Comment on "Fly Past" magazine article on Vultee Vengeance in WWII.

[Danny42C]

Hempy (#19),

This is an extract dug out of the archives from one of my early Posts ca May 1912:

...Engines were another matter. Vultee, like most aircraft makers, bought them in, and with US rearmament in full swing, they were scarce as hen's teeth. Vultee's scouts scoured the land, and struck oil in Galveston (Texas). Several hundred Wright "Double Cyclone" radials sitting on the dockside, quietly rusting away and looking for a good home.

These engines had a chequered history. They had been ordered by the French to power one of their new fighter designs, but by the time they had been delivered, France had collaped. This batch would have fallen into Nazi hands had someone not had the sense to load them back on one of the last freighters to leave Bordeaux for the States.

There they were dumped until Vultee found them. Possession would be nine-tenths of the law and the question of ownership could wait. My guess is that Wright (the makers) had been paid in advance, so they weren't interested, and the French were in no position to ask for their money back. Whatever, Vultee paid the storage charges, carried off their finds in triumph and the production line started to roll...

We later found that these engines had been insufficiently inhibited in the first place, had then had two Atlantic voyages, (possibly as deck cargo) before being dumped for months in the open at Galveston. The results were as you might expect.

An engine in good condition would burn 1½ galls/hr. We had a 21 gallon oil tank. But these ex-French things might suddenly develop a galloping thirst; oil consumption would rise exponentially, there were cases when the whole 21 gallons were burned, and the engine failed, on a single flight.

Danny.

[Hempy]

When you think about it the war in the Pacific moved on so much quicker than the war in Europe. The Pacific war didn't kick off until 6 months after Germany invaded the USSR. The Japs had 6 months of general success and then gradually started moving backwards after Guardalcanal and Midway. By the time the VV came into service it was considered that other aircraft like the Beaufighter, which they had plenty of, were more suited in the ground attack role given the tasks that the RAAF were being assigned to carry out by MacArthur. e.g long range over water low level attack missions against enemy ports, aerodromes etc.

ps Stanwell,

Originally Posted by 24 Sqn Website

]By August 1943, the Unit had standardised with Vengeances and was soon deployed to New Guinea, where dive-bomber operations commenced from Nadzab. Accurate attacks were made against enemy occupied towns and on Japanese positions at Shaggy Ridge. The Vengeances also supported the Cape Gloucester landings before being withdrawn to Australia in March 1944.

https://www.awm.gov.au/unit/U59387/

[Stanwell]

Thanks Hempy.
I hadn't been aware of those Vengeance operations from Nadzab.
Shaggy Ridge was indeed a difficult job.

[FAR CU]

EXCELLENT PICS THANKS DICK SIMPSON. Before the present building was built at Narellan to house the collection of the late Harold Thomas, the former shed
was so over-stuffed with planes and pieces and parts you needed to be as thin as a match stick to sidle anywhere. My greatest sympathies with Harold were over his failed attempts to retrieve from Tahiti the Sandringham VH-APG , the one that now resides in the Musee de L'Air in Paris.

[Danny42C]

FAR CU,

Yes, the Camden Vengeance, all right. One small point which I did not notice before: the "nose art" is just a bit of window-dressing; the history of EZ999 is well known and documented, it never saw service on a RAAF Squadron. A Mk.I, it was supplied to Britain on Vultee's "British Contract", it was ours to do what we liked with it; we passed it on to the RAAF. A curious thing, I flew EZ993 in Burma, EZ999 went to Oz.

All Mk.IVs were "Lend Lease", which meant that, at war's end, we had to give them back to the US if they wanted (they didn't !), or buy them from them, or destroy them completely.

EDIT:

Now I believe most of the Vengeance bits in Oz would be from Mk.IVs (as a lot of them went out there at war's end). So if one of the teams of eager enthusiasts who are (in competition with one another ?) scouring the land for them are successful in rebuilding another complete specimen, it'll be a IV - and they can expect a bill from the US Air Attaché !

