Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II

[Danny42C]

BernieC (#10599),

I was but a very small cog in the machine of the Burma conflict, and can only supply my own personal opinions in answer to the questions asked in your first paragraph.

The RAF had no dedicated true dive bomber. It was conceived as a purely defensive force, and the (land based) dive bomber is only at its best as: "the spearhead of an advancing Army" (Peter C. Smith, "Vengeance!" (Airlife Publishing, 1986 - ISBN13 9780906393659)

EDIT: Correction: . [ISBN 0 906393 65 5]

The success of the "Stuka" early in the War caused a re-think. The French ordered a dive bomber from the US firm of Vultee, then France collapsed and we took over the contract. What we got was a very good dive bomber, but "too clumsy to fight and too slow to run away". If we had used it in the European theatre, it would have been massacred like the "Battles" in France in 1939-40. Then the RAF lost interest in the whole idea, wished it had never bought the things in the first place, and put them as far way out of sight as they could (India, Burma and Australia).

Now some clippings of an old Post of mine (on this Thread):

"The Vengeance was mainly used in Burma as a substitute for artillery. The hilly jungle country made the deployment of of guns difficult, and in any case the 14th Army didn't have enough of them. From the end of '43 onward it was trying to push the Japanese armies back down south in the Arakan, and east on the Assam fronts.

The Jap was a very good defensive fighter, especially skilled in digging-in in strong points from which it was very difficult to dislodge him. He didn't give up when he was tired or wounded. He didn't give up when things were hopeless. He didn't give up if he were sick or starving. He fought till he died. He never surrendered.

This was where we came in handy. From our rough, dry-weather "kutcha" strips 30-40 miles away, we could put up "boxes" of six aircraft, each carrying two 500lb and two 250lb bombs. It adds up to a formidable total of 9,000lb, nearly four tons of high explosive. This we could deliver accurately, on a point, in about 30 seconds.

It was more than a battery of 25-pounders could put down in a morning, even supposing they could bring up so many rounds. Moreover, the concentration of the bombing meant that, even if every Jap were not killed in the strike, the noise and blast would stun him long enough for our forward troops, who would be close nearby, to rush the position and finish off with grenade, rifle and bayonet before he came to his senses.

The difficulty was the "point". From 10,000 ft the jungle is just a bobbly green wooly jumper. The formation leader can map-read into the general area of the target, but needs help to pinpoint it.

We worked an answer out with the Army. The forward troops got smoke bombs for their mortars. They made sure a mortar was zeroed-in on the Jap position, then waited until they could hear and see us coming. With practice they could put the smoke down early enough to alllow the formation leader room to plan his bombing run, but not so soon as to allow the smoke to drift away. This smoke was the key to the whole thing. The formation leader's bombs had to be spot-on, for they kicked up so much dust that you couldn't see the mortar smoke. Each following pilot aimed for the centre of the dust cloud covering the target. Results were surprisingly good. There was often the odd bomb adrift, of course, and as our troops were usually fairly close by, some sad acccidents. But then, there has never been a war in which that hasn't happened (and never will be)".

As for the premature withdrawal of the VVs on the onset of the 1944 Monsoon, I have no idea why ACSEA did it, for we could have have done some good in that last dry season (and nobody knew that it was to be the last). It was a pity. We'll never know now.

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Chugalug (#10596),

In the matter of the Alderney and Jersey tunnels and V-1 ramps, I would've thought that the Lancasters and B-17s could have taken a morning off to pulverise them, and some rocket-firing Typhoons would help, too. Surely there was no Luftwaffe opposition to speak of by then ? If we'd had any VVs there (which there weren't), they would have been pleased to lend a hand (but a "box" would need a squadron of fighters to escort them if a Me109 was in the sky !)

But then, what do I know ? I was a long way away at the time !

Cheers, both, Danny.