Hi All, I found a great s/h book on ebay last week - 'Patton's Gap' by Major General Richard Rohmer, who was a pilot in Normandy with No. 430 Squadron, RCAF. This unit was a fighter reconnaissance squadron equipped with armed P-51s. The book has several rare reconnaissance photos taken by 430 Squadron pilots, including many by the author, then F/O Rohmer. One in particular has a fascinating story attached to it. Pages 161-165 of my first edition refers. On the 1st August the Squadron Log reads in part: Apparently it was a serious matter to inadvertently report over the radio positions of tanks or other vehicles on the friendly side of that day's 'bombline'. Doing so could aid the Germans as to the position of the supposed friendly forces and consequently such an error was treated as a very serious matter. F/O Rohmer and his wing man F/O St. Paul had been assigned to photograph a section of the front line which included part of the bomline for the 1st August, running from Le Beny Bocage northwards and then eastwards to the north of Aunay-sur-Odon. As can be seen from the Log extract, sorties were delayed until late afternoon and evening due to the weather conditions and F/O Rohmer, having finished covering his assigned targets, headed home over Montigny as the sky began to rapidly loose light. The two Mustangs were flying at 2,000 feet on a northerly course for their home strip, B.8 ALG. Suddenly, while over the village of Montigny, off to his right front F/O Rohmer spots a muzzle flash on the ground in the gathering darkness. He decides to go down for a look and then suddenly finds himself over dozens of tanks. He describes the scene thus: F/O Rohmer was so sure of his identification and the location that he called up the Group Control Centre on his radio and reported his sighting. Luckily, he also done a photo pass and shot several frames from his oblique camera, though he was unsure how well the exposures would reveal the tanks in the low light conditions. Back at B.8 ALG, F/O Rohmer was met by his CO, "Bunt" Waddell who was fuming having had Army Intelligence down on him like a ton of bricks. AI insisted the tanks were Allied vehicles and his pilot had made a serious error of judgment in reporting their position over the radio. F/O Rohmer describes his predicament: Only one thing could save him; the recon photos. He quickly had the film developed and printed, then brought the prints to a young Army Photographic Interpretation Section Officer, Lieutenant Dirk Bogarde. Accompanying this great story in the book is one of the frames shot by F/O Rohmer: I cannot make out the frame number, but the sortie is 430/581 flown on the first of August. Despite the textual description - or rather because of it, it took me some time last night to find the location. What threw me was the author describing the location as: Further complicating the search was his describing seeing the muzzle flash to his right front as he flw home to B.8 ALG over Montigny. Anyway, several cups of tea later last night I found the location. The narrow field marked 'A' is the one with the bales at upper left in the live IGN Map below: <iframe width="800" height="550" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/embed/visu.html?c=-0.766317057928059,49.0073303875041&z=0.000005364418026483272&l=ORTHOIMAGERY.ORTHOPHOTOS::GEOPORTAIL:OGC:WMTS(1)&permalink=yes" allowfullscreen></iframe> Live Map - Press F5 to Reload Field 'C' is the one at lower right with the farm track going through it. So, where are the Tigers :huh: Well, without seeing the original print, its hard to say for sure, but some good candidates are arrowed in yellow in the zoomed extract below: Regards, Pat
Thanks Pat - a good find, especially as the author is well known to us from earlier entries (Dean Black) around the time of Rommel's demise on the battlefield. B.8 is Sommervieu - and you can find the location here, so you can plot the sortie - strangely Dave Clark had missed out 430 Squadron - http://www3.sympatico.ca/angels_eight/alg.html - so I checked it in 2TAF, and made the correction below - 39 Recce Wing had arrived at B.8 on 1 July, and 145 (French) Wing did not arrive there until 19 August (and I have also put 74 Squadron in to 145 Wing, instead of how Dave had put it). However, in defence of Dave, his piece was compiled in December 2002, and a lot more information has come to light since then, and I have yet to find another website so well researched on the Normandy air war, with a superb book also on the subject to accompany it. •B.8 --Sommervieu -- 1200 metres long, 40 metres