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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0857.PDF
MAY 3RD, 1945 FLIGHT 475 it engages it and the boat is made fast at the bows, the only- freedom it has there being governed by the spacing of the stops and, in a strong wind across the cable, perhaps a slight sagging to leeward. A power-operated winch hauls in the cable and with it the boat. If there is a strong wind across the cable at the time the flying boat is being moored, it will be necessary to have some control over the stern also. The present scheme, which seems capable of improvement, is that a man in a launch should go out from the breakwater and attach the end of a cable to the stern of the hull. The trolley on the breakwater is then used for hauling in the other end of this cable, partly by a winch and also, if necessary, being driven along the rails on the breakwater, thus bringing the hull of the flying boat parallel with the cable to the hangar and at right angles to its front wall. By hauling in on the power winch in the hangar and paying out the cable from the breakwater, the boat can be kept at this angle and berthed without damage. Bringing the boat into its hangar bows-first has the advantage that the engines can be run inside without caus- ing inconvenience to passengers and personnel on the land- ward staging of the building, since the slip-streams will blow out through the open doors on the seaward side. For bringing the boat out of the hangar the reverse procedure is followed. The engines can be run-up one after the other and then throttled right down. When all is ready, the boat is hauled out of the hangar by the stern line from the breakwater and, when clear, the crew of the boat can release both bow and stern lines from inside the hull. The Saro scheme is rather based upon the assumption that the flying-boat terminal is a tideless lagoon, artificially made but in communication with the sea so as to be filled with salt water as some protection against a too-ready formation of ice. This contiguity is in any case desirable from other considerations, such as the availability of a stretch of sea for emergency landings immediately after take-off, should an engine cut or some such mishap befall. Sunderlands9 Daring Flight F^OR the second time in 12 months Suiiderland flying boatsof a Ceylon-based squadron of a RoyalAir Force Indian Ocean general reconnaissance group, under the command ofAir Marshal A. Durston, have crossed the high mountains of the Indo-Burma frontier to put down on waterways where noflying boat had ever been before. Heavy equipment urgently needed in Burma was 1,210 milesaway. To get it there quickly it was necessary to use aircraft that could not only carry heavy loads over long distances, butcould also put down on the waters of the Chindwin river and thus save valuable loading and reloading time. The first time Sunderlands made the long journey northwardsto take part in operations over Burma \vas in June last, when they evacuated wounded and sick personnel of the special force"Chindits" from Indawgyi Lake. This second operation was no less hazardous. Again it involved the crossing of highmountain ridges and putting down in unknown waters. Leaving their Ceylon base, two Sunderla-nds, skippered bySqn. Ldr. S. W. Deller and Fit. Lt. C. F. Potter, flew to Bom- bay, where arrangements were made to ferry the first loadsacross India to Calcutta. The flights were accomplished with- out incident, each aircraft carrying goods weighing over5,000 lb. Next day Sqn.- Ldr. Deller, who was in charge of the whole operation, went to Shweggin, on the Chindwin, fourmiles south of Kalewa, in order to prospect a likely spot for the Sunderlands to put down. He chose a place between steepbanks rising-to nearly 300ft., and made arrangements for a strip to be marked. This was done by means of mooringyellow-painted oil drums in the water. Bad-weather Difficulties Sqn. Ldr. Deller then returned to Calcutta, and three dayslater his Sunderland started for the Chindwin. " Weather con- ditions were far from good," said his Canadian co-pilot, Fit. Lt.^E. E. Little. "'Our maps gave the highest point of the Chin Hills we should cross as 8,600ft., but we flew at 10,700ft. tobe on the safe side. Even so we seemed only just to clear some of the tops. Soon we ran into thick cloud—10/10 up to12,000ft.—and 100 miles short of Kalewa we couldn't see a thing. It was very bumpy. In one place we dropped 800ft.in under five seconds and we just couldn't do a thing about it." Encouraged by a better weather forecast, the crew made asecond attempt two days later. This time there was 10/10 cloud at about 11,oooft., and still the turbulence was grave."Every member of the crew had to strap himself in," said Sqn. Ldr. Deller, " but we made the Chindwin all right and putdown first time. It was a good job we did, as the high banks made it quite impossible for any second attempt." The cargo was unloaded in quick time, and the Sunderlandset out to recross the mountains. "This time we flew at 12,700ft., and as the weather was clear we had a chance ofseeing the country," Sqn. Ldr. Deller continued. "It was all jungle and mountain. There was no possible place wherewe could put dowrn if things went wrong." The following day Fit. Lt. Potter made his first hop.Weather conditions had improved, and he had a good run out at 12,100ft. The Sunderland remained in the Chindwin for50 minutes for unloading, and then returned, flying over the mountains at 15,200ft. * By now it was obvious that further aircraft would be neces-sary if the operation was to be completed in the time allotted, and two other Sunderlands were sent from Ceylon to Bombayto bring other cargoes into Calcutta. Fit. Lt. A. S. Pedley was returning from the fourth sortie to the Chindwin whenthe two inner engines failed as he was over the Chin Hills at a height of 14,000ft. "We had some anxious moments," hesaid, " as we began to lose height. Certainly the Burma jungle looked inhospitable enough should we be forced to bale out.However, we got back to Calcutta safely, but were unable to take any further part in the operation." Five days later Sqn. Ldr. Deller put down on the Chindwinfor the third time and brought out men of the 34th Army due for home leave and repatriation. "They were a cheerfulcrowd," he said, "and didn't worry overmuch about that crossing." On March 9 the final load was taken. By then the Sunder-lands had carried out eight sorties across the Chin Hills and transported 400,000 lb. of material. Sqn. Ldr. Deller himselfmade four sorties, as well as undertaking much of the organ- isation. Fit. Lt. R. S. Levy-Haarscher, of Palestine, was thefourth pilot who made the trip. Ouly by the use of these flying boats could such supplieshave been transported in time to the place where they were needed. The subsequent success of the Irrawaddy crossingowed much to the enterprise and pluck of the Sunderland crews, soaring over country where no flying boat had even been before. R.A.F. AIR TRANSPORT GROUP BEST known of all the R.A.F. groups to the fighters of FieldMarshal Montgomery's 21 Army Groups, is the 46th, of R.A.F. Air Transport Command. Formed in February, 1944, under the command of Air Vice-Marshal A. L. Fiddament, D.F.C., it went into action on D-Day, played a spearhead role in the Normandy arrborneoperation, suffered gallantly and heavily in the Arnhem opera- tion, and now has completed a year of remarkable achieve-ment, acting as a spearhead in the Rhine airborne crossing which planted an arrow in the heart of Germany. The group has also provided the greatest air ambulance ser-vice in the history of British arms. It has flown back to Britain nearly 70,000 wounded, and has flown 22,000 woundedfrom forward to reai areas on the Continent. A senior officer at an airfield, the nerve centre of all theramifications of the group, told a P.A. reporter: "That ser- vice has saved a great many lives, and as a result of it a greatnumber of men still have the limbs and eyes they would other- wise have lost. And not a single casualty case has been in-jured in the whole of the flying operations." In one case a soldier severely wounded in the head on theContinent in the morning was being operated on in an Oxford hospital in the afternoon. The group moved into Brussels as the Germans moved out,and in a month their Brussels staging-post handled 3,438 air- craft from Britain, over 7,000 tons of freight and 4,280 passen-gers, and evacuated 7,200 casualties to England, all without mishap.
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