Danny starts to earn his keep
Things go dark and I'm crushed down in my seat by "G" for a few moments, then I relax a bit and vision clears. Brakes in, we're in a 40-degree dive from a thousand feet, still with most of the 300 mph we picked up on the way down.
The sky looks like a dalmation dog, for light AA has been pumping away merrily for a minute or two. Surprised, it dawns on me that they're still firing at us. I feel quite indignant. Poor little me, what have I done to deserve being shot at at like this?
This dangerous reverie exasperates the battle-hardened Robbie behind. "Get weaving, Skipper", he roars, sees a gun position on the ground and gives it a long burst to distract the gunners from their aim. That wakens me up.
No time to ruminate - jink and get down on the deck as fast as you can! At this point I should explain that aircraft come out of the dive heading every which way, depending on where they were facing when they pressed the button, and that has been affected by the amount of "weathercocking" which they'd had to do on the way down. It was rather like a Red Arrow "bomb burst", only in sequence.
So you had to pick up your bearings, decide which way was home, and pull round onto it. It must have life more difficult for the AA, as no two of us were following the same path, and this was all to the good.
Now I'm sailing over the tree tops and out of most harm's way. Not entirely, any Jap with a rifle or LMG is going to try a potshot if he sees me in time and in range. It was not uncommon for aircraft to come back with small arms hits.
Dive bombers are a very hard target for AA. Before diving, they can weave as we did to keep out of trouble. Diving, they are well nigh impossible to hit. Pulling out, they are going so fast and low that aimed fire is ineffective. All the gunners can do is to put up a barrage through which they hope we might fly. If they get one it's pure luck. Having said that, I must admit there were cases of people just not pulling out of a dive. No one could say whether they'd been hit or not. The probability is that they were concentrating too hard and left the pull-out too late. The margin for error was tiny.
Once level, you can open your canopy and close bomb doors to reduce drag - but not while you're still pulling "G" in the turn onto the home straight! In a dive, the two internal 500 lb bombs, if simply dropped from the racks, might hit the front wall of the bay, or drop into the arc of the prop. Either way would be disastrous.
To avoid this each bomb is carried in a fork pivoted at the front of the bay. Round the bomb is clamped a "trunnion band" which carries the two "trunnions" - projections which engage in slots on the ends of the forks. Released, the bomb flies out and then off - safely - for you! (the Stuka used the same idea).
On pulling out, centrifugal force will continue to hold these forks out against the pull of "bungee" cords, even after the bombs have gone. There's always one who's too keen to pull in his doors - and traps them against the forks! Everything about a VV is massive - no damage is done. Following crews enjoy the spectacle of a big daddy-long-legs, slowed down by the dangling forks and half-open doors. It can take quite a while before the penny drops in the cockpit concerned.
Topper slows down to let the people behind catch up and get back into position. Here the dive brakes come in handy - you can come charging into the formation and pull up on the spot like a car in traffic.
When all are back in position, we climb to 1500 ft and the hang-up check starts. On the leader's waggle signal, all open doors. 6 leaves position and sweeps 20 ft under 1 - 5. He and his gunner scan every bay and wing for a bomb which should have gone - but hasn't. 6 goes back in position, 5 drops down and checks him. As all is clear, nothing need be said, and R/T silence is maintained.
In the gathering dusk, the flames in the exhaust stubs burned longer and brighter every minute. Chittagong airfield was tricky to get into at the best of times. The approach came over the docks, and you had to dodge the ships' masts to get down to the runway. All twelve landed safely.
Climbing down, I felt a tinge of self-satisfaction. I'd done my first "op". I'd struck a blow for King and country in return for their two years' investment in my training. From now on it would be payback time.
I really don't need to describe any more sorties, for the procedure was always the same. Only the targets differed, and from now on they would be mainly Jap bunker positions. As I've said, the two other strikes I flew to Akyab must have been carbon copies of this one (except that there were only six of us each time), but I can recall absolutely nothing about them.
Then the rains came and that was the end of our first "campaigning" season. It would be late October before we went back.
Next time we'll hear a bit about the experiences of the man in the back.
Once again, Goodnight all,
Danny42C
DCO
Last edited by Danny42C; 9th Jun 2012 at 01:06.