Thursday, 27 January 1944

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21 Squadron War Diary

1442 hrs Tortorella, Italy
A formation of twelve of our aircraft took off at 1442 Hrs. to bomb the road junction and create a road block at POPOLI. Two direct hits on the road; and two direct hits on the railway track NORTH of the Marshalling Yards and another direct hit on a building were observed.Sortie Report No. 533.

Transcriber's Notes

Tactical Shift ("Each Vic bombed independently"): On January 28th, the diary notes "Each Vic bombed independently." A "Vic" was a V-formation of three aircraft. Standard procedure was usually to bomb on the formation leader, but independent bombing allowed for greater precision against point targets like road junctions, provided the individual observers were skilled enough. This variation suggests the squadron was experimenting with tactics to improve accuracy in the difficult terrain.

AIR 27/268 · The National Archives