No. 329 (Cigognes) Squadron, RAF

Pat Curran · Sep 20, 2015

Hi All,

I have been reading 'Spitfire Offensive' by Wing Commander 'Sammy' Sampson. In chapter 11, the author has a number of first hand accounts from Free French pilots who served with French squadrons in the RAF. Wing Commander Sampson later commanded No. 145 Wing, which was made up of mostly Free French squadrons, including No. 329 'Cigognes' Squadron. One of the pilots from 329, F/L Victor Tanguy, gives the authors this account:

'Group Captain Malan was our first boss when we came to the RAF in February 1944. I was still a young flight Lieutenant in the 'Storks' (Cigognes) and relations between base commanders and young officers were all too often limited to precious little. However the fame of Sailor Malan was extraordinary. Right from the word go, he became our model and guide. He helped enormously to integrate the Storks with other squadrons which made up 145 Wing.
...

Bill Crawford-Compton was our Wing Leader. After flying side by side with him on numerous sorties over Normandy in those difficult days of June 1944, I was able to appreciate his calmness, his sense of observation, his speed of reaction, Skill and courage.

I recall one particular sortie at the end of the afternoon of D-Day during which we had to protect a huge flight of gliders towed by Dakotas, full of elite paratroops. In the sky there was no sign of German fighters, but below us was carnage. As the gliders prepared to land we saw them crippled by flak; wings came off, others nose diving into the ground.

The sight was too much to bear. All of a sudden on a command that was so clipped that none of the pilots understood it, our leader, Bill Compton, dived vertically towards a target that we could not identify but which he had recognised. The other 11 Spitfires in the formation followed him as if we were one in this vertiginous dive from 2,000-2,500 metres. At 3-400 metres from the ground our Wing Leader opened fire. His aim was perfect and highlighted our target - a German barge full of anti-aircraft guns, moored on the River Orne in a suburb of Caen.

Our twelve planes made several attacks until we ran out of ammunition. During all this the formation flew through a curtain of gliders and their Dakota 'tractors'. God was with us and there were no collisions.

The results were excellent: no more gliders were knocked out by flak before landing. We had silenced the guns on the hellish barge which had wrecked such havoc and caused so many deaths before our attack. In the debriefing on our return to Merston, we were able to spot accurately the point of our attack. It was at Comolbelles-sur-L'Orne, by Caen, close to Benouville, famous for its Pegasus Bridge which the 7th Airborne Division had to capture during one of its first D-Day missions.'
Click to expand...

I am looking to find more on the 'Storkes' but this flak barge has caught my attention for the first post of this thread. Has anyone seen it on reconnaissance cover?

Thanks,

Pat

No. 329 (Cigognes) Squadron, RAF

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No. 329 (Cigognes) Squadron, RAF

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