PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II
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Old 21st Jul 2017, 15:35
  #11029 (permalink)  
ICM
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Bishops Stortford, UK
Age: 82
Posts: 469
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Danny: 10 Sqn had been detached to Burma in mid-March 1946 to drop rice and salt to Kachin villages in the mountains. I understand that the villagers had agreed to destroy their rice stocks to deny these to the Japanese but, with the war at a end, this left them in a desperate situation in which there was a moral responsibility for the UK to help out. Flights were mounted from Meiktila and Myitkyina. On 29 March, 3 aircraft and crews went missing. Searches were begun and, on 3 April, a crew found itself facing a blind-end after a turn and got out with full power and a dose of good luck. However, in the midst of this, wreckage of 2 aircraft was spotted together with a figure waving madly. He was an Indian Sepoy, who had helped with loading, and he proved to be the sole survivor. Wreckage of the 3rd aircraft was seen the next day, and supplies were dropped. Aerial searching continued until 12 April but nothing more was found. The supply dropping task was completed in late April, some weeks earlier than anticipated, and the Squadron returned to Poona. It moved about a month later to Mauripur, its base until its return to the UK and disbandment in December 1947.
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