Danny42C.

[Stanwell]

Something funny must have been going on then - because those ones from Boulder, Western Australia (less engines, I understand),
were available for ten quid each.
.

[Danny42C]

Stanwell,

Perhaps you Aussies were (shall we say) not as scrupulous as we Poms in reading the fine print of the LL Agreement ? Are you sure the Boulder ones were Mk IIIs or IVs ?

Was threatened with Court Martial for refusing to burn my Mk.IIIs where they stood.

If you have any airframe numbers, that should enable us to pin the Boulder ones down.

Danny.

[Danny42C]

Page 28 of "Fly Past"

PAGE 28 PICS

The one at top left of page has been covered on the Posts before. At New Year 1943, Madhaiganj, not Digri.

Right: see my #21 above. There's the reason for the engine change ! (It would not be the only change, by a long chalk).

I think 82 would be doing anti-submarine sweeps out over the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean from Cholaveram (Madras). 84 did the same for a while from Ceylon. Don't think they ever found anything to attack. Vengeance not suitable for job, as would have to be fairly low to see and make sure submarine not one of ours in first place, then a low level attack would be hit and miss as pilot cannot see much ahead. To deliver famed Vengeance accuracy you would have to climb to 10,000 minimum first. That would take 15 mins, prudent U-boat skipper is under the waves and far away by then.

In early 1945 was on a Radar Calibration Flight at Cholaveram: Flight Commander a Swiss Air Gunner (yes). Flew tracks 50 miles out to sea. All Vengeance operations in Burma had ceased for good on onset of 1944 monsoon as RAF sqdns supposed to be converting to Mosquitoes. (The IAF went over to the Spitfire XIV). Snag was: the glues that held the "Wooden Wonder" together - didn't in moist tropical climates - and they started falling to bits in the air. By the time they got the glue trouble sorted, it was 1945 before the Mossies got into their stride.

The "United Provinces" relates to, as Wiki tells us:

United Provinces of Agra and Oudh........
Province of India under the British Raj (Disestablished 1921)"

So what was a 1943 aircraft doing with that on the side ?..... No idea.

PAGE 28 TEXT

...Vics of up to a dozen aircraft were considered ideal...

I have heard many accounts of formations of 12 or even 24 or more, but I can only relate from my own experience. Of all my 52 ops, only one was a 12-ship sortie, and that was of two separate boxes of six going to target together and coming back together, but bombing separately.

We had established that the largest tactical unit to have any hope of taking evasive action if attacked was the "Box-of-Six" which was the standard. After Fighter Affiliation exercises, the "attacking" Hurricane pilots told us that we had almost no hope of survival if a box were attacked by even a pair of well handled "Oscars". It stood to reason, one Vengeance is clumsy enough in all conscience, six in formation nearly hopeless. Any more - forget it. A 24-ship attack would simply have to be a loose collection of four six-boxes diving in turn.

Of course, dive bombers are attacking weapons only, The extra strength that has to be built-in to resist the stresses of the dive and pull-out means extra weight, that makes them awkward, so they need fighter escort and require air supremacy to be used successfully. In WWII the Luftwaffe had this in Poland and France. In the Battle of Britain they lost it and the Stuka became easy prey for the Hurricane and Spitfire. Wiki tells us in a very detailed account that:

...The Stuka depended on air superiority, the very thing being contested over Britain. It was withdrawn from attacks on Britain in August after prohibitive losses, leaving the Luftwaffe without precision ground-attack aircraft.[119]...

In our case in Burma, if a six-box were "jumped" at height on the way to target, the only sensible tactic would, IMHO, be a well-practised "Red-Arrow" style "bomb-burst", and dive vertically. In the dive one Vengeance would be a hard target, six in separate dives an impossible one. On pull-out each aircraft would be very fast (300 mph), well scattered and very low. Not very valorous - but we'd only lose one or two instead of the lot.

