When
Johnnie Johnson led the Mk IX Spitfires of his 144 Canadian Wing to
temporary airstrip B.3 near the village
of
St Croix
sur Mer, a few miles inland from the
Normandy
beach head, they were making history. As they landed on the hastily
constructed Summerfield mesh tracking runway on D-Day plus 9, they
became the first Allied air force unit to be based in former occupied
Europe, and the first to operate in France after D-Day.
Mk IX Spitfires of 443 Squadron RCAF, based at St Croix sur Mer tangle
with a group of Fw190s whom they had encountered on a fighter sweep near
Alençon, in southern Normandy on 23 June 1944. During the melée that
followed, their Squadron Leader, Wally McLeod, quickly destroyed two
Fw190s, whilst another Fw190 was badly damaged. |
