, 1942, the people of Cologne heard the wail of the air-raid sirens. Cologne had been raided before, many times. Its people were as accustomed as anyone can be to the terrors of air raids. But this night was different. Above the din of the flak batteries came a terrible, awe-inspiring, terrifying engine roar . . . for the first time in history a thousand bombers were in the air, a thousand bombers with a single purpose, the obliteration of Cologne.

An extraordinary, unprecedented fireworks display was the first introduction the people of Cologne had to the new era in blitz bombing. Brilliant white flares cascaded down, red ones floated in the clouds above, yellow ones sent out a penetrating glare from where they settled on the ground. R.A.A.F. Pathfinders were at work in strength for the first time, marking the target for the stream of heavy bombers which followed close behind.

Pathfinding technique is one of the greatest triumphs of the war and Australians have taken an important part in its development. Even now the work of the Pathfinders is so secret that no member of a Pathfinder crew an be named as such. Below their aircrew badges the men wear a Golden Eagle, the sign of the Pathfinder; but it is never worn on "ops". Although the "current" Australian Pathfinders cannot be named here, there is one man who is well known to both the enemy and to many thousands of people in Australia and abroad. He is an Australian, the officer commanding the Pathfinder Force,
Air Vice-Marshal D. C. T. Bennett, C.B., K.B.E., D.S.O. (R.A.A.F.V.R.).

This 34-year-old, pre-war airliner pilot, who comes from Toowoomba, Queensland, is a famous aviation pioneer. He piloted the Mercury pick-a-back aircraft and was co-organizer of he Atlantic ferry service. Regarded as a super-navigator-he is author of two books on it navigation-it was Bennett who first suggested that a team of expert navigators should be formed into a force that could go to Germany in any weather, pinpoint a particular target, even through unbroken cloud or fog, and mark it for the bombers with special coloured flares and markers.

Bennett has never suggested more than he would do himself. He was, therefore, the first Pathfinder to fly.

The Pathfinder technique enabled the greatest possible tonnage of bombs to be dropped in the shortest possible time. With the target clearly and exactly marked in advance the swarm of heavy bombers can now fly directly to the aiming point and cascade their loads. No time is wasted over the target and no aircraft is delayed in its bombing run because the target is difficult to identify. When night bombing first began the bombers needed a moon to light the way. The moon was also good for night fighters. Now, night bombing is completely reversed. The Pathfinders find the target and mark it in conditions which help the bombers to evade night fighters and searchlights by using cloud cover.

Pathfinders are specially chosen from the most experienced and brilliant bomber crews. They are chosen chiefly for their skill in navigation, the most important requirement in successful Pathfinding, and for tenacity and determination. They must be first at the target and at exactly the time decided before takeoff. Saturation raids, in which hundreds of heavy bombers drop their loads in a few minutes, hinge on accurate timing and no timing must be more accurate than that of Pathfinders.

Highly secret and ingenious aids assist the navigators to pinpoint a target, even through ten-tenths cloud, and to drop their markers. On normal nights the markers are dropped on the ground with a few flares in the sky. When cloud obscures the target entirely the markers are hung in the cloud blanket and the target area is marked just as accurately as when flares are dropped on the ground.

Pathfinders made possible the first really successful attack on the Krupp works. Before this it had been impossible to make an accurate and concentrated attack on the Ruhr because of the industrial haze in the valley. But when the Pathfinders went to work no smoke could hide the targets. Even scientifically designed and expertly placed smoke screens, which the enemy used in an attempt to foil the bombers, were of no avail.

The use of flares is by no means new; but the way the Pathfinders use them is unique. Pyrotechnic experts have provided a remarkable variety of markers and, by continually changing the colours and the patterns of the flares which mark the targets, the Pathfinders baffle the enemy defences, defying them to copy the pattern of the markers and cause confusion among the raiding forces. British scientists have provided markers which can be dropped accurately, have exceptional ballistic qualities and very exact fusing. Yet, despite all the special features and the great number required, the weight is so light that the total load carried by each Pathfinder aircraft is slightly less than that carried by those on the main force.

Soon after D-day, June 6th, 1944, when night bombers were turned into day bombers~ Pathfinders were ready with a method for marking targets by day just as successfully as by night. Weather makes no difference to the accuracy of the technique and when targets begin to bum, obscuring the aiming points with heavy smoke, the Pathfinders send down more indicators and keep the target accurately marked throughout the attack.

The Pathfinder force uses fast-flying Mosquitoes and specially equipped Lancasters and Halifaxes. Australians fly in all types. Some R.A.A.F. navigators have performed notable work in the development of the Pathfinder methods and, throughout, Australian pilots, wireless operators, and air gunners have done a superb job. One day the full story of the remarkable personal achievements of members of Pathfinder force can be told. Meanwhile, they work in an obscurity which does not, however, blind service chiefs or the public to the superb quality of the job they do.

