WWII 1944 - 1945 (7)

…... a NAAFI run missed the turning on Highway 6 and found itself in Rome. It was over two hours before it could get out again but nobody seemed to mind, not even when we went round a roundabout the wrong way and caused a traffic jam”.


The Squadron had its light-hearted moments and to provide a spot of amusement on one dull day LAC Pickles signed for the guns on the Auster, the Squadron’s communications aircraft, thus qualifying for the Squadron’s award of the most Highly Derogatory Order of the Immovable Finger. This was total war!


The next main German line of defence was the Gothic line which lay across the Apennines between Pisa on the west coast and Rimini of the east. The Germans had fought a delaying action all the way back as otherwise they could not have established themselves after a non-stop rush through Italy. The advance of the Army therefore slowed up and the Germans used every means in their power to stop us. These means involved in particular the use of mines and the demolition of bridges. Wherever the Squadron went the area had to be cleared of mines and booby traps, an additional and particularly unpleasant hazard.


At the beginning of July the Squadron moved once more this time to the aerodrome at Castiglione del Lago on the western edge of Lake Trasimeno, scene of one of the Germans last delaying actions before retiring to the Gothic Line. Castiglione was a very pleasant grass aerodrome and the Squadron based its domestic camp in the trees bordering the lake, Squadron personnel were delighted at being able to swim in the lake, particularly during the heat of the Italian summer, though it helped not to be too squeamish about the odd German corpse that floated to the surface to join the many dead fish killed by bombs jettisoned in the lake earlier.


Operational flying once more became evenly divided between Artillery and Tactical reconnaissance and also the occasional photographic sortie. Sortie lengths were very much reduced at this new aerodrome as the front line was practically in the circuit. Tactical reconnaissance flights covered the roads behind the front line and a careful check was kept on enemy supply routes. Antiaircraft fire was heavier than it had been for a long time and practically all towns and most of the

…...continued

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