Luckily for us, for some reason which has never been explained to this day, the Japanese Army commanders (under whose command the "Oscars" operated), never tried to intercept us. The only concerted effort ever made to hamper our activities was at Khumbirgram in November 1943, when a high-level attack by nine "Bettys" (a thing the size of our "Wellington") killed three of 110's men, destroyed one Vengeance, damaged others - and a working elephant on the Station went AWOL for good !

..."The honour of being the first RAF unit to operate the Vengeance fell to 82, although its sister unit, 84 became the first to bomb Japanese targets"...

The first part of the statement is open to question, we on 110 thought we were the first, but we both started in a small way shortly before the 1943 Monsoon, and it really doesn't matter now. The second part is contradictory. Obviously 84 were operating the Vengeance if the were "bombing Japanese targets with them". The difficulty is that 84 only started on the "bread and butter" targets with the rest of us very late (March 1944, I think). Before that, they had been bombing in support of the Chindits and details of that are scarce.

......diving from 10,000ft to 4,000ft to achieve an accurate drop and allowing...

12,000 gave you a bit more time. We pulled out when the altimeter needle passed 3,500 agl, that would be 3,000 true as the altimeter lagged. The average chap, pulling to the onset of "grey-out", would regain level flight around 1,000 agl. That would represent a 2½ secs margin for error (descending at 400 ft/sec in the dive). Not a lot ! But of course, with your bomb gone, your interest now was survival. So, instead of floating along at 1,000ft, making yourself a target for any AA about (and for any Jap with a rifle or light automatic weapon), you eased off the pull-out so as to get among the treetops ASAP.

...The mounting for the twin 0.30in guns in the rear cockpit was inadequate...

(Replaced by 0.303s in fact). The trouble was that, in a dive, the weight of the guns sheared the mounting, and the rear gunner came home with the two guns in his lap ! - soon fixed.

...and the similar calibre four guns in the wings tended to overheat and jam...

On 110 we gave up and did not use them any more, as being more trouble than they were worth.

Always thought Wg.Cdr. D.R. Gibbs got his DSO with 82 on Blenheims in UK. Can't trace it now.

Danny42C.

[Stanwell]

Not at this stage, Danny.
Nobody seems to know (or care).
The common reaction seems to be something along the lines of .. 'Isn't it enough that I know what a Vengeance is?'
I'll have to get down to HARS at Albion Park and have a look at what they've ended up with.
That reasonably complete example, included in that collection of crates that had been mentioned over on the 'Brevet' thread, I know, came from that Boulder disposal.
We do try to get to the bottom of things on here. It's fun.


Oh, just BTW, the origin of the pic of that instrument panel that had been discussed before seems not to have been from the Camden Museum

[Danny42C]

Stanwell,

...Isn't it enough that I know what a Vengeance is?.,,

Not if you're trying to assemble one from a pile of bits, it ain't !

The A-31 and the A-35 are two different animals, as the USAAC recognised. But they all look alike, which is why we lumped then all together under the the name of "Vengeance".

To recap: Vengeance I-II-III are A-31s: IVs are A-35s. A-31 bits do not always fit with A-35 bits (so I'm told).

Ias and all IIIs and IVs were supplied under Lend-Lease. The others are "British Contract" (Peter C. Smith). We can do what we like with these. Lend-Lease remain US property, unless 'bought out"'. They were lent to us to fight a war - not to play about with....

That's the strict position as I understand it.

Cheers, Danny.

[Stanwell]

Of course, Danny.
A bit like the Oz-built Mk.21 Beaufighter that Duxford had snavelled.
Oh dear .. things don't seem to fit like we imagined they would.

[onetrack]

Quite a plethora of information on the VV on the AWM site. I would think Danny42C would enjoy perusing the collection.
The AWM VV collection includes 131 photos of RAAF VV's, and crews, including many "action" photos, mostly around New Guinea - plus 4 films, one of which is online, and which shows the IAF using VV's.
I'd expect the excellent short (6 min) film of the IAF VV's would provide some memory-jogging moments for him.

