THE CURIOUS TALE OF "VENGEANCE" EZ999, A WARBIRD ALMOST UNKNOWN IN ITS HEYDAY IN WWII AND NOW FORGOTTEN
First thing was do some research and gather together as much relevant material as I could. I'll acknowledge these two references as follows:
1...Posts on the "Pilot's Brevet" Thread as: .............................[Page/Post]
2...Peter C. Smith: "Vengeance!" (1986) Airlife Publishing Ltd,
.....7, St.John's Hill, Shrewsbury, England.
......(ISBN 0 906393 65 5) as: ...............................................[PCS]
The Dive Bomber earned its share of the spotlight in WWII. The Germans had huge success in the 1940
blitzkrieg with their Ju87 "Stuka"; in 1942 the US Navy gained a stunning victory at Midway in the Pacific with the Douglas SBD (A-24) "Dauntless"; in a matter of minutes avenging Pearl Harbor and breaking the back of Japanese naval air power for the rest of the war.
The Russians had the Pe-2, but although originally fitted with dive brakes,* soon removed them and was then used, very successfully, as a general-purpose ground-attack aircraft (Google Pe-2, there is a wealth of material, including a lot of Youtube).
* of an apparently similar design to the Vengeance: grids carried clear of the wing surfaces so as not to impede airflow, but, curiously, only on the lower wing, whereas the VV had them on both upper and lower surfaces.
The RAF had none. It had always seen its role as a defending force, whereas the dive bomber is at its best as an offensive weapon, spearheading the advance of an attacking army. When we saw what the Stukas had done all over Europe, we belatedly decided to join the club. No time to design and build our own, we would have to see what was available "off the shelf".
We had a stroke of luck. The French had seen the need before we did, and ordered an advanced dive-bomber design from a small American manufacturer by the name of Vultee. The USAAC was interested in the project from the start, taking a share in the development of the A-31, as they called it.
But before deliveries to the French could start, France collapsed. Vultee had lost its only customer (the USAAC took a few, didn't like them much, requested a redesign to improve them (which became the A-35), didn't like that either and lost interest in them.
Our arrival on the scene must have seemed Manna from Heaven to Vultee. Our Purchasing Commission took over the French contract . Then we had second thoughts. The BoB had removed the threat of invasion, but there would be no ground offensive in Europe for four years. In North Africa our Hurricanes, P-40s and Beaufighters could do all the tank-busting and strafing the 8th Army wanted.
We'd bought - yes, we paid cash for the first batches (the first 200 @ £21,000 a throw [total say £1.25m today, assuming an inflation factor of 50], but the follow-on orders would be cheaper) until Lend-Lease came in, for a bunch of white elephants. [PCS]
At that time there was a faraway Army of ours (the 14th), fighting a last-stand defensive campaign in a faroff land (Burma). They'd be glad of anything they could get to help them keep the Japs out of India. The omens were not good. The Japs had sunk one of the twin prides of the Navy (
Prince of Wales *) and the older
Repulse. So now we'd lost our last hope of stopping the Jap troop transports from coming over unopposed from Indo-China, and landing them on the East coast of the Malayan isthmus, to take Singapore after a week or so, then come up through Malaya and Burma to the borders of India.
* "
A properly handled capital ship", Admiral Tom Philips had declared, "
can always beat off air attack". He was wrong (but, to be fair, that
was Admiralty thinking at the time), and
AFAIK, no capital ship had been sunk by aircraft in open waters up to then (and he went down in his flagship).
It was a rout. There wasn't much to stop them now, it seemed. The sun was about to set on the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets. (It had already set on the French and Dutch Empires and on the US
de facto "colony" of the Phillipines, where "
I shall return", said General Douglas MacArthur - and he did !) Of course our unwanted purchases came in handy in India to help plug the gap. They equipped four RAF Sqns and two IAF ones with them.
Miraculously, the Line was Held. The VVs only arrived at the end of'42; by the time we'd worked up on the A-31s ("Vengeance" Mks.I and II), there was little of the '42/'43 dry season left. After the Monsoon, in the '43/'44 season, the 14th Army started pushing the Jap back; he reacted in his usual way, digging in at strong points to hold us up and fighting to the death. These places were tailor-made for the VVs, we simply dug 'em out again, sending the occupants to join the ancestors. The Army was very pleased, as they'd lose a lot of men if they had had to winkle them out piecemeal.
By the '44/'45 season (ie after the monsoon) the war had still a year to run (and as far as we knew then, might have gone on for years). But the VV Sqdns were pulled off ops (for no good reason that I know), and never operated again. The 14th Army had now got on top of the Japs and driven them back over the coastal ranges of Arakan to the central Burma plains where our armour could be deployed.
On our northern (Assam) front the battles of Imphal and Kohima had been won and we were across the Chindwin river. Ideal conditions for a dive-bomber, you would have thought - but we'd all been relegated to odd jobs ! Coincidentally, I believe the same happened to the RAAF at the same time, on the orders of the US Commanding General in New Guinea.