BLOOD BROTHERS

HERE is the story of famous blood brothers, the 2nd Tactical Air Force and the successor to R.A.F. Fighter Command, Air Defence of Great Britain. They are associated in one story for two reasons:
they flew and fought in the same skies, though for quite distinct tactical purposes, and the members of each are alike in outlook, tradition and fighting spirit.

The T.A.F. flies Mosquitoes, Typhoons, Mustangs, Spitfires, Mitchells, Bostons and Marauders; A.D.G.B. has Tempests, Mosquitoes and Spitfires. T.A.F. seeks out the Nazi destroyers in their own lairs while A.D.G.B., like its famous predecessor, Fighter Command, has smashed every attempt by the Luftwaffe to destroy Britain's war potential.

Australians have an indelible share in the story of this twin air effort. An Australian T.A.F. Mosquito squadron flew more than 30,000 miles in 1,300 operational hours during the vital June-July days of 1944, attacking road convoys, smashing road and rail junctions and blasting trains and enemy key points. Wing-Commander D. R. Wiredale, D.F.C. and Bar, of Melbourne, led the squadron during these two critical months. By August 1944 he had completed 634 operational sorties. He won his D.F.C. in 1943 for a successful night attack on an enemy airfield, had the bar added while commanding the Mosquitoes. The citation praised his "fine fighting spirit and eagerness for action".

Flying-Officer A. G. Oxlade (since missing air ops) and his observer, Flight-Lieutenant M. Shanks, of the same squadron, earned fame among Mosquito crews by bringing back their aircraft from a low-level attack in France with six feet of the starboard wing shot away.

The Australian Mosquito squadron in A.D.G.B. destroyed twelve Nazi planes in the seven nights following D-day. This brought the squadron total score to thirty-seven. The first commanding officer was a Battle-for Britain pilot, Wing-Commander M. G. C. Olive, D.F.C., of Brisbane (since reported killed in aircraft accident). The squadron engaged in undramatic defence patrols before it got its first chance of action. Then it transferred to a forward field for intruder and long-range work, over the Bay of Biscay.

Early in 1944 this squadron went into the "front line" of A.D.G.B. and its string of successes began almost at once. The commanding officer, Wing-Commander K. Hampshire, D.S.O., D.F.C., of Perth (W.A.), whose splendid record in the air war over New Guinea is widely known, scored seven kills in this period. In the fight against the Germans' V-weapon-the flying bomb-the squadron also took a lively and efficient part.

One of the squadron's most brilliant pilots, Squadron-Leader, later Wing-Commander, Gordon Panitz, D.F.C. (since reported missing air ops) who subsequently took command of another notable Australian Mosquito squadron, had a magnificent record as a "train-buster". He wrecked twenty-two trains, destroyed two J.U.88s, wrecked three enemy transformer stations, damaged four ships and made many attacks on German motor transports in his brilliant Mosquito sorties.

Another notable Mosquito pilot in Wing Commander Hampshire's squadron is Flight Lieutenant Robert Cowper, D.F.C., whose operational experience includes service with a Defiant night fighter squadron in Ireland, and ground-attack sorties with a Beaufighter squadron in the Middle East, where he had experience in "train-busting" and helped to cover the invasion of Sicily. When he joined the Mosquito squadron he quickly got into his stride and with his observer, Flying-Officer Bill Watson, was credited with four enemy aircraft destroyed in the first weeks of the invasion of France.

Flying-Officer Harry Turner, of Melbourne, is another distinguished member of the squadron. With his observer, Flying-Officer Mervyn Partridge, of Brisbane, he took part in a two-plane Mosquito attack on a German headquarters at Choret, France, in which 500 pound bombs were sent crashing through the front door. This raid, which took place on July 2 3, 1944, was so efficient that when the

two aircraft turned after their bombing run to strafe the target it was unnecessary-the building had been demolished.

To tell adequately the story of the work of the R.A.A.F. within the 2nd T.A.F. is impossible in such an account as this. It is equally impossible to give a full picture of the work of the R.A.A.F. squadrons themselves. Here one distinguished R.A.A.F. pilot interprets briefly for all. He is Squadron-Leader Charles Scherf, D.S.O. and Bar who, because of his passion for intruder combat while on a non-operational tour as intruder controller, earned the nickname "Last Trip" Scherf. He has a tally of fourteen and a half enemy aircraft destroyed in the air and nine on the ground, with many damaged in addition. This tally includes the remarkable score of five Hun aircraft shot down in fifteen minutes four of them in five minutes.