Vultee Vengeance - AWM

[Danny42C]

Page 29 of "Fly Past".

PAGE 29 TEXT

Dohazari is in Arakan, and a Railhead.

(Top)

Second from left of group of four in front - what on earth is he ? Who wears a fleece jacket in the Arakan, when the others are stripped to the waist ? And he is wearing what look like blue overalls - not khaki. A Maufacturer's Tech Rep, perhaps? Chap on wing would be the refueller.

Behind chap on left is a "chore-horse" - a heavy, wheeled battery pack with a small petrol generator (to keep it topped-up) on top, Used to supply ground power for engine starting etc.

Bomb trolley (wheel looks dodgy). Good view of cylindrical light sheet metal "fins" - the back half of the cast steel bomb, to which it is fixed. Only fitted together when ready for loading onto trolley, as it is easily damaged. Delivered in a "bomb fin container". strong fibreboard cylinder case (makes ideal bar stool).

Difficult to tell 250 and 500lbs apart at any distance, as weight varies as the cube of the dimension, so the larger is only 1.2 times bigger than the smaller.

(Lower right),

"Sortie" from Karachi ? Possibly sub-hunting. They moved to Madhaiganj around Christmas and I joined them there just afterwards. Note the standard RAF roundel, not yet with the red painted over with white to show the blue/white SEAC roundel.

(Lower left) - Chugalug will spot the mysterious wingtip aerial !

PAGE 29 TEXT

..."vics of up to a dozen aircraft were considered ideal.....etc...290 mph at 75°"...

See p.28 TEXT. THe intention was always to get 90°, that was what the aircraft was designed to do, and that way you got the accuracy. I would stand by my edtimate that: "a good Squadron would get all its bombs in a 100-yard circle (ie no error to exceed 50 yards).

... a box of six Vengeances.......all bombs burst in the centre of the target,,,

Six aircraft would carry 24 bombs.

,,,UNWANTED CHILD..

Only too true, I'm afraid.

Danny42C.

[Danny42C]

Page 30 of "Fly Past"

PAGE 30 PICS
(ignoring part-pics of Page 31)

Only one, but interesting. Look carefully at the nearer bombs on trolley. See the "spikes" sticking up from the middle ? They are not from the bomb. but "trunnions" mounted on "trunnion bands" fixed round the CoG point of the 500lb bomb. If this were simply dropped from the rack in the bomb bay during the drive, the bomb could fall up against the end of the bay, and detonate. Or if it just cleared the edge, go into the propeller disc.

Either way would be disastrous, so it was vital to throw the bomb well "out" to get clearance. In the bay were two forks, hinged from the front of the bay. When fitted to the rack, each bomb had the band adjusted so that the trunnions were horizontal, then the forks, which had two extensible "cup" ends, would be fitted over the trunnions. Now, when the bomb was dropped, the forks would swing out and throw the bomb safely clear. The Stuka used the same idea.

Of course, the 250lb on each wing dropped normally. In my experience, we always carried the full 1,500lb load. There was no need to carry less, and it couldn't carry more. I believe 2x 500s on the wings were tried, but it barely got off, and couldn't climb at any acceptable speed.

Sgt Das Gupta is pulling a parachute in or out of the cockpit, but there were no Sgt-Pilots in the IAF, all officers. There were sergeants as gunners (not sure about navs). Funny, I can't see any guns in the back - but they must be there somewhere !"

Centre ground, looks like an engine cover, a 5-gallon oil drum, and an oilcan on top. Tractor driver keeps a keen eye on his load.

PAGE 30 TEXT

"...Indian Air Force Vengeance [for a time "Royal Indian Air Force"] Squadrons meanwhile joined the fray in "December"...

"
Well, in a way. 8's difficulty was that they only had sufficient trained crews to form one Flight. But it was politically important to bring them into action ASAP - otherwise the war might end, and they would have no "battle honours" for the IAF.

