Читать книгу Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes - Martin Bowman - Страница 12

Boston air gunner, 107 Squadron.

‘When we lived under canvas at Hartford Bridge Stan Adams [the navigator] and I shared a tent. The tent site, with a large marquee for our messing, was a long walk across many muddy fields from the main camp. It was good fun in a novel kind of way but it had its drawbacks. For one thing I ruined one of my best suitcases which had soaked up the moisture through the coconut matting on the grass floor of our tent. However, it wasn’t for long and there was a good reason for preparing us in the event of a dire lack of accommodation when we moved across the Channel. As it happened we never saw a tent when moving to France.

Australian and RAF crews of 192 Squadron, 100 Group in front of Halifax BIII Matthews & Co. Express Delivery Service at Foulsham, Norfolk. Flt Lt Matthews RAAF, 4th from left. W/C David Donaldson CO, is to his left. S/L John Crotch, is 3rd from right. On D-Day, when 100 Group aircraft jammed enemy radars and made spoof attacks on the French coast, 192 Squadron maintained a constant patrol between Cap Griz-Nez and the Cherbourg area to see if the enemy was using the centimetric band for radar, all the known enemy radars being effectively jammed.

John Crotch

‘Apart from the three Boston squadrons at Hartford Bridge, we had two Dutch squadrons using the airfield for a short time – 322 with Spitfires and 320 with Mitchells. Their crews were dressed in the uniform of the Royal Netherlands Navy. When we found out how much they were paid, we gasped. Apart from their set pay scale, which was higher than ours, they received extra money for every flying hour. We didn’t see a lot of the Dutch chaps for they messed elsewhere, but we often saw in our mess Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Bernhard.’

‘Phoenix Afloat’.

U.S Navy Combat Art Collection