Aircrew Armed ?
Ah Ha, at Kuantan in 1965, I was issued with an Orlikon 20mm cannon - one of only six deployed on the station (all in a straight line beside the runway).
I was trained on this thing and thought good stuff - come on Indonesian air force - make my day!!!!
Then we had an exercise and I was to discover that there were only five 'pans' of ammo and for this exercise my gun and crew weren't 'served'.
Old Duffer
I was trained on this thing and thought good stuff - come on Indonesian air force - make my day!!!!
Then we had an exercise and I was to discover that there were only five 'pans' of ammo and for this exercise my gun and crew weren't 'served'.
Old Duffer
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
OD, I think if we delved too deeply into the RAF or Army in those days we would have found the tail well and truely docked. We give the RAF respirators and tin hats and a gun each, the whole issh was destined to disappear in a flash of light.
Read Ed Macey MC's book.[/QUOTE]
Ah, not Gan then......
Royal Air Force Gan - Remembered
Didn't 'Macey' make an unathorised mod to his L22 (or use it without the front grip as it needed to be removed to get it in the Apache)?
Gentleman Aviator
As indeed their Glider Pilot Regiment forebears did at Arnhem
(not sure how many - will look it up)
[Edited to add:]
Apologies to the GPR - getting my MARKET GARDEN (Arnhem) mixed up with my VARSITY (Rhine crossing) - I really should know better!
GPR suffered 90% cas at Arnhem, so 1500
RAF pilots were drafted in for the Rhine crossing. In that Operation, 60% of the glider aircrew kia were RAF ................ and they did their bit:
For example, Squadron Leader Reynolds was flying a Horsa with Flying Officer Bayley as his co-pilot. On his approach to his landing target, Reynolds saw a German four-gun light flack battery shooting at other gliders. He ordered Bayley to take control of the Horsa while he engaged the Germans with a sub-machine gun, firing through the cockpit canopy. He killed or wounded all of the gun crew and took the survivors prisoner after Bayley had landed the glider.
Reynolds then came under fire from a nearby four-gun flack battery and he ordered Bayley to attack it with a PIAT, an elementary anti-tank weapon with an effective range of about 50 yards. Bailey crawled off and scored a direct hit killing the gun crew in the position.
Reynolds then came under fire from a nearby four-gun flack battery and he ordered Bayley to attack it with a PIAT, an elementary anti-tank weapon with an effective range of about 50 yards. Bailey crawled off and scored a direct hit killing the gun crew in the position.
Last edited by teeteringhead; 27th Jul 2017 at 11:21.
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The 60% casualty rate on Varsity is directly representative of the percentage of glider pilots taking part who were RAF (one of whom was my late Father).
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I always thought that aircrew pistols were issued so that the downed aircrew could do the decent thing prior to capture, and save the Queen's secrets by a self-applied coup de grace.
A full magazine is supplied because the accuracy of aircrew pistols degrades rapidly with range.
A full magazine is supplied because the accuracy of aircrew pistols degrades rapidly with range.
