Every Wing kept track of a diary called the "Operational Record Book" with the daily happenings and missions. The information is interesting, and was kept secret in those days. Following you will find the Operational Record Book of 125 Wing Royal Air Force, during their stay at Airstrip B.82 Grave in the period 2 until 29 september 1944. When in the text you see 'yesterday', than they mean the indicated date before the message. They started writing every day at 23.59 hours (11.59 pm) and by the time the message was fully typed, it would be the next day already, that is why sometimes they say yesterday. OPERATIONAL RECORD BOOK 125 WING - 1/4 2/10/44 23.59 Our memories of our last few days in Belgium are somewhat confused. Everything happened at once. We suffered unpleasant shelling, our Spitfires were exchanged with 126's Spitfires, our Squadrons were returned to A.D.G.B. and replaced by two Tempest Squadrons and two Spitfire XIV Squadrons and on top of it all we were ordered to GRAVE. Operations, meanwhile, continued. Indeed 441 Squadron, on patrol just a couple of hours before taking off for England, had the pleasure of damaging one of the Boche's new Me 262 Jet-propelled aircraft. "A" party travelled apprehensively but uneventfully up to the new strip and there sat down to await the arrival of the Squadrons and the "B" party - or the Hun. They were never sure who would come first. Meanwhile Dakota's did a Ferry Service between Deurne and Grave to remove the last of the bodies who were Blighty-bound. "B" party at half strength struggled manfully to cope with a difficult situation. The Messing Staffs with fewer hands than ever turned out more meals for more people and satisfied everyone. Ground crews who had lived with Spits ever since the Wing was formed had to learn about Tempests the hard way - by experience. And by some odd coincidence during those two or three days we had more visiting aircraft to cope with than ever before. Dakota's, Tempests, Typhoons and Mustangs, all added to the motley array we already had. Eventually, however, everything was accomplished. We said farewell at DEURNE to 132, 602, 453 and 441. We reassembled at GRAVE with 80 and 274 Tempest V Squadrons and 130 and 402 Spitfire XIV Squadrons. By ten o'clock on the 2nd October the Wing was operational. Patrols were taken on and were uneventfully carried through. The only out-of-the-ordinary being the sighting occasionally of Me 262's. BOMBING CASUALITIES. At 14.50 hours on the 2nd October A.P. bombs were dropped on the Wing by a lone Me 262 from about 10.000 ft. The bombs were contained in a canister, the noise of which bursting open was clearly audible a couple of seconds before the A.P. bombs began bursting. In the attack the Wing Adjutant F/Lt. O. Lee and a Cook A.C. Coss were killed. Two others were seriously wounded and eleven others wounded. No damage was caused to installations or aircraft. This type of raid may be expected to recur but can only be regarded as nuisance raids, against which the normal precautions of tin hats and slit trenches should provide sufficient protection. 3/10/44 23.59 Last evening our C.O. G/Captain Scott-Malden D.S.O., D.F.C. & Bar arranged with the Planning Staff that the Wing would be engaged today on Patrols over ARNHEM-NIJMEGEN-GRAVE with the intention of intercepting enemy jet-propelled Fighter bombers. 130 Squadron Spitfires were airborne at 06.40 hours and patrolled at 20.000 ft for 50 minutes before being relieved by 402 Squadron. It was decided that the Tempests of 80 and 274 Squadrons should patrol at 15.000 ft but the thick cloud prevented either Squadron from operating effectively at that height. At 09.55 hours S/Ldr J. Heap of 274 Sqdn reported the weather as being unsuitable for further patrols and they were discontinued until 17.05 hours when the weather had improved enough to allow 130 Sqdn to take to the air again. Their patrol, like the previous ones was uneventful. 402 Sqdn relieved the other Spitfires and had nothing to report, but while they were landing at 18.56 hours a little excitement was provided by a JU 88 which crashed in the vicinity of base after jettisoning its bomb load. During the morning G/Captain Scott-Malden held a Conference of Wing Officers at which he stressed that all possible Passive Defence precautions must be taken in view of the probability of further air attacks and the possibility of shelling. Officers are to take special interest in their men's welfare under the difficult situation prevailing. 