Sortie Report (Form 541)
SORTIE REPORT(Part A)R.A.F. Form 441 A.C 20| [Header Columns] | [Content] ||---|---|| Sortie No. | 1 || Oprep. Ref. No. | 505 || Date | 4 Jan 44 || Squadron | 21 SAAF || Type of Aircraft | 12 Baltimores 12 Mk. 4 || Aircraft No. | See over || Aircraft Letter | See over || Captain | MAJOR ORD || Crew | LT HODGES || Formation Leader | [Blank - aligned with Captain field] || Time Up | 1258 A Hrs 1st aircraft || Time Down | 1453 A Hrs last aircraft || Total Time | 21.00 Hours || Aerodrome or L.G. | TORTORELLA || State of Cloud | Alto.St ||---|---|| Amount of Cloud | 9/10 || Base of Cloud | 20000' || Visibility | 15 Miles || General Weather | Good with slight haze || Map or Chart Reference | ITALY 1:100,000 Sheet 147 LANCIANO ||---|---|| Task or Duty | PRETORO TOWN - C1201 ||---|---|| Time | Height | Place | Narrative ||---|---|---|---|| 1258 | | BASE | A/B || 1318 | 3000 | BASE | S/C TERMOLI || 1343 | 11000 | TERMOLI | S/C PENNA PT. || 1349 | 13500 | PENNA PT. | S/C SANGRO RIVER FORK (H305910) || 1355 | 15500 | SANGRO R. | S/C TARGET || 1402 | 15800 | TARGET | Made curcuit to make sure of target || 1405 | 14200 | PRETORO | On bombing run 010° || 1405 | 14000 | PRETORO | S/C CASOLI || 1409 | 11500 | CASOLI | S/C BASE || 1430 | 2000 | BASE | Over Base || 1439 | | | Landed || 1453 | | | Last aircraft landed |[Signature Block](Signed) [Signature unreadable - similar to "Lt Thompson"?]Lt for CaptS.I.O 21 Squadron, S.A.A.F.PART B (on reverse) to be completed according to relevant pro-forma in H.Q. R.A.F. M.E. Instruction 34.HQP/1,500,000/4-42 P.T.O.
Transcriber's Notes
- Weather
- Visibility was "15 Miles" with "slight haze" and high cloud cover ("Alto.St" at 20,000 feet), providing decent conditions for the attack, unlike the morning's confusion. 22 Verification: Target File Verification: This document is the reverse side (Part B) of the Sortie Report for January 4th, 1944 (Sortie No. 505), corresponding to the Part A document in the previous image (269-1__21.jpg).
Sortie Report 505 (Pretoro - Afternoon Raid): This report details the second raid on Pretoro on January 4th, 1944. The earlier morning raid (Sortie 504) had mistakenly bombed Manoppello due to snow obscuring landmarks. This second attempt was led by Major Ord to correct the failure.