Chugalug (#10526),
Thanks for the links - and for the masterly research into the background of this strange Jap inaction. We were grateful for it, as you say, but to the very end, we had this Sword of Damocles hanging over us - "it's not 'if', but 'when' " - every time we took off on a sortie. It was almost more nerve-wracking than actually being attacked.
Another "what if" (it was more of a "why", really), was the premature (IMHO) AHQ decision to pull the VVs out of the line on the onset of the '44 monsoon. As I've said on previous Posts, the ostensible reason ("to re-equip with the Mosquito") made no sense at all. The new, fully trained Mossie crews came out with their aircraft at that time, true. But all they wanted was our Squadron names and numbers. The old VVs and their crews (who were all almost on the last year of their India tours anyway), could "get lost" as far as they were concerned !
It looked as if we might have had to be brought back into service in the panic which followed the Mossie self-destruct episode (and I was sent down to Yelahanka to "convert" Mossie drivers into dive-bombers in three easy lessons) but, probably, fortunately for us all, they got the glue problem licked just in time. But at that, I don't think any of the Mossies got into service out there until '45.
Even so, why not use the VVs as well as the Mossies for that one last (but we did not know it then) dry season ? Accom. was no problem, and you can knock up a "kutcha" strip in no time. But as it was, there were winners, Danny spent his last year as the big fish in a tiny pool and was Monarch of All He Surveyed. Heady stuff for a 23 year old !
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Fantom Zorbin (#10527),
Yes, an enemy with no fear of death is a formidable foe indeed ! And I suppose it explains the utter disgust and contempt they felt when Percival surrendered Singapore to a fighting force half his size in '42. That he did so to spare millions of non-combatants from death by thirst * would cut no ice with them, as they'd demonstrated in China.
* The Japs had got control of the fresh-water supply to the city.
Same goes for any of our troops they captured, and I suppose that it explains (but does not exculpate) their barbaric treatment of prisoners.
Regards to both, Danny.