Page 84 - Aviation News (February 2020)

in Amsterdam. However, the worsening retreated to the Rhine and on the 9th the
weather increasingly hampered operations, OC left on promotion and was replaced
though attacks on enemy communications by Sqn Ldr Ronnie Sheward. Under him,
continued whenever possible. the squadron helped prepare the way for
Under cover of foul winter weather on Operation Varsity, the crossing of the Rhine,
December 17, the Germans opened an on March 24. This required a maximum
o ensive (which would become known e ort with the squadron fl ying very e ective
as the Battle of the Bulge) through the fl ak suppression and cab rank patrols as the
Ardennes that met with initial success in part airborne forces went in.
because of the reduced the e ectiveness With the 21st Army Group successfully
of Allied air power. However, on the 24th across the Rhine there began a rapid
as the weather cleared, 266 and other advance into northwest Germany with
units hammered against the advanced the squadron’s Typhoons fl ying deep
German units and resupply routes, though into remaining enemy territory. Airfi elds,
opposition from ground and air was intense. communications and coastal targets were
On Christmas Day, 266’s ‘B’ Flight fl ew an hit and on April 16 came a move forward to
anti-railway recce of the Dortmund area B 105 Drope. The enemy fl ak remained a
and, having destroyed a train, were attacked The fi nal wartime OC of 266 Sqn was Sqn constant danger and during one mission on
Ldr Ronnie Sheward DFC, who was born in
by a large force of enemy fi ghters and two Argentina. R E G Sheward via author. April 23, 34-year-old Fg O Noel Borland
Typhoons failed to return. When weather was shot down and killed in RB423/ZH-S
permitted, 266 fl ew fl at out to blunt the toll of enemy armour and transport. In the near Leer. He was on his second tour with
German thrust that eventually petered out in middle of the month it moved forward to the unit and was 266 Sqn’s fi nal combat loss,
mid-January 1945. B 89 Mill, on German territory. Operations as two days later it withdrew to Fairwood
quickly resumed, among them being a Common in South Wales for an armament
ADVANCE INTO devastating wing attack on the fortifi ed practice camp, during which time the
GERMANY town of Kalkar on February 28. In early enemy surrendered.
In early February, Operation Veritable March, interdiction resumed as the enemy Ronnie Sheward led his unit back to
began as British and Germany in early
Canadian troops June where it soon
advanced against settled at Hildesheim
the Siegfried Line as part of the
and then onto occupation forces
the Rhine. Once until disbandment
again bad weather on August 6.
initially limited No.266 Sqn had
the squadron’s been in action for
e ectiveness, but fi ve years, most of
as it improved, that time as a largely
‘cab rank’ patrols in Rhodesian manned
support, the advance unit, establishing an
began. The fi ghting enviable reputation
was heavy and, like of which the central
others, 266 Sqn took Ronnie Sheward’s mount was Typhoon Ib, RB478/ZH-Q, seen at B.105 Drope, Germany, shortly African Dominion
an increasingly heavy before the end of hostilities. R E G Sheward via author was rightly proud.

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