Squadron-Leader Scherf served in 2nd T.A.F. with an R.A.A.F. squadron. He tells his story simply and with detachment, but it reflects the intense singleness of purpose with which he fought. We introduce him with a mockingly courteous title, "Pardon my intrusion", theme line of his "last" trip. Scherf, brought to a B.B.C. microphone, said: "The third trip I did was in some ways the most exciting. This time I had a different observer, but he was a chap I knew and had flown with before on successful operations. Actually he has been in at the kill on more aircraft than any other member of the squadron. He is Flying-Officer Finlayson, D.F.C., and comes from Victoria, British. Columbia. Another aircraft went with us. This time it was Squadron-Leader Cleveland, who had been with me the time we shared in shooting up the German five-engined Heinkel monstrosity.

"We made for North Germany and the Baltic. When we had got to the Baltic I caught sight of an aircraft flying some miles away so I turned and gave chase at high speed. The German must have seen us coming. The black smoke pouring from his aircraft exhaust showed he was giving her full boost. I caught him up with no trouble. Coming in behind I gave him a short burst and he went down in flames into the sea. We continued our journey to Kubitzer beyond Rostock and saw a single-engined aircraft circling. We maneuvered in behind him. He must have seen us because he started doing evasive action. I got into range and fired two bursts at wide deflection but missed him. Eventually I got right on his tail and gave him a short burst. He flipped on his back and burst into flames and went straight into the ground.

"Southward from here, near an aerodrome, we saw a number of enemy aircraft flying around. I saw a Heinkel 177 coming over the aerodrome. To get behind him I would have had to cross the aerodrome so, instead, I attacked him from underneath and in front. After a short burst he caught fire and went straight down in flames into the bay nearby. As I turned I saw Squadron Leader Cleveland chasing a J.U.88. Pieces were flying off it but I did not see the final result because my attention was distracted by some aircraft parked on the field. One was silhouetted beautifully against the bay so I came down and gave him a burst and was very satisfied to see him blow up.

Then I saw another aircraft and told Cleveland to chase it. He mumbled something over the R/T which I could not catch. I saw him turn away from it so I went over and gave chase. It was an Arodo 68. A short burst put him down in flames into the bay. I then turned sharply on to some flying boats moored in the bay and attacked a Dornier 18. 1 saw lots of streaks and smoke but no explosion, so I only claimed him as damaged. Then I sighted another aircraft in the distance and turned to chase him. My observer warned me that we were running into flak so I turned aside and the next thing I knew was seeing the tracer shooting at me. I got one hit on the tailplane and one hit on the drop tanks-our extra fuel supply for long trips. This knocked a hole two feet across in the tail and for a moment, as the aircraft began to drag sideways, I thought we had 'had it'. I retrimmed and she seemed O.K., so I resumed the chase of the J.U.86, caught him up and shot him down.

"While all this was happening we had lost Cleveland so we set course for home," Squadron-Leader Scherf continued. "Flying out over the sea I caught sight of Cleveland - you can tell a Mosquito miles away - and caught him up. He was flying low on one engine. He told me he had destroyed a couple of aircraft and he would not be able to get home. He said goodbye to me because there was nothing I could do to help him. He asked me to write to Jeanie, his wife, and I said goodbye to a good friend and wished him good luck. I have heard since that he is in hospital, interned in Sweden, but otherwise O.K.

"On our way home we were shot at by a German convoy that we could not avoid. However, the worst damage did not come from that quarter but from a large flock of small birds. Just north of Heligoland, as we were crossing the coast at low tide, I was flying into the sun. The noise of my aircraft disturbed the birds and they rose in a great swarm in front of me. I did not see the birds quickly enough because I had turned into the sun, and I ran into the middle of them. The result was twenty-seven holes in the wings and birds lodged in the radiators. There were blood smears all over the cockpit and other parts of the aircraft. If the birds had been much bigger it would have been fatal, for it can do a lot of damage if you hit a big bird when you are flying at high speed. We got home safely."

From the wiles of the Mosquito intruder with its intense fire -power and long range, it is a natural step to the dramatic Typhoon sorties. No one can tell the true story of the devastating "Rocketiffies", as the rocket firing Typhoons have been nick-named, better than the enemy and he has told it without words but with terrific emphasis in the trails of shattered war materials and weapons and thousands of dead which he left behind him.

Military strategists and historians will write long and earnestly about the destruction of the German armies fleeing from France, Belgium and Holland. In this drama the Typhoons have played a leading role. Here is what an Australian serving as a rocket Typhoon tank-buster pilot (Flight Lieutenant P. H. Strong, of Sydney), thinks about it. "The army was rocket Typhoon mad," he said. It is little wonder that they were. Tanks, dug in or hidden in the woods, six-barreled "Moaning Minnie" rocket-mortar batteries, anti-aircraft gun concentrations, strongpoints, in enemy-occupied villages, all these were targets for the "Tiffies".

