Читать книгу Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes - Martin Bowman - Страница 62

The part played by the Allied air forces in the build up to the Invasion was crucial. By day the RAF’s 2nd TAF, which had been formed in Norfolk on 1 June 1943 under Air Vice Marshall Basil Embry, and the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, blasted enemy targets in Northern France and Belgium. At night the ‘heavies’ of RAF Bomber Command added the weight of its bombs to marshalling yards and enemy positions. 2nd TAF and RAF Bomber Command consisted of all manner of foreign and Commonwealth personnel as well as British airmen. The part played by the far-flung dominions is often overlooked but their participation was significant. In May and early June Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) fighter and bomber squadrons were heavily involved in operations in support of Overlord. Tempests of 486 Squadron and Mosquito Intruders of 487 Squadron attacked the railway system of northern France. On D-Day 489 Squadron RNZAF Beaufighters patrolled along the invasion coast and in the week after the landings made 34 separate attacks on E-boats and R-boats.

On D-Day the Mosquitoes of 464 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) attacked transport further east across the Seine. One Mosquito was brought down. Flight Lieutenant D. M. Shanks, navigator, survived and remained hidden until August. Australian piloted Typhoons of 121 and 247 Squadrons made ground attacks south of Caen amid heavy anti-aircraft fire. Three Australian Typhoons were shot down although one pilot, who had severe burns and a broken leg, evaded capture and reached the beachhead. After dusk on D-Day Mosquitoes of 488 Squadron RNZAF took over patrol duty and intercepted several Luftwaffe raids against the beachhead and claims for 20 bombers shot down in the first week were recorded. Lancasters of 75 Squadron RNZAF were among those who bombed Ouistreham on 5/6 June and who participated in other raids in the Normandy area on four of the six succeeding nights. In the attack on coastal batteries on 5/6 June RAAF Lancasters flew 67 sorties, the majority of them against German gun emplacements at Pointe-du-Hoc.

As late as June 1944, 11,000 RAAF officers and men were serving with the RAF or the ten RAAF squadrons. Australia also provided 168 of the 1,136 aircraft committed by Bomber Command, almost 15 per cent of the total. RAAF pilots flew six Lancasters of 617 Dambusters Squadron in a deception operation on 5/6 June and five more flew Stirlings of 199 Squadron in their deception operation. Just after midnight RAAF officers piloted 41 transports of the ten squadrons of 38 Group for the drop of the British 6th Airborne Division, the RAAF providing about one in seven of the pilots. In the week following D-Day 460 Squadron RAAF flew on five of the seven nights and flew 107 sorties. Each of the three other RAAF bomber squadrons operated on four nights.

Shipping off Lee-on-Solent looking towards the Isle of Wight on 5 June. In the foreground is the tug anchorage, the large vessel to the right is their depot ship Aorangi, a converted Canadian Australasian liner. Just discernible in the middle distance are tank landing ships and the minelayer turned LSE (Emergency Repair) ship HMS Adventure, and the cruiser HMS Despatch, a HQ base and AA defence ship (in the centre) with (top left) LSI(S) Prinses Astrid and LSI(H) Maid of Orleans. In the background are some of the roadway sections waiting to be towed to the Mulberry harbours.

Imperial War Museum 11 (A23720A)