What goes up comes down.
Chugalug,
The Stuka pilots might have been mit sahne, but I fear their RAF counterparts were a bit clotted at times! Yes, when you'd pressed the button, you'd no time to even wonder which way to turn - it was a case of pull out first and sort yourself out afterwards.
And if the sun was near the apex (as it could be in early May), and you were over a featureless landscape, it wasn't easy to decide which way to turn. For of course your DI was caged, the (panel) compass had gone to pot; any of your mates who happened to be in sight were as (temporarily) lost as you were. (You've a Navigator in the back? - Loud guffaw!) Luckily the jail wasn't far off the coast, so if you could tell the difference between the blue and the brown stuff on your map, you should be able to feel your way along.
We would not have known what a QNH was if it got up and bit us - or a QFE either, for that matter. You set your altimeter at zero when you started up and left it there. Luckily, there was nothing much above 200 ft amsl in the coastal plain of Arakan, and southern Bangladesh (East Bengal to us) mostly has about six inches of freeboard at high tide. And remenber, the weather would be glorious all the time. It was a case of: "No see, no fly".
Later, in Assam and points East, there were a lot of "hills" (aroud 7-8,000 ft) and you made due allowance in cross-countries. Luckily, we never had to bomb in the "hills", as we found it easier to run (and the Jap to chase us) - or vice versa - and do the fighting - in the jungles and paddy fields on the valley floors.
I had left Assam before the major Imphal/Kohima battle (which was in the hills), but I do not think they dared to use the VVs there, as the combatants were so closely locked together that blue-on-blue would be a certainty.
Happy days,
Danny.
Last edited by Danny42C; 10th Jun 2012 at 15:16.
Reason: D! should be DI !