Courtrai 1942
Reg,
Thank you so much for your prompt and very detailed reply. This really adds up a lot to my "picture" of low level attacks against Courtrai Railway Roads and any other target in West Flanders. Magnificent material for aviation researchers like me.
I remember you called these raids "comparatively uneventful low level sorties in Holland and Belgium", but the attack of 14 December, 1942 was indeed far from uneventful for you.
And yet, you remained level-headed enough to make three more runs over the target in spite of the flak.
Thank you for keeping an 'unofficial notebook': they are an amazingly rich source to get a visual picture of specific operations!
Through this it is also the very first time that I am really aware of the reason why the German order of "darkening houses" was so strictly controlled during the war. I read that you saw several windows illuminated below as you went out. I think that the German order of darkening houses must mainly have been to prevent low level attacks from aircraft like Mosquitoes rather than from aircraft flying too high to notice illuminated places. Yet, I think that Mosquitoes will rather not have aimed at 'illuminated places' when bombing however low they were flying... Or am I wrong?
It is interesting to see "Knocke" confirmed as an unfriendly place for incoming Mosquitoes during the war. And it feels good to see that you know Belgium well, especially Ostend (Middelkerke). On the utmost right of the Atlantic War Museum (when looking in the direction of the sea) there was a German flak battery that shot down several aircraft.
I have read that also Sabena is well known to you.
Always welcome over here. Many, many thanks.
Dirk