FLY PAST
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One day in Burma in WWII, General "Bill" Slim addressed his ragged troops of the 14th Army:
"You men call yourselves the 'Forgotten Army'. You've not been forgotten - it's just that no one's ever heard of you !"
And this remains, in general, the position of the British (and the world) media during WWII and ever since. As it may well be that I am the last man alive to have flown the Vultee Vengeance operationally with the RAF in Burma *, I must welcome Sean Feast's extended article in the September issue of "Fly Past" magazine, and intend to add my two cent's worth, and invite comment, amplification and (yes) correction if needed.
Note *: I know nothing of the RAAF operations with them in New Guinea, and cannot comment.
What comes now can only be followed by those who have a copy of the magazine open before them, and it is to these I write.
In order to avoid tedious repetition, "Squadron" will be omitted, it will be "110, 82, 8, etc"
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I think it useful to start with my explaining the photograph top left on Page 28, for it maybe that others may plug the gaps in my my memory.
Bear in mind:
The pic was taken in Madhaiganj, not Digri, in the first days of January, 1943. I'd joined just a few days before.
Not all the Flight aircrew are there.
All aircrew named are Sergeants, except where othewise stated.
There are only two officers there - look for the caps.
Names and wings are L to R (looking at pic).
All pilots are standing on wings. All navs and AGs are sitting on wings. Standing on wheels are two ground NCOs.
Erks standing and sitting below. Many faces familiar; names familiar - but cannot put the two together.
..........
On top of cowling is F/O R.C.Topley ("Topper") Flt Commander. His acting Flt Lt has not come through yet, signs as F/O in my log until end of May. Draped on prop boss is "Chiefy" - F/Sgt Darling.
Standing (L to R) Sgt ("?"), think (RAAF); Reg Duncan (RCAF); Self; across to W/O Doug McIlroy (RNZAF); George Davies (RAF); Bud Yates (Yeats ? RCAF).
Sitting Sgt ("?"); P/O Robertson (nav -
not the one who nearly lost entire Flight en route to Chittagong !), flew with me on first three (Akyab) ops in May; Duncan's dog "Spunky" #; another Sgt ("?"); across to a hunched figure: Keith Stewart-Mobsby (we'd not "crewed-up" yet). Why was he not with me in May ? Dunno, malaria perhaps ?
Then three more ("?")s. Together with first two ("?"s), perm from Payne, Mills, Turner, Brown, Lewis, and Foster.
Two NCOs standing on wheels, Cpl/(Sgt"?"); Cpl Reavill. (one would have been a Fitter I, t'other a Rigger I.
Sad note *: "Spunky" got extensive and incurable (Doc Pete Latcham did his best) skin infection, fur coming off in lumps, animal was suffering, in March poor Reg had to take his pistol and do the last act of kindness to his (and the whole Squadron's) friend. Everybody broken-hearted.
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Fly Past,
Now that we have the dramatis personae sorted out (not a BMI over 21 to be seen), let us have a look at the text of the article. It is clear that the author (Sean Feast) has relied heavily on Peter C. Smith's "Vengeance!" ISBN 0 396393 65 5, particularly in the preamble. This points out the paradox that, when so much has been written about the success of the Ju87 "Stuka", and the Russian Pe-2; the RAF did not want to know about the operational value of this aircraft, which they themselves had commissioned in a panic in the dark days of '40-'41, now wished they hadn't, and that it would just go away quietly.
Many of the illustrations appear in "Vengeance!", but the quality is better and enable me to make useful comment.
The Vengeance was used by the RAF and IAF in India/Burma and by the RAAF in New Guinea. A useful (and only visible) difference is that the RAAF white centre of the blue/white SEAC roundel is larger than the RAF one.
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Now back to the beginning:
PAGE 26 PICS
The "silhouettes" of the three in echelon starboard show the normal wingover entry into the dive.
The one being bombed-up looks to have four ? * gun ports in the wing, two in the centre section(normal fit) and (judging by the masking) another two in the outer section, with one port visible. I think some later Mk.IVs did have an eight-gun installation, but the only picture available to me ("Vengeance!", page 117), clearly shows a Mk.IV used on 'ops' by the French at Agadir, Morocco). It has the trademark single 0.50 in the back, but only two masked ports in the wing.
The RAAF did get some Mk.IVs later on, but
AFAIK all the VV operations both in Burma and New Guinea were flown with Mks. I and II. Mk.IIIs came out to us at the end, but were used for odd jobs. I've never even seen a Mk.IV in the metal. Most of these (in UK and Australia) were converted into target tugs.
I checked through all the pics in Peter C. Smith's "Vengeance!", there are very few unmasked "full frontals": the only clear ones are on pp. 40, 105, and 123. In all cases they show a 2-gun wing.
So what have we here ? The outboard extra two must be something else - but what ?
The 250lb going on to the wing rack looks as if the light metal back "fin" is painted black. Never saw that before, it would certainly be attached to the yellow (bomb) front half, and would be painted yellow, too. They were joined before going on the bomb trolley.
The 'op' count on the fuselage may've been exaggerated a bit. But possible !
More next time, Danny42C.