"....Down and down you go...."
Stanwell,
Glad to hear that my story raised a chortle or two ! But it was really rather naughty of me. Although I did a lot of practice dives at the beginning (when we were working out, by trial and error, how to dive-bomb), and a fair number operationally, unnecessary dives were frowned upon after the Vengeance had been pulled off 'ops' on the onset of the '44 monsoon.
Although I have said, and it is true, that our technique was safe provided you did it absolutely right, and kept an eye on your altimeter, you have a lot to do in the twenty seconds. The "normal" VV accident (particularly at the OTU) was to go in at the bottom. Of course, the chap was not around to tell us how it happened.
There was always a degree of risk. I never did it again, would never had authorised it, and my pilots at Cannanore (none with any VV 'op' time) were strictly forbidden even to think about it.
Danny.