Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II

[Danny42C]

Bomb Hang-ups - a Mystery.

savimosh01,


It would seem our Posts "crossed in the post" as it were. First, I am sorry if you misunderstood my light-hearted use of the word "betters" (referring to navs/wop/ags in relation to pilots). No real denigration was implied!

Of course, this was all part of the good-humoured banter that went (and I hope still goes) on all the time in war (and peace) in the RAF. The "lesser breeds" responded vigorously, sarcastically referring to "The Lords of the Universe", "The twin-winged Master Race", and much more not printable in a family publication. Even in the hallowed reaches of civil aviation, it is a commonplace that "God lives in the Left Hand Seat", and similar comments of the same ilk. There's no harm in it - don't worry about it.

Your father must have joined 110 just about the time (Oct '43) as I left it for 8 (IAF). Did he ever speak of the air raid on Khumbirgram, which happened just before I left? With all that was going on at the same time, it is no surprise that I can't now remember the name. So many names!

I am very interested in the Takoradi detachment in '44, which, AFAIK, was tasked to do the first anti-malarial spray trials with the new magic stuff (DDT) - before its toxicity was recognised. I didn't know that they had Mk. IVs for the job. (They might have done better with Mk. IIIs, as it turned out, apparently).

My interest is this: I was employed in a similar business, using the same spray tanks, in 1340 (Special Duty) Flight in Cannanore (S. India). Ours was a grimmer task, we were spraying mustard and phosgene gases (for the purpose of evaluating methods of defence, of course). We were allowed to continue our planned trials to completion for a few months after the war, and then we cleaned out the tanks and had a go at the anti-malaria spraying ourselves.

I think the solvent used was kerosene, but am not sure. As this was in Jany '46, much water must flow down the Ganges before my Posts get there. One thing: I have a good pic of a VV flying with these spray tanks fitted (underwing). This may be the only one in the world - at least, I have never seen another.

This may be a good opportunity to relate a sad story about the untimely end of Reg Duncan's dog "Spunky".

While we were at Madhaiganj, Reg had picked up a better-class stray dog. "Spunky" must have had a lot of proper dog in him, and was growing up into quite a handsome animal. In my logbook is an old photo of "A" Flight, with the pair together among the rest of us on an aircraft wing. The two were inseparable, Reg doted on his dog; he was the Flight mascot and a great favourite of all. But "Spunky" picked up some spreading skin ailment which had him tearing all his fur off.

"Pete" Latcham, our M.O., did his best, for he knew how much "Spunky" meant to Reg. But none of his unguents did any good, things were only getting worse and the dog was obviously suffering. There was only one thing left. Reg had to take his pistol and perform the last act of kindness for his friend. Everybody was sad for quite a while. This must have happened while I was away in hospital in the March, for people were still talking about it when I got back in April.

I don't normally mix the main narrative with the personal exchanges, but there is a particular reason in this case. So here is the promised section on bomb hang-ups.

Hang-ups are rare, but can be very dangerous. If you have one, you try to get rid of it safely by chucking the aircraft about over water or open country. If it still refuses to budge, you have a difficult decision. In theory, if the switches are "safe", the thing should be harmless and you can land with it - or even crash with it, (as I proved the following year}. But it ain't necessarily so.

Shortly after I left Khumbirgram on posting to 8 Sqdn. a crew was killed there when a wing hang-up dropped on landing and exploded when it hit the runway. I think 8 Sqdn. were still "working up" far back in Bengal at the time, so details of the affair were sketchy and took some time to reach us.

It is difficult to imagine how this came to happen. Did the pilot not know he had a hang up? Impossible, you'd say, from what I've been telling you about the hang-up check a few posts ago.

Confession is good for the soul ! The whole of my tale about the jail sortie is perfectly true. But it's actually a composite of my first VV strikes (where in truth we just formed up and went home after bombing) and later ones when this mandatory check had been introduced. (It seemed neater for me to tell the two parts of story in one piece, as it were, as I didn't intend to tell it again - mea culpa!)

So in the early days, not only did we not do any checks, but a practice had sprung up whereby the bomb switches were left "live" after we'd bombed until landing and switch-off. There was some method in this madness.

When a bomb drops, a loop in a wire "fusing link" is held back in the rack by a solenoid bolt which closes when the rack is switched to "live". The other (two) ends of this wire "link" run through holes in a sort of "safety cap", and locks this onto the end of the bomb fuse on which it is loosely threaded. (Same way as a split-pin locks a nut).

This cap protects the detonator inside from accidental impact, (but not from idiots with hammers and chisels!). Incidentally, there are two fuses to a bomb, nose and tail.