4/10/44 23.59 Throughout the day Patrols were continued with the object of intercepting the Me 262's and nine of these were uneventful. On the first Patrol 402 Sqdn sighted 5 ME 109's flying NW from NIJMEGEN at 10.000 ft. A Section of the Spitfires dived to attack but the enemy aircraft evaded in cloud. At 09.30 hours 274 Sqdn saw one ME 262 at 22.000 ft. 6 miles East of Arnhem flying S.W. but they were unable to make contact. On their next Patrol, these Tempests were more successful; they were flying at 14.000 ft when the Leader sighted 5 ME 262's carrying Bombs at 16.000 ft flying westwards towards the bridge at Nijmegen. When our A/C turned to engage them, the e/a jettisoned their bombs in open country and made away eastwards. One of the Jet Planes when fired on turned on its back and dived down at an angle of 60 degrees. and may have crashed after this manoeuvre although no claim is made. It was appreciated when 80 Sqdn. who relieved 274 on Patrol reported on the success of this interception. 80 Sqdn saw a ME 262 at 16.30 hrs climbing from 20.000 ft just N.W. of Nijmegen and were unable to make contact but two of their pilots (F/Lt. Friend and F/O Garland) twenty minutes later fired at 3 ME 109's which they contacted 3 miles N.E. of Nijmegen. The e/a were flying in and out of cloud and no results of the engagement were seen. Another ME 262 was spotted at 17.30 hours over Nijmegen when 402 Sqdn were airborne. It was at 25.000 ft and the Spitfires found it impossible to close on it. 5/10/44 23.59 ARMED RECCES AGAIN. After many days of patrolling the Squadrons were yesterday engaged on the more zestful task of doing Armed Recces over Germany where at present any movement at all is fair game for our guns. Nor was the day without success. A total of 7 Locomotives were put out of action, a light tank was left flaming and about 20 road vehicles were either destroyed or damaged. 80 Squadron started the day's work with a tank flamer, and two MET smokers and one damaged. They also gleefully attacked a Hun working party and claimed not a few flamers. But 274's next armed Recce, which followed, was even more successful. An ammunition train was completely gutted. Two other locos were blown up and one damaged. One MET was left flaming and two half tracked vehicles damaged. F/O Kinmell had engine trouble and Force landed in No Man's Land. The Pilot was seen to get out of the aircraft and make for cover. 130 Squadron found a fair amount of scattered MET on the next mission and wrote off 3 staff cars and 3 half track vehicles. The hate against Locos was carried a step further when 80 Sqdn beat up two more trains an hour or so later. Then 274 severely damaged two more trains - just before tea and 130 finished off the day a fairly uneventful Armed Recce after tea although on landing W/Cdr Page was injured. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the destruction by 402 Squadron of 3 ME 109's and 1 FW 190 without loss to the Squadron. Ten aircraft of 402 were scrambled after Huns in the Nijmegen area just before three o'clock. Three of the Squadron had to turn back for various reasons and there were only 7 of them over Nijmegen when 15 plus ME 109's were sighted at 22.000 ft. The seven climbed up to the attack. F/Lt. Speare says: "I picked out two that were diving down and went after them. I lost one but followed the other right down to the deck. I got line astern of him at a range of about 100 yards, and when he started to climb I gave him two second burst. He started smoking, half rolled to port and dove straight into the deck and exploded". Meanwhile F/Lt. Lawrence who was leading the Squadron had spotted a lone ME 109. He quickly got into the line astern and closed his range. He fired a short burst and the Hun went into a diving turn to starboard. F/Lt. Lawrence turned inside him and gave him another two second burst. Black and white smoke poured out of him and he went straight in. AND ONE WROTE ITSELF OFF. F/Lt. Lawrence continues: "After this engagement five of us reformed and soon after spotted another lone ME 109 flying East at about 18.000 ft. We went after him and he went into a dive which steepened to the vertical. When near the ground he attempted to level off. On pulling out, his aircraft disintegrated and fell to the ground in pieces". This e/a is claimed for the Squadron as a whole. F/O Whittaker claimed the fourth - this time another ME 109. Nice shooting 402 - and there's plenty more where they came from ! Trains again suffered heavily yesterday. 5 Locomotives were destroyed outright, 3 were probably destroyed and six others damaged. 23 wagons were damaged. Of the little road traffic seen, four vehicles were destroyed, five left smoking and five damaged. And by way of variety a barge was set on fire, four were damaged as was the tug pulling them. In fact the only transport not attacked were bicycles and perambulators! Altogether a fine day's work. Many thanks to John (aka Jack) Hillman for providing the 125 Wing ORB.