NigG (#381 revisited)
...November [1944]: Mosquito conversion staff arrived, but no Mosquitoes... used Oxfords...
These can only have been for the conversion of the VV pilots (who we almost all s/e). And where would have been the sense in converting these, who had less than a year of their "tours" left ? The new Mosquito pilots, who had a full tour ahead of them, were already fully trained (fresh out of OTU ?) and would not need Oxfords.
Curiously, the Oxford was still in use as late as 1964 as a lead-in to the
Meteor, as it had been in the early fifties (no wonder the poor little Meteor studes [and their instructors] died like flies in those years).
...Mosquitoes held up by technical failures...
You can say
that again ! They fell to bits, often in mid air, starting in the April by killing Wg Cdr Stumm, new CO of 45 and his crewman, and going on from there, until the rot was stopped at the end of the year.
...fresh plan was to re-equip with Vengeance IIIs and get back into action...
The old Mks. I and II (which had flown all the 'ops' in 1943-44 dry seasons) were all clapped-out. The Mk. III (which was the same aeroplane) was never in action
AFAIK.
Danny was roped in to instruct the new boys at Yelahanka - but the policy was reversed the very day I arrived !
...December [1944]: Only five Vengeances were on strength....... due to manufacturing faults with the self-sealing fuel tanks of newly shipped aircraft, so the original plan to convert to Mosquitoes was to resume...
The self-sealing tank problem goes back to the very beginning, Peter C. Smith refers to it early on in his "Vengeance!" The "original plan" was resumed simply because they'd solved the glue problem in the Mossies, and for no other reason (we'd lived with the tank problem all the time).
...April [1945]: Conversion and initial training on the Mosquito completed and 16 aircraft on strength. Sqdn moved to Chiharra, Calcutta, to await move forward to the battle. Fighter affiliation exercises conducted...
Can't trace a Chiharra. Near Calcutta ? Knew the area well. Now for a while 8 (IAF) were at what we called Chaara, but that is about 100 miles SW of 'Cal'. Struck oil on Google/Wiki with:
The 'Bura' part simply means "Greater" - it is not really part of the name. The young Maharajah of Cooch Bihar was one of the better known of the men-about-town around the Calcutta night clubs, and something of a babe-magnet (so I was told).
...May: plan to move to Chakulia postponed,...
Chakulia Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakul...;CachedSimilar
Chakulia Airport is an airport in India. It is located southwest of the city of Chakulia, a city and a ...... no scheduled commercial airline flights. In 2006, it was reported that the airport has been non-operational since it served during World War II....
Not far from Calcutta (Wiki map).
...February 1945: First 'Mossie' arrived...
It's getting very late in the day (but we didn't know it then).
...August: Atom bombs dropped and Japan surrendered...
Leaving us all dressed up with nowhere to go !
...Conversion to the Mosquito evidently caused a massive 'faff'. Had the Vengeances been kept on strength in 84 Sqdn, they would have been back in action in October 1944, when the monsoon cleared. That would have facilitated a further eight months of fighting in support of the 14th Army until July '45, when the monsoon returned. The one 'upside' of course...
My point exactly ! Ah, well......
Looks as if 84 never had a chance to strike a blow with their Mossies - time ran out.
.....................
(#394),
Tearing the eyes reluctantly from the distraction in the foreground, and in the absence of any idea of range, it is difficult to tell, but I would say that the Gongala "Rock"would be of a size difficult to
miss in a VV (or anything else for that matter in daylight !)
Danny.