wide, Sommerfeldt wire-mesh completed 22 June. Runway 279. (39 Recce Wing (400, 430, 168), 145 Wing (74, 329, 340, 341)) My favourite on the website is the cutaway of the Spitfire IXB as flown by his late brother Frank Clark - http://www3.sympatico.ca/angels_eight/421spit.html - a true labour of love. As an extra, although you write "Back at B.8 ALG, F/O Rohmer was met by his CO, "Bunt" Waddell" - "Bunt" Waddell was W/C R C Waddell DSO DFC, the Wing Commander Flying of 39 (Recce) Wing, and not the OC of 430 (City of Sudbury) Squadron RCAF - Waddell at his level would have had the flak from above, at the minimum from the airfield commander (G/C E H G Moncrieff AFC) who would have had the grief first from the Army, and any disciplinary action would have been above the level of the actual squadron OC (S/L F Chester) because of the, believed, security leak. Fortunately, for all concerned, they were Tigers. regards Allan
Hello there, I think the possibility exists that these "Tigers" may be the Jagdpanther of sPzJägAbt 654. "Long guns hanging way out the front...." This was still a less well known vehicle at the time. They were certainly in the area on that day. Cheers, Sean
Thanks Guys, My error Allan; the exact text from the book reads: Sean, I found this reference by David C. Clarke on the Axis History Forum to the Jagdpanthers of sPzJägAbt 654: Right location and date window - well spotted Sean! Excuse my limited knowledge of German armour units, but can you tell me which division this unit was attached to on the 1st August? By chance, I purchased s/h copies of the two Stackpole volumes on the 12th SS Panzer Division by Hubert Meyer at a local militaria book fair yesterday. Volume 1 has this description of Operation BLUECOAT on pages 542: Coulvain is just over 3 miles north east of the three fields in F/O Rohmer's photo, so are we looking at elements of the 10th SS Panzer Division? What do you guys think? Thanks, Pat
Hello Pat You could well be correct, all of the various Kampfgruppes/Aufklarungruppes would have had to have a parent organisation for rations, ammunition, reinforcements, vehicles etc. etc. This was a rapidly changing situation with ad-hoc units being formed, and reformed, all over the place, which would get even worse as the weeks went on and they headed towards the Seine, and onwards to Germany. Or, in the case of 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg, up to Holland, via Belgium, to rest and recuperate, where, with its fellow Normandy veteran, 9th SS Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen, it wrecked 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem/Oosterbeek - but that is out of our area of interest of course (although not for me as Dad was at B.82 Grave during the latter part of Market-Garden). Thanks for confirming my piece about "Bunt" Waddell being WingCo Flying of 39 (Recce) Wing. Regards Allan
Hi Allan, You don't by any chance have 430's ORB for August do you? There is another pair of photos shown on page 164 from sortie 430/601 flown on the 8th August: I merged both in PS resulting in the above montage and would like to track down the location. The caption reads: It should be pretty easy to locate if we knew the targets for that day's mission(s). I presume from the caption wording that the author flew this one too, but that may not be the case. Thanks Allen, Pat
Hello Pat Nice pictures - Sorry, I don't hold anything of 430 at all. This is probably your next port of call for what was going on at the time, and what squadron was allocated to what task http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/record?catid=68079&catln=4 You might find this of interest http://www.400squadron.ca/Members/Profiles/waddell and also this site with a couple of photos of Dirk Bogarde in his army uniform at his desk http://dirkbogarde.co.uk/dirk-bogarde-and-belsen/ and by some army trucks near the bottom of the article about Belsen. regards Allan
OK, thanks Allen, I have their July ORB but not August. I'll dig deeper, including a read of chapter 11 which appears to deal with his work around the 8th August. Regards, Pat
Hello Pat - long day !! nearly off to bed, but just had a look to see if I had anything about 39 Recce Wing in Normandy, but the only ORB pieces I can find are around late March '45 when they crossed the Rhine at Xanten and ended up at B.104 Damm with elements of 125 Wing. Will try again tomorrow - good photos of Dirk Bogarde in the article aren't they. regards Allan
