First, we must thank MPN11 for his fitting obituary published on the morning of Dennis's death. Having been away on holiday, I produced the following when I returned. It has perhaps more detail, from experience the Press likes a selection of material from which to choose. This is the version offered to Times and DT, together with the pictures published in my Last Letter to Dennis.
Dennis O'Leary was the RAF's last dive-bomber pilot, piloting a forgotten aircraft in a forgotten Air Force in a forgotten campaign: supporting the 14th Army in the bitter Arakan campaign against the Japanese.
The son of a British Army sergeant who was himself the son of a British soldier, he left an Irish Christian Brothers school at 14 years to become a clerk, joining the RAF at the outbreak of war. Dennis began writing at the age of 90 for the world's leading aviators' website, PPrune. Beginning with his account of training in Florida, his Hibernian wit, modesty and vivid memories were an instant attraction. His dream came true when he returned to England to train on Spitfires and in 1943 was posted to join a new Spitfire Wing set up to combat the Japanese in India, and recalled reaching Maidaganj in NE India to join 110 Sqn after a journey lasting for weeks.
“From the truck we spotted some big ugly things on the flight line. What on earth is THAT?, we asked our driver — That's a Vultee Vengeance, Sarge, they're dive bombers!
We knew nothing about dive bombers and clung to our last faint hope.
What about the Spitfires we're supposed to be getting? — You've had it, Sarge, there aren't any out here!
Oh, Noooo … Oh, Yesss! Not for the first or last time in the RAF, we'd been sold a pup.”
Soon 1000 PPruners per day from all over the world were following his love-hate relationship with the Vengeance and his description of its two-mile vertical dive had them on the edge of their seats; in between came a witty and colourful mix of reflections on India and the life of its European exiles.
Reflecting later, Dennis said that the Vengeance was heavy, slow, cumbersome and virtually defenceless against enemy fighters. “it could be made to do aerobatics, in the way that an elephant could be taught to dance. Fortunately for us the Japanese never sent their Oscar fighters which would have made short work of us. After exercises with RAF Hurricanes their pilots told us that it was easy to keep their sights on us no matter what we tried. But they did say that our camouflage was excellent, once down against the jungle we were all but impossible to spot.” Dennis remembered this on the day his gunner spotted a Japanese fighter, descending to low level and staying almost beneath the Oscar for some 40 miles until it turned away.
The Vengeance, he said, was a one-trick pony, but it did that trick very well indeed. As they retreated through Burma the Japanese defenders dug deep bunkers which they defended to the death, at great cost to Allied lives. Hurricane and Beaufighter aircraft attacked in shallow dives but their cannon and rockets, being angled, had little effect on the deep trenches. “The Vengeance had zero wing incidence, so its dive was truly vertical. Once into the dive nothing could stop us, a yellow line along the nose was all we needed to aim, usually achieving a 30-yard circle. A section of Vengeances could deliver five tons of high explosive in a few minutes, obliterating bunker, gun emplacement and sometimes a complete hilltop. As a dive bomber I thought the Vengeance was very good indeed”.
Dennis was commissioned in 1943. In Feb 1944, on his 33rd sortie, his engine failed probably due to ground fire and he force landed in the jungle, he and his gunner being badly injured.
After recovery he was posted to command 1340 (Special Duty) Flight near Cannanore (now Kannur) in southern India. Working with scientists from Porton Down, its purpose, never publicised until now, was to spray live mustard gas over volunteer British troops to test the efficiency of gas protection equipment. It was expected that the Japanese would use gas in defence of their homeland.
“In return for some pain and discomfort, the volunteers were safe from real harm or so it was then believed. They had three meals a day, a bed and a little extra pay. It was better than being on the wrong end of a Japanese bayonet in Burma. If they wanted to go back there, they had only to ask. I never heard of any who did.”
Demobilised after four years’ service in India and Burma, Dennis joined the Civil Service for three years. “But the prospect of pushing paper around for the next 30 years did not appeal ... I decided to see if the RAF would have me back”. The RAF did, and once again he was back in a Spitfire and the RAF’s first jet fighters, the Vampire and Meteor. In 1954 Dennis was grounded following a long-standing lung problem, so he re-trained as an air traffic controller and became an instructor at the RAF’s central training school at Shawbury before his retirement in 1972, when he became a VAT inspector for the rest of his working life.
Dennis died at his home in Middlesborough on November 13 2018, three days after his 97th birthday. His obituary on PPrune reflected his heyday when it was read by 10,000 people in the subsequent 10 days, with scores of tributes from his followers and his ATC pupils. His wife Iris died in 2016 and he is survived by his daughter Mary, who cared for him in his final years.
Dennis O’Leary, RAF Vengeance dive-bomber pilot in Burma, November 10, 1921 - November 13, 2018.
Last edited by Geriaviator; 25th Jan 2019 at 16:46.