So Air HQ "robbed" the RAF squadrons of crews (I think) a total of eight, with ground crew to match to fill the gap: (This was not popular !) Eight or nine experienced RAF crews were posted in to form a "B" Flight under Flt Lt "Bill" Boyd Berry. "Stew" and I were one of two from 110.

110 was in Khumbirgram (Assam), 8 were back at Chaara (W. Bengal). Although they were doing nothing with their (full) squadron of VVs, they did not lift a finger to collect us: 110 certainly weren't going to ferry us across, so we had to find our own way with baggage on train - river steamer across the Sunderbuns - train again to Chaara. There was not a rapturous welcome.

My last Log Summary on 110 was 18th November, we got there a few days later, I flew an admin sortie on 29th, and my first 'op' with them on December 1st from "Double Moorings" (between Chittagong and the sea). The intervening fortnight had been one frantic rush to get the aircraft compasses swung, and the gun ammumition "belted-up", for although they had been at Chaara for some time, they had been placidly waiting for something to happen, and neglected the chores. Their CO, Sqn Ldr Prasad, was replced by Sqn Ldr Ira K. Sutherland DFC (RNZAF) in February, 1944.

As for 7, they first appeared for action at Uderbund (Assam). not far from Khumbirgam. I do not know much about them, and Wiki is no help, but my recollection is that they went into action in Assam in early 1944 - and I was in Arakan with 8 by then.

Of Australian 'ops' I have no knowledge.

Danny42C.

[MPN11]

A sad recollecition, Danny ... No. 8 sitting on their backsides doing nothing? Didn't they know there was a War on?!

No wonder Sqn Ldr Prasad was replaced!

[Danny42C]

Page 32 of "Fly Past".

PAGE 32 PICS

(Top Left)

Nice clean aircraft, gunner hanging on to guns like grim death (for benefit of camera), note that although it gives the impression of being in a gentle climb, it is in fact flying level. All (A-31) Vengeance flew like this, you could pick them out from ten miles away.

Could it possibly be called "Danny" ?

Vengeance IIs are Vultee built, Vengeance Is are Northrop built. Both same aircraft. All Is and IIs are "British Contract", IIIs and (A-35) IVs "Lend-Lease". [Peter C. Smith].

(Bottom)

Chap with precarious foothold on engine bay enjoying the breeze from the "fan". Must be a chap in the cockpit (as engine running), would have full tail-heavy trim on (look at tab on underside of elevator) and stick held right back.
Shorts are being worn turned up this year. Two chaps on the wing are wearing a dark belt with a kind of pouch on it ? (must be an Aussie thing).

Very strong undercarriage, makes it easy to see pilot's short-cut into cockpit. Right foot on wheel, left in "stirrup", quick heave up over leading edge - bingo ! Two (masked) gun ports in wing. No sign of bomb racks. "Biddles" may be a kangaroo, can't make out "nose art".

Big, ugly brute !

PAGE 32 TEXT

...worked out a new tactic, attacking the target in two "vics" from opposite directions ....... could have fatal consequences...

I'll say ! What will these Wild Colonial Boys come up with next ? Never heard of it in Burma - Not this child !

...caught in the blast of the aircraft in front of it, although the fuses were timed to avoid this...

Fuses can be timed for all sorts of reasons, but this has nothing to do with fuses. Correct bombing drill is the answer. First, box-of-six goes into long echelon starboard, with a gap between 3 and 4. No.1 (who must pick his time exactly right, as all the rest will just follow him), rolls into dive, waits a moment or two before putting out dive brakes. 2 puts his his out as he is rolling over. 3 puts his out first, then rolls over. Moment's gap, then 4-5-6 do same.

This, if properly done, will ensure that the bombers are at least 1000 ft apart in the dive, batches of four bombs will be bursting at 2-3 second intervals. Nobody should get hurt (except enemy).