***************
All good (and bad) things come to an end, the war ended as all things must. The RAF ignored our many successes; they'd no more enduring interest in dive bombers now than they had in '39. They scrapped the lot - nobody thought of keeping any Museum specimens. And for a large proportion of the VVs, there would be no option in any case.
"
Give us the tools", Churchill had asked the US, "
and we will finish the job". But all the aircraft supplied under Lend-Lease had not been given to us, but merely loaned to us to help win the war. Now the war was over: it was perfectly reasonable for the US to demand them back.
The policy adopted was this: anything which they wanted (eg Dakotas and Harvards), we must hand over. As for the rest, if we wanted to keep them, we must pay for them (in scarce dollars) at heavily discounted prices. If we didn't want to do that, then we
must destroy them completely. Vultee Vengeances fell in that last category.
Clearly, as EZ999 (Mk.I - A-31), all the Mk.IIIs (A-31s) and Mk.IVs (A-35s) were supplied under Lend-Lease: under the terms of the Lend-Lease Agreement, so all ought to have been scrapped at the end of the war. The few (all Mk.IVs
AFAIK) which we (and the RAAF) had modified and were using as Target Tugs were, I suppose, worth paying for, but it's difficult to see a case for keeping any of the others. In practice, the destruction rule seems to have been enforced less rigidly in some areas rather than others. In India it was certainly treated very seriously, and it got me into hot water [160/3200].
As EZ999 escaped scrapping, it would seem that the Australians took a more cavalier view of their contractual obligations under Lend Lease, for it would make no sense to pay good money for an ex-Lend Lease VV to be used as an instructional hulk, when at the same time they had their pick of the 123 British Contract VVs which had been passed on to them to do as they liked with.
*************
Now we'd better look at what we got from the US (all figures from [PCS] ) I believe something like 2300 of both types were built in all. Of these aircraft (listed below by [PCS] as "British), many were switched to Australia and renumbered in the A-27- series). Note that,
AFAIK, only Marks I and II were used operationally by the RAF in Burma; the IIIs only came to us in summer '44 after we'd pulled out - and we never got any IVs at all. I'm pretty sure the RAAF likewise only operated with Is and IIs, I don't know about IIIs, but they got plenty of IVs at the end (and one of these, I suspect, is our Narellan survivor).
EXTRACT FROM APPENDIX 3 TO [PCS]
=======================
Serial Numbers, Qty and Mark
________________________
US A-31s
======
AF745-AF944.....200,..... II.............Vultee built,.......... British Contract.
AN538-AN837....300,...... I.............Vultee built,........... British Contract.
AN838-AN999....162,...... I,........... Northrop built,....... British Contract.
AP001-AP137....138,...... I,........... Northrop built,....... British Contract.
EZ800-EZ999.....200,...... IA,......... Northrop built,....... Lend Lease.
FB918-FB999.......82,.... III,........... Vultee built,.......... Lend Lease.
FD001-FD117.....117,.... III........... Vultee built,........... Lend Lease.
[PCS] is confusing about the last two entries above, listing only "FB918-FD117", I have assumed the figures stated.
FP686...................1,...... I,........... Vultee built,.......... British Contract
.(replacement for AN679, which crashed before delivery)
......................____
................ .....1200
......................===
US A-35s
======
FD118-FD221.....104,....IV-1,..... ..Vulteebuilt, .....Lend Lease.
FD222-FD417.....196,... IV-2,........Vultee built,.....Lend Lease.
HB300-HB550.....251,... IV-2,........Vultee built,.....Lend Lease.
KG810-KG820......11,.... IV-2,........Vultee built,.... Lend Lease.
........................___
........................562
........................===
Of this list, [PCS] records a total of 110 (AF Series) plus 32 (AN Series) as going to the RAAF from the British Contract, I have no idea of what (if any) financial adjustment was made. Together with 46 (EZ Series, Lend Lease) also transferred, they total 188, all Mks.I & II (A-31s). These included:
EZ880-888, EZ905-911, EZ913, EZ915-916, EZ918-919, EZ925-926, EZ929-930, EZ945-946, EZ952-EZ954, EZ974, and EZ995-999.
My logbook shows that I flew (several times each, on 110 Sqn Jun'43 to Dec'43 and on 8 (IAF) Sqn Dec'43 to July'44) EZ811, EZ834, EZ860, EZ862, EZ891, EZ894, EZ904 and EZ993. .... It fits.
In addition, an unstated number of Mk.IVs (A-35s), Lend Lease, went to the RAAF,
AFAIK, no Mk.IVs came to India, but some went to the UK, and were there modified as TTs.
Apart from the British allocation, [PCS] says that 25 went to the Free French in July '43,and 13 in December '43 (the first batch of these would probably have been A-31s - Mks I and II, but the second Mk.IVs), for use in N.Africa.