Hi Allan, Good photos indeed of Dirk Bogarde. Below is another nice one of him from page 165 of the book: Finally nailed the pair of 'artillery shoot' frames from sortie 430/601 reproduced on page 164: The road is the D55 and the view is westerly towards Le Beny Bocage, which is about six miles from the scene. The blue circle shows the curved Y junction at lower right of the two frames and the black circle is the 'crows foot' junction where the dust is rising from the shell fire. Anyone know anything of the action in this area on the 8th August? Regards, Pat
Hi All, Just located the recon photo titled 414/505_17-AUG-44 (frame ?016), which is reproduced at the bottom at page 200:The book caption to the photo reads: The location is the western environs of Trun. The grass field at lower right above is now an industrial complex, so I dug out some IGN cover flown in 1945 which can be used as a much easier finder chart: The long stream of German vehicles are turning south-east towards the centre of town as per the white arrow below: I wonder if the damage to the town centre which is still very apparent in the IGN cover was as a direct result of the recon photo? The photo was taken by an aircraft (I presume a Mustang I) of No. 414 Squadron RCAF. Their Wiki page states they began in 1941 as No 414 Army Co-operation Squadron. Another source tells me they were part of 39 (RCAF) Reconnaissance Wing / 83 Group / 2nd TAF for the Normandy Campaign. Regards, Pat
Thanks Pat A bit of background information from my 125 Wing archive. Formed on 12 August 1941 with RCAF personnel at Croydon as an army co-operation unit, 414 Squadron flew Tomahawks for nearly a year. In June 1942 it received some of the first Mustang I’s, employing these over Dieppe on 19 August 1942, where the first victory ever claimed by a Mustang pilot was credited to the unit. These aircraft continued to be used in an offensive manner during 1943, on ‘Rhubarbs’ and ‘Roadsteads’, as well as reconnaissance sorties. During the year the unit became a part of 35 (Recce) Wing 2nd TAF, and in June 1944 was serving with 39 (Recce) Wing, operating from Odiham and undertaking sorties on behalf of the army over the front line area. They were detached from 35 (Recce) Wing to 39 (Recce) Wing from 30 June '44 - 15 August '44, and then officially became part of 39 (Recce) Wing from 15 Aug '44 to May '45. August 1944 saw re-equipment with Spitfire FR IX’s due to a shortage of the early versions of the Mustang, and a move was made to French soil, so this mission was probably flown with a Spitfire and not a Mustang as I believe they arrived in France with Spitfires. B.21 Ste-Honorine-de-Ducy on 15/08/44, B.26 Illiers-le’Eveque on 29/08/44, B.44 Poix on 3/09/44 and then onwards to Belgium, Holland and Germany On 4 April 1945 414 Squadron received its first Spitfire FR XIVb, with teardrop cockpit canopy and Griffon engine, which was to replace the faithful Mark IX’s, and more of these aircraft arrived next day. 414 Squadron began operating Spitfire FR XIVb’s on 26 April, and two days later the Wing moved for the third time in a month, to B.154 Reinsehlen, where 127 (RCAF) Wing was also situated. As the area of Germany still in enemy hands swiftly decreased, there were less and less targets, requiring photography by the P.R. units, but the great masses of fleeing transport on land and sea presented many targets for the guns of the Fighter Reconnaissance units, which took full advantage of the situation during the closing stages of the war. Many enemy aircraft were in the air at this late stage, trying to make for some place of safety, and propitiously it fell to that most aggressive of all F.R. units, 414 Squadron, to run into some of these while returning from a mission on 2 May, and to put to as good use the guns of the new Mark FR XIVb’s as it had those of the Mark IX’s. Flt/Lt D I Hall D.F.C. met a number of aircraft and broke the Squadron record for a single mission, shooting down three FW190’s and a Bf108, and damaging one of each. Sqn/Ldr J B Prendergast, D.F.C., who had recently taken over from Sqn/Ldr Wonnacott, met about ten aircraft and shot down two Fw190’s, bringing to a fitting climax his Squadron’s outstanding run of operations over Europe. Five days later (7 May '45) 414 Squadron was chosen to fly to B.118 at Celle to join 125 Wing, which was being re-formed as a composite unit comprising fighter, fighter-reconnaissance and Typhoon fighter-bomber Squadrons and was to provide the air component of the Allied force going to officially liberate Denmark. It kept 41 Squadron (Spitfire XIV), and took on 137 Squadron with the Typhoon 1B, and 486 Squadron RNZAF with the Tempest