If you want a sad story, Google/Wiki: "Blackburn Skua" (Navy dive bomber). Synopsis: surfaced U-boat is molesting merchant ship with gunfire (torpedoes cost money). But, never fear - the Navy's here ! Three "Hearts of Oak" in three Skuas go into attack simultaneously. Miss U-boat, but blast and spray damage two Skuas, which have to ditch. U-boat picks up crews as POWs. What third Skua did then, and what happened to the merchantman is not recorded. Result: U-boat 2, Skuas 0.

...The Vengeances swept down through thick cloud to register a direct hit...

Bully for them - but "through thick cloud" ? This phrase crops up a lot in VV stories. Read this and (if you can stop laughing), weep:

...[Wiki]...Second World War[edit]

All Stuka units were moved to Germany's eastern border in preparation for the invasion of Poland. On the morning of 15 August 1939, during a mass-formation dive-bombing demonstration for high-ranking commanders of the Luftwaffe at Neuhammer training grounds near Sagan, 13 Ju 87s and 26 crew members were lost when they crashed into the ground almost simultaneously.

The planes dived through cloud, expecting to release their practice bombs and pull out of the dive once below the cloud ceiling, unaware that on that particular day the ceiling was too low and unexpected ground mist formed, leaving them no time to pull out of the dive.[87]...

How about the Stuka's vaunted "Automatic Pull-out", then ? Didn't they know the AMSL of their Target ? Sticking together in a balbo of 15 (?) left them no time to watch their altimeters, I suppose.

Moral: Bomb one at a time, never dive on a target you cannot see, never dive on a target unless you know its AMSL, watch your altimeter, live long in the land !

But they made a deep impression ! (thirteen of them, in fact). What did Goering say about it, I wonder ? And Hitler ? But then, you can't please everybody.

...The start of the monsoon season in June [1944] signalled the beginning of the end for Vengeance operations in the Far East. In what appears to be undue haste, the squadrons were withdrawn and re-equipped...

Agree whole heartedly ! Note the weasel words: "withdrawn and re-equipped". So we're all going to fly Mossies now, are we ? We can scrap all the VVs ? Not on your Nellie ! The Mossies came out all right (and started to fall apart, but that is a separate problem, and was fixed in about 6 months, anyway). But they came out with their own fully trained crews.

The very few ex-Blenheim pilots on the four RAF squadrons might have been candidates for a conversion, but why bother - they were due for repat in summer 1945, waste of time to convert them now. But the new trained Mossie crews had a full tour ahead of them. (For all we knew, the war out there could go on for years).

Meanwhile in India, you still have all your Vengeance (including, plenty of new Mk.IIIs to replace the tired old Is and IIs, all your experienced crews, nearly all of whom came out (like me) almost at New Year, 1943. We're not due for repat till 1946. There's a full dry season of work ahead of us still, the 14th Army's got the Japs on the run, ideal for the Vengeance to really show what it could do (and had been doing).

Why not let us carry on with our old Squadron numbers, and give the Mossie boys new ones ? They'd need one new Wing Commander - early on in 1944, a self-destruct Mossie had taken the CO with it. How about Sqn Ldr A.M.Gill DFC ? (ex-Blenheim, shouldn't take long to convert, knows the battle areas, and the country generally, like the back of his hand, whereas most of the crews are new to India). He'd have to extend his tour, of course.

All a pipe dream. It didn't happen. Politics ! Their Ugly Duckling was turning into a Swan, the Army loved us, congratulations were flowing in from all sides. Can't have that, wring its neck before the Home Press get to hear about it ! The Vengeance was a waste of space - get rid of it ! was the official attitude. (Coincidentally, I believe the American Commanding General in New Guinea shut down the RAAF operation).

It was relegated to odd jobs and so were its crews. I did three months on them with a Calibration Flight, and then they sent me to take over 1340 (Special Duties) Flight from "Red" McInnnis (RCAF), who'd been on "B" Flight of 110 with me, on his return to Canada in 1945.

