Originally Posted by
Brian 48nav
I don't have memories being a baby-boomer, but I can recommend the book 'First in the Indian skies" by Norman L R Franks, the history of 31 Sqn. 31 were equipped with Dakotas and involved with supporting the Chindits and also flying 'The Hump' to China.
One of their pilots, Mike Vlasto ( who used to live in my then village in Somerset ) was IIRC the first to land a Dakota in a jungle clearing and take-off again with wounded soldiers.
Another book on my shelf mentions Vlasto and I note that your father is mentioned several times - 'War in the Wilderness' by Tony Redding.
I'm not sure if that was my father as there was a Sgt Andrew Margerison from Blackburn in the same 'theatre' who wrote a book about his experiences over the hump etc; My father only gave us a few choice snippets of his experiences when we were growing up. I know that flying in the conditions they incurred had a major impact on his health shortly after the war, and his fitness to fly may well have been rescinded as attacks of giddiness left him unable to stand up, with bouts of severe sickness. The doctor did not know what was causing at the time, and I remember coming downstairs one morning to find him slumped in a chair as white as a sheet. The doctor had thought it might be something to do with his heart, and had prescribed Amyl Nitrate. As instructed he had crushed the ampoule into a handkerchief and taken a deep breath. It had completely knocked him out. No more of that he croaked. Another time my mother found him in the pantry which was off the bottom of the stairs where he had plunged after passing out. Eventually they discovered it was Menniers. I don't know what happened as I was about maybe 7 at the time, but he seemed to get over it until later in life he became deaf in his right ear. I remember him telling me that they used to have terrible turbulence. One time in particular he said they dropped 5000ft in an instant and only recovered close to the ground. He said that he was sending morse at the time, and he found himself up against the roof with the morse key in his hand that had been bolted to the table! He was offered a permanent commission starting again as a PO, but I think one of the things that motivated him to leave the RAF was the worry that they would ground him, and he'd be deskbound. He used to say that the admin wallahs used to bang on about how the flyers were only bloody general duties, and they were the people who kept it all going! I remember getting a very similar drubbing from a flt lt when I arrived at one posting. Well we all like to be valued, and not be left out!
Storkie.