The Typhoons and the Army worked together well and the ground troops valued the airmen's punch. "We often went low over their lines," Strong said, "and we always got a cheer." He likened the rocket Typhoon's firepower to a broadside from a six-inch cruiser. The "Tiffies" carry eight rockets, each about equal to a 6-inch shell in explosive power. Two will blow a tank to pieces.

Strong was shot down on D + 1. Two direct hits by a 40-mm. Bofors ack-ack battery damaged the engine and fuselage of his aircraft, and the wings were badly holed, but the Typhoon still flew. He had knocked out one tank in his first attack and, apart from abnormal instrument readings, the aircraft still seemed all right. Strong went in to attack again. "I was in a dive when the engine packed up completely," he said. "I yanked hard, headed for the beaches and glided several miles. After jettisoning the hood I crash-landed in a field. It seems I picked about the only field not mined."

Strong was unharmed but his way back to the Allied lines was barred by barbed wire and the significant German word "Meinen" in large letters on a board. Allied Commandos eventually came to his aid. After destroying everything of value in his aircraft, Strong slept in a slit trench from which he first removed a dead German. "There were snipers everywhere," he said, "and we were bombed and strafed."

When his squadron moved because enemy long-range guns were firing on their airfield and bad weather was hindering their operations, Strong remained in charge of half a dozen pilots and the ground crew. His party organized dispersal areas, dug in the sleeping and office tents and dug around the strip. They also visited the front line, where they saw Tiger tanks which had been knocked out by rocket Typhoons.

The first great Typhoon success against enemy ground forces in which Strong took part was two days before the Mortain battle. "We came upon thirty or forty German tanks, and plastered hell out of them," he said. "We took them completely by surprise. When we flew past the leading tank the German commander was still standing in his turret, with his head sticking out."

The tanks answered the attack with intense light and medium ack-ack but, due to the poor light and the surprise of the attack, not a Typhoon was lost. The squadron claimed six tanks destroyed. Two days later, when the Germans counter-attacked against the Americans at Mortain, the Typhoons had their greatest day. "All available Typhoons were called into the air," Strong said. "What followed must have been the strangest fight ever seen. It was like air-to-air fighting rather than air-to-ground. Usually when we attack ground forces we have a definite bomb line and attack anything beyond it but nothing within it-or else a specified target.

This day it was an 'open slather'. American tanks were milling around with German tanks well inside our bomb line. We had to fly down on the ground to identify before attacking. The sky above the battle was seething with Typhoons. It was impossible to keep the squadron together and after a while we gave it up and operated in pairs. Thunderbolts above were dropping bombs alongside us as we went in and M.Es were streaking out of the clouds trying to 'jump' us. Everyone was shooting at everything. We stayed over the battle area till we had used all our rockets and then streaked back, loaded up and returned. The battle went on from mid-morning till that afternoon. It was a complete shambles for the enemy.

"There is little sensation for the pilot when rockets are fired," Strong continued, "you hear a bit of a single 'whang' as they shoot off the rails. We pull out before we see them hit and sweep round in time to watch where they burst. On low-angle attacks we roll right over and look down to see the effect."

The Spitfire is an important member of both the 2nd Tactical Air Force and Air Defence of Great Britain. The story of Australian-manned Spitfires operating from the invasion area in Western Europe has its own place in these pages but there are other and vital phases of the crescendo of Allied air attack in which this famous aircraft has been outstanding. The Mark XIV Spitfire with its five-bladed propeller and its amazing flying performance introduces a significant piece of air war history in itself. In the cockpits of these remarkable aircraft men of the R.A.A.F. are often found.

Their work is everything that a Spitfire may be called on to do and that means much. Among the jobs the Spits were given was a "front rank" place in -the battle of the flying bombs, by which the enemy hoped to devastate Britain. But the master minds of A.D.G.B. planned otherwise and notable in their plans was fighter interception. Along with the swift Tempests, in which quite a number of Australians flew, the Spitfires took a leading part in this strange game of "doodle-bug hunting". To Flying-Officer Kenneth R. Collier, of Glebe (N.S.W.), goes the credit for the first successful "personal" interception. Collier was one of three pilots pursuing a flying bomb in a Mark XIV Spitfire.

The fighter's fire had silenced the bomb's engine, but it was on a course which meant that if it finished its glide it would burst in an English town. Collier closed with the bomb until one of his wing tips was beneath the bomb's wing. A quick manoeuvre and he had tipped the gyro-controlled bomb so that it was out of control and diverted off its course. It exploded almost harmlessly in an open area. Residents of that town were not slow to express their appreciation. Collier received many letters of thanks, including one from the National Union of Railwaymen which promised that members of the Union would do all possible to hasten the end of the war so that Collier could return to his "folk across the seas".