...Trials were even undertaken to use the Vengeance to carry poison gas...

How does Sean Feast know of this ? The "Chemical Defence Research Establishment" (which the Special Duties Flight served) was a tropical offshoot of Porton Down - and they don't go in for self-publicity very much. If you want to know any more, cf my Posts ("Pilot's Brevet") from p.152, #3036 on. Presumably, "Fly Past" reads PPRuNe, must've picked it up there.

...It's time the Vultee Vengeances, and the men who crewed them, are given the recognition they so richly deserve...

Couldn't have put it better myself ! As (maybe) the last living specimen, thanks, Sean ! (Don't hold your breath).

Conclusions tomorrow, DV.

Danny42C.

[MPN11]

Vengeance is Mine ... again

Idly watching TV this afternoon ... World at War, Series 1, Episode 14.

And there, at 24:40 [with Vera Lynn singing in the background] is another VV. I'm now being stalked by them, Danny42C

[Danny42C]

MPN11,
Never mind, keep taking the tablets, lie down in a darkened room, they'll soon go away.

Had a look on "World at War" on iplayer, in all fairness, why do they always show Burma in the middle of the monsoon ? For eight months of the year the climate is fine and dry, if a bit sticky. And almost all the VV shots are of the thing being pushed back, or taxying in the rain. No pictures of a Vengeance in a dive (but in that weather, couldn't be).

Give Dame Vera her due - she was up there "at the sharp end" with the 14th Army lads - not stuck in Calcutta like some, being wined and dined by the "gabardine swine". All credit to the girl ! Never saw hair or hide of her in the RAF/IAF, but then, when you consider how immeasurably better off we lived (basha roof over our heads, charpoy and mossie net, three meals a day) than the PBI, we didn't expect to.

Last part of review of "Fly Past" later tonight,

Danny.

[Danny42C]

Summary: "Fly Past" September 2016 issue.

SUMMING-UP

I would say Sean Feast has done a pretty good job on the whole, and a historian working on events before he was born is at the mercy of his sources. A lot of this, and the pics, have been taken from "Vengeance!" by Peter C. Smith, published 1986 by Airlife Publishing Ltd, Shrewsbury (ISBN 0 906393 65 5). The Appendices are a mine of useful figures, although I would dispute some of them: we ran our engines at 2400 rpm max, not 2300 as stated; a figure of fuel burn of 795 litres/hr (180 galls/hr) at full bore seems excessive in comparison with our cruising average of 60 galls/hr (Yes, we're speaking of the same engine, the Wright Double Cyclone GR2600 A5B,1193Kw =1600HP).

But these are minor quibbles. IAF statistics can be (let us say) "enthusiastic". Clearly the "100% accuracy" claimed for the Vengeance is nonsense (or has been until the introduction of modern laser-guided ordnance). As I've said long ago on "Pilot's Brevet": "Precision bombing" was a myth in WWII. Even on the much vaunted daylight raids with the B-17s and B-24s of the "Mighty Eighth", the "after" target photographs show a fair proportion of bombs "mud-moving" in the surrounding fields. This does not matter, if enough go into the target to achieve the desired result. So it was with the Vengeance. Not all bombs went into target - but enough did.

Really, we should applaud "Fly Past" and Sean Feast for "ressurecting" the Vengeance saga, about which hitherto nothing much has been written at all. I faintly remember a semi-official "Aircraft Recognition" periodical, which did an article on them in the late '60s. The writer opened with the statement that "they were used only for level bombing", which shows the extent of his knowledge. I wrote a rebuttal which they were good enough to print. Apart from that, nothing.

The quotation from General Slim with which I opened this review still holds good in respect of the Vultee Vengeance. It was totally ignored at the time it was doing its best work, and completely forgotten thereafter. Anything which rescues it from this obscurity is to be heartily welcomed.

Danny42C.

[MPN11]

Many thanks for your dissertation [and dissection], Danny42C ... you are the embodiment of what 'living history' is about