It is amazing what blows this cap can survive and still do its job. If a bomb is dropped "safe", the solenoid bolt stays open, the fusing link goes off with the bomb, so the cap stays on the fuse, still held by the wire. It can now go down 20,000 ft into the ground and (should) not go off.

But if the bomb has gone "live", the wire is held back in the rack; the cap has lost its locking. "Windmill" vanes are machined round its circumference, it is loose on the thread, the airflow spins it off in a moment, away we go.

That is rather a cumbersome explanation, but it brings us to the point. If you return the switches to "safe" after dropping your bombs, the solenoids withdraw, the links fall out and are lost. Why should that matter?

Because, if you come back with no links, there is at least a possibility (worse, even suspicion) that you have stupidly "bombed safe". With your links "all present and correct", you're in the clear. Also, you don't need new links for the next lot of bombs (there may even have been a shortage of links - it's exactly the sort of small, cheap, insignificant thing we would be short of), and it's one less job for the armourers. Leave the links in (switches "live").

Good idea? So we thought. And now we can see what might happen. Suppose you have an unnoticed hang-up, it falls off as you land. That's it ! How could it come to be unnoticed on a wing when the pilot rejoined the formation? Only if he were the last man, and it was on an outside wing, it might be possible that no other pilot would notice it. But then, couldn't a gunner on an aircraft ahead, looking back, spot it?

Supposing he did know, he would certainly have done his best to get rid of it, failed and concluded that a landing was safe - it wasn't!

The switches would have gone back to safe, of course, but the trouble with a hang-up is that you never know just how things are in the rack. The bolt may have jammed in the closed position (rear door in my very old car jammed a few months ago, very similar mechanism; main agent estimate £500 [ouch!]; friendly auto-elec chap down road: 3hrs @ £20 = £60 - fixed). And how securely is the claw still holding your bomb? You don't know.

In this way we lost two good men. In fact, it was a risk too far (my log tells me I've done it myself on one occasion, I was lucky). Really, the only sensible thing to do was to bale out and let the aircraft go - there were plenty more where it came from, and a crew is worth more than an aircraft.

I believe that it was in consequence of this accident that hang-up checks became the rule.

One curious little thing: the front fuse cap spun off well clear of the aircraft and was lost (I can see some museum director in the future trying to puzzle out what this little round thing, dug up by a treasure-hunter, might be).

But the tail fuse safety device took the shape of a little sheet-metal butterfly-shaped thing (I've no idea how it worked). On quite a few occasions, an aircraft would come back with this thing embedded in a flap. It was too small to do any real damage, but the flap had to be patched after you pulled it out. It was a nuisance.

Now I must link this to a strange contradiction. I quote from "Vengeance", by Peter C. Smith, published 1986 by Airlife Publishing Ltd. (ISBN 0 906393 65 5) - (I trust this will be acceptable as a sufficient acknowlegment).

(Page 117, end):

"Glyn Hansford was an armourer with 110 Squadron. His mount was a three-ton Chevrolet truck rather than a dive-bomber, but he and his companions played their full part in this campaign. It was one continuing round to keep the planes flying, but some incidents stood out, as he related to me,* and the one just mentioned was one of them".

"There were many acts of courage and devotion to duty. One of the most vivid was that of a Canadian pilot, Flying Officer Duncan, who returned from a sortie with a bomb hung-up, which he could not shake off at all. He attempted to land with it on, a very risky thing to do, and it blew up as he touched down. He and his aircraft were totally destroyed, along with his little pet dog, which he had taken with him on every mission." **

* The speaker is a F/O "Red" (sometimes "Bud") McInnis, RCAF. (He was on "B" Flight, but I knew him well - and I took over his unit when he returned to Canada in April '45).

** (Underlining is mine) I cannot believe this. Can you?

The news of this accident, when it later reached us on 8 Squadron, named Reg Duncan as the pilot concerned, and we saw no reason to doubt it. I had originally named him as such in my earlier draft on the hang-up story, but edited it to remove the name before putting it on this thread.

Peter C. Smith is a highly respected aviation writer.

Now what? It's beyond me. (110 Squadron War Diary - F.540 - must have a full record of this incident; I look to those more computer-skilled than I to find a possible explanation).


EDIT:.......... I have now checked the C.W.G.C. - There is no record of a grave in India or Burma (Myanmar). The mystery deepens. I would have discounted Hansford's evidence on the ground of his last ridiculous sentence alone (about the little dog), but for the backing of Red McInnis. (How could you dive bomb with a dog on board - how could you secure him ?)..........(19 Jun 12, 1620hrs)....D.



Goodnight, all,

Danny42C

You never know