NigG,
I make no apology for returning to one of my favourite hobby-horses: the feasability of low and medium level bombing (and strafing) with a Vultee Vengeance.
In my working-up period (Jan-Feb and last half April of '43) on 110, I trained intensively, doing nothing but high-level dives.
We went up to Chittagong on 12 May, operated there in the Arakan for about a week, the rains came, and (although we were on hard standing), went back to West Bengal to sit out the monsoon. During that time, there are two training entries in my log (26 and 26 June): "shallow dives" - and for the life of me I cannot remember anything about these. But they were each logged as "3 dives - 1 Shallow dive", which can only mean that the weather was suitable for high-level training but that each time the one low-level was tacked on just to try it.
110 went up to Khumbirgam on 15 October, we operated there until 13 November, when I was "head-hunted" (no option!) by 8 Sqdn IAF (working-up back in Bengal). They moved up to Double Moorings (in the Arakan) on 12 December; I operated with them there on several strips until 24 February '44, when a mishap removed me from the scene. When I came back in July, the Vengeance story (in Burma) was all over.
"So what's all that to do with the price of eggs ?" Only this: that I never did any low-level dive bombing on any of my 'ops', and certainly none in monsoon conditions. I am not an expert witness ! - and what follows is just my personal opinion.
I note that there are frequent references in your late father's obituary and Peter C. Smith's "Vengeance!" to medium and low-level operational dives being done by 84 (and other) Squadrons during the monsoon period (for of course, in the dry season, you would always go in high, as that was what the Vengeance was designed for, and what it did supremely well). I cannot see how low and medium level could safely or effectively be carried out with a VV in a monsoon.
With that enormous nose (exacerbated by the zero angke of incidence) blocking off your forward vision (USAAC pilots rejected the A-31 [their name] out of hand [PCS] on that account), you would have a poor sight of your target (and, more importantly, of obstacles ahead !) Might not matter so much on the coastal plain of the Arakan, but in the hills of Assam round Khumbirgram, a different story, for dodging round things was not the ponderous Vengeance's strong point. Add in low cloud and pouring rain, and it starts to look distinctly "hairy".
For the same reason, estimating the bomb-release point would be very difficult, as you'd lose sight of your target on the round-out much sooner than (say) a Hurricane, and your accuracy would suffer. All in all, "let the cobbler stick to his last" - the VVs to their vertical high-level dives, and leave the medium and low level bombing to the Beaufighter, Hurricane, and the US Kittihawks and Lockheed P.38 Lightnings we had with us out there.
As for using the VV for "strafing", words fail me ! Even apart from the forward visibility problem, why use a VV (with 4 rifle-calibre unreliable guns and a primitive ring-and-bead sight), when you have Hurricane IICs and Beaufighters with 4 x 20mm cannon and proper (reflector) sights to do the job?
Nevertheless I accept what the references say, and jolly good luck to the crews who did it, say I ! And I promise not to say another word about it !
Danny.