V, with 130 (Punjab) Squadron and 350 (Belgian) Squadron, both also operating the Spitfire XIV, moving away. 130 returned to the UK, changed from the Spitfire XIV to the Spitfire IX, and went to Norway to operate in a similar role as 125 Wing as part of the liberating forces, and 350 came back to 125 Wing when they returned from Denmark. However, 414 Squadron did not make the journey to Denmark and was sent instead to B.156 Luneburg on 8 May '45 !!. In June 1945 the Squadron returned to the UK, to an APC at Warmwell, and then returned to B.156 Lüneburg in July. Despite not being a fighter unit as such, frequent engagements had ensured, and while “defending” themselves, the unit’s pilots had claimed 28 victories. Regards Allan
Hi Allan, I appreciate the detailed account of No. 414 Squadron's history in the ETO. I don't have their ORB for August, so cannot say if the photo was taken from one of their new Spitfires. I looked up 'Battle of the Falaise Gap' by Eddy Florentin to see what was going on in Trun on the 17th August and discovered that the town was abandoned by the Germans on the following day, the 18th August around 12 noon. The Canadian Lincoln and Welland Regiment occupied it around 14:00 hours that same afternoon. A local resident, M. Perriere, ran towards the advancing Canadians and asked that the artillery bombardment be stopped as the Germans had gone. His account states: So it looks like the damage to the town visible in the 1945 IGN cover could have been far worse were it not for this civilian. Regards, Pat
Thanks Pat Pretty good - a Canadian squadron took the photo, and a Canadian unit liberated the place - and one very brave civilian to approach his liberators. Presumably these two flares were the agreed colours of the day between the forward units and their covering artillery barrage, or else the Germans could have just fired up a few and had a quiet getaway. regards Allan
Hi All, Two more photos from the book appear on page 25: The top photo, frame 13 from sortie 430/628 flown on the 15th August, is loose on the web for quite some number of years now and has been located by other researchers. The village with the church in the middle of the crossroads is Pierrefitte en Cinglais, which is about 8½ miles west of Falaise. However, although commonly reproduced, it is almost invariably attributed to the wrong squadron - even the MoD has it credited to the No. 2 (AC) Squadron here. Far less common is the bottom photo (although I have seen it published on a few rare occasions). As far as I know, its location has never been found before. This is frame 2 from sortie 430/536 flown on the 18th July. I had a look in 430's ORB for that date and found this entry which narrowed the field: I suspected the Odon (which is a tributary of the Orne) was a typo and followed the Orne River upstream (southwards) from Caen to Thury Harcourt, looking for the three span bridge along the way. Having reached Thury Harcourt, I was just about to move over to the Odon, when I spotted the location about two miles further upstream: The three roads exiting the photo at left converge on the hamlet of Le Pont de la Mousse just out of shot. The Mustang's starboard wing tip is pointing at three oak trees on the far side of the D133, only one of which survives today - I do know this stuff for sure :angel: There is digitised NCAP cover available for the area in frame 3216 of sortie 400/284 flown on the 24th June. Regards, Pat
As so often happens.... ...I was looking for something completely different today when I stumbled on the location of the aerial reconnaissance photo reproduced on p. 200. It is from sortie 430/635, possibly frame 29 and the date appears to be the 18th August. For those readers who have a copy of the book, note I have rotated the photo to north. The two roads converging just out of shot at the bottom are the D242 and D246, with the junction being approximately 5½ kms north of Chambois, shown within the red rectangle below... ...and the present day satellite view from Bing Maps: I find it fascinating to think that the old oak in the corn field, shown centered in the satellite view above, is also visible in the 1944 cover. The GE 'street view' here shows it still standing proud today...if only it could relate all it has witnessed from those long ago days in the summer of 1944! Regards, Pat