Brazil got 25 AN series (Is) in February '43 and 5 A-35s (IVs) in September '44
*************
Our search now focusses on EZ999. Peter C. Smith, in the last Pages two pages (171-172) of his "Vengeance!" [PCS] writes in 1986 as follows: (Bold type mine):
"The most complete specimen is that held at the Camden Museum of Aviation located at 11, Stewart Street, Narellan, NSW. This is a privately owned museum with no state funding and was founded, and is still run and maintained, by Harold, Verna and Alan Thomas".
"Harold was a former apprentice with Australian National Airways. All restoration work there is done by the family themselves, and a couple of interested volunteers. One of these, who has specialised on the Vengeance, is LAC Wayne Brown from 77 Squadron Engine Section at RAAF Base Williamstown. He very kindly provided details of the work conducted there on this aircraft".
"This aircraft was the last Mk 1A Vengeance built by Northrop aircraft. It did not see active service with the RAAF and spent most of her career being sent from one storage depot to another, and as such has very few flying hours under her wing. The markings EZ999 are fictitious and the code NH-Y represents the code carried by an aircraft of 12 Squadron RAAF, in late 1943".
"After being disposed of by the RAAF she was used by the Sydney Technical College for many years, for training technical tradesmen, and it is only through this that she survived being scrapped. Eventually she was obtained by Harold Thomas, who stored her in his backyard before restoring her to display condition and putting her on display to the public at his museum at Camden airport. In 1979 the museum was forced to move from the airport and is now situated a short distance away at Narellan".
"The RAAF Historical Section at the Air Force Office, Canberra, kindly provided the author with a copy of this aircraft's detail sheet. EZ999 was given Australian serial A-27-99, and was received on 20 June 1943 from the United States by 2AD. On 30 October she was moved into their store, and on 30 August 1945 alloted to 2CRD for further storage; this took place on 28 November. On 13 February 1946 she was allocated to 2AD Store and on 22th was ordered to be stored in situ. On 27 April 1948 it was approved for her to be moved to the RANS, but this move was cancelled on 11 June 1948 and she was passed to the DAP on the 24th".
"It is to be hoped that this unfunded work, both at Narellan and Bull Creek, will receive more support, both physical and monetary, and that both airframes can be fully restored, as tangible reminders of the 'Forgotten Dive-Bomber', the vultee vengeance". [PCS]
To this, we can only say "Hear, Hear". They managed to build 2300 VVs [PCS] , and, as the sole survivor, it deserves its place of honour in the Camden museum on that account alone and should also, IMHO, be correctly catalogued as the very last example in the world of a warbird little known at the time and now completely forgotten.
***************
Well, with a provenance like that, who is going to cavil at the Camden Museum's description of their precious find ? Trouble is: whatever the Museum has got, it's certainly
not a Mk.1A, and even [PCS] says that the
'EZ999' on it is fictitious. (Why he did this, as it puts a question mark over his whole detailed story, I can't imagine). Let me explain:
EZ800-EZ999 were Vengeances 1A (Northrop built, Lend Lease), US Serials 41-30848 to 41-31047 [PCS]
From 10 Jan 1944 to 24 Feb 1944, on No. 8 Sqn, IAF, I flew EZ993 17 times (14 operational): this aircraft seems to have been allocated to me, although I flew several others in the same period.
How on earth EZ993 went to India, and EZ999 went to Australia, I have simply no idea. But it certainly
did (the Museum's paperwork proves that), the only question is: "where is it now - does it even exist any more ?"
It would have been identical in all respects to my EZ993 (and I know that
that ended as a pile of scrap in the Arakan with my gunner and I in it on 24 Feb 1944). So what is it that the Museum
has got ? [PCS] shows a Cockpit photo (page 3), and a detailed drawing of the pilot's panel as his Appendix 5. Both items exactly match the Lang photographs mentioned above. And on page 95, "
a VV with a 0.50 in rear cannon described as "A-27-204 ex AN558", armed with depth-charges" is shown. (This is a contradiction in terms - AN558 would be a Mk.1, but the 0.50 gun was only fitted to the Mk.IVs).
Or so we thought; it was the cornerstone of our original contention (in several Posts on "Pilot's Brevet" Thread during 2012) that the Narellan Vengeance was a Mk.IV, and as such could not be EZ999. Later I got my copy of [PCS], and have used it mainly as a source of the statistics quoted above.
Then quite recently I read the whole text again. It is lavishly illustrated with photographs, and my eye lit on one on p.169, captioned:
"close up of the reconstructed rear cockpit of the Narellan vv with single 0.5 in calibre gun - Wayne Brown" (we have heard of him before, he sounds a good witness).
That puts our case (on those grounds) out of Court straightaway, and now, as I told Cooda Shooda [362/7235-6], we must find other "birth marks" which are conclusive. Meanwhile the jury is out.
And there the matter rests, we must all wait until the Museum replies to my query, and if we can get anyone from the readers of the Aussie Warbirdz (or others out there) to examine the exhibit.
When and if there is any progress, I'll Post again.
Danny42C.