Just noticed... If the above frame is #29 (or is it #20?), then the frame which I thought would never be found for this sortie, marked clearly as #17 of sortie 430/635 cannot be far away... In fact it turns out to be only a few hundred yards down the D242 towards Mont Ormel. IGN cover flown in 1947 clearly shows the ties: House (H) Tall Tree (T) Space 1 and Space 2 in the orchard (S1) & (S2) V shaped sparsely populated orchard across the D242 (V) Its not easy to see them in the reproduced frame 17 above, but the road is clogged solid with vehicles, bumper to bumper moving eastwards towards Mont Ormel. The present day Google Maps satellite view here shows the large orchard now a corn field with the house and the hedgerow holding the large tree removed. Never thought that 'apple' would fall from the tree! Regards, Pat
7th AD on Aug 1st. Click yellow dot centre of frame in link below to see the original 1947 air view. Remonter le temps Film A is at 0:27, 5th RHA Cromwell OP tank (last A photo) is at 1:11. Panther at B starts at 1:58. A Panther below is a command vehicle from the Jagdpanther Unit (schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 653) knocked out somewhere near Migny on August 1st. The engagement against the Guards Churchills (3rd Batt. SCOTS GUARDS) was further north at CAUMONT on 30 July 1944. B
Hi Michael, A week later on the 8th August, the author commences chapter 11 with a quote from the 430 Squadron Log: '"8 August 1944. OPERATIONS: In spite of the haze and general poor visibility, thirteen TAC/R's were flown today, all successful. Information gleaned from these TAC/R's was quite considerable. The largest concentration was twenty plus tanks observed by F/O Rohmer in his morning TAC/R. Possible tanks among houses and trees at 812425. 1 in flames at 863441." The area I worked that morning was just to the south of Mont Pincon, almost to Flers. The reported burning tank was at the front line of the advancing 43 Division of the British 30 Corps stretching east from Mont Pincon to Thury Harcourt. While at that moment there was no way I could identify the enemy tanks I saw, I later learned that they were of 12 SS Panzer Division, that day engaged in strong counterattacks against 59 Division attempting to take Thury-Harcourt from the northeast.' I don't have a coordinate conversion tool to hand, so I am not sure where the burning tank is located. Anyone able to point to the spot? Better still, when the location is found, I wonder if there are any ground photos or footage of the wreck? Regards, Pat
Here is what the 541 has to offer from No.430 Squadron's ORB for August 8th. 1030-1100 Thury Harcourt to U.0547, U.0057. No cloud, haze visibility 2 miles. 15 plus tanks and MET burning on raod 578143. Enemy reaction nil. (Watts and McIlveen) 1030-1145 T.8037, T.9837, 9844, 9544, 8044, 8037 area. No cloud, hazy. 20 plus tanks at scattered points. Possible tanks among houses and trees at 812425. (Rohmer and Paul.) 1030-1130 Vire, Tinchebray, Vassey area. No cloud, hazy. Two tanks observed, one at T.7538 and one at T.7438. Enemy reaction nil. (Gill and Lightbody) 1035-1130 Tinchebray, Flers, Prenspail (Sp?) area. 10/10’s cloud at 6,500 feet. Small fires in woods Z.1575. Considerable damage to railroad at T.9816 to U.0215. Much bomb damage to Briouze. No movements seen. Enemy reaction nil. (Lambros and Iverson) 1030-1120 Tinchebray, Flers, Preenpail areas. No cloud, very hazy. No movements seen. Enemy reaction nil. (Dohaney and Golden) 1030-1145 Conde, Falaise, U.3030, Q.4965, Q.5355, Q.6440. Clear. Visibility 5 miles. No movements seen. Enemy reaction nil. (McLeod and Russell.) 2020-2100 Conde, Falaise, U.3030, Q.4965, Q.6440. No cloud Hazy. No movements seen. Intense accurate light flak in Conde area and T.8336. (Manzer and Stevens) 2025-2055 Thury Harcourt to east bank of Orne. No cloud, very thick haze. No observations due to poor visibility. Enemy reaction nil. (Dohaney and St. Paul) 2050-2105 Thury Harcourt, Falaise, Argentan, Alencon, Sees area. Intense haze. No cloud. No major observations. Light moderdate inaccurate flak from E.0530. (Rohmer and Russell) 2005-2110 Tinchebray, Flers, Preen-pail area. 9/10ths cloud at 6,000 ft. Heavy haze. Scattered MET seen on main road moving both directions. Intense, inaccurate light flak from guns in row from Z.0171 to Z.0475. (Lowndes and McIlveen) 2025-2105 Vire, Tinchebray, Vassy area. No cloud. Very hazy. No movements seen due to haze. Enemy reaction nil. (Lambrose and Golden) 2030-2055 T.8037, 9837, 9844, 9344, 8044, 8037. No cloud, very thick haze. No observations due to thick haze. Enemy reaction nil. (Watts and McLeod) 2025-2110 T.0042, 0035, 1042, 1035, Falaise area. 3/10ths cloud 4-7,000 ft. Very hazy. No observations due to haze. Moderate heavy accurate flak from U.0530. (Gill and Iverson.)