FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1442.PDF
JULY 26TH, 1945 FLIGHT possible by hopping to forward airfields and returning to main base at night. The average time elapsed between ( urgent request and the actual strike was in the region of '• 30 to 40 minutes fof a " short haul" job and an hour to 90 minutes for a " long haul " one. These times were, of course, reduced to almost nothing when the " cab rank " method was put into operation. The " cab rank " is the usual standing patrol of up to a dozen aircraft, orbiting a given spot near a battle. These s aircraft can be called in on CLOSE SUPPO any objective by R/T in pairs—nights—or all at (C O N T I once. All aircraft which have expended their bombs are replaced at set intervals by rearmed machines. No. 221 Group used the cab rank principle more than No.; 224 Group—in particular at the battle of Meiktila, There are advantages and disadvantages in the scheme— the main disadvantage being overall wastefulness of engine hours and the limitation on the weight of any given attack. « The maximum weight can only be that of the total number fof aircraft in the rank, and this sometimes may be insuffi- cient. It is held by some that it is better to lose an hour and lay on a two- or three-squadron show, than to do an " immediate " but smaller strike from the rank. Obviously there are times when both methods have their advantages —and both systems were used consistently. The latest development of the V.C.P. is to carry it in an aircraft—especially when there is a " cab rank '' in opera- tion. The aircraft normally used for the job is the little L.5, piloted by an R.A.F. officer with an Army officer as air observer. The airborne V.C.P. works from a strip near Brigade Headquarters and takes off at the request of for- ward battalions to help them in locating Japanese objec- tives, such as mortars or guns. It has been found that an air observer using binoculars from the slow-moving L.5 has no difficulty in locating such enemy positions. The strike on these objectives is laid on in the normal way, but is controlled by the Army officer in the observer air- craft. In the earlier days one of the big close-support problems was that of the jungle itself. An order to bomb a given blade of grass in a 10-acre field bears a reasonable com- parison with some of the tasks handed out in the Tiddim Road and Imphal areas.' The V.C.P. principle narrowed the target area down—but even then—with an unbroken carpet of green underneath—it was, at times, impossible to see movement. The Vengeances and Hurribombers, which were the main equipment of the time, managed to cope extremely well. The Vengeances used steep dives H^own to about 2,000 feet and the Hurribombers shallow dives to 500 feet, or sometimes less. Impact and D.A. Bombs The advantage of the Vengeance, with its dive brakes and steep angle of attack, was that 250-pounders dropped from it stood a good chance of '' sticking'' where they dropped. In any case impact explosion could be used with a 2,000-foot pull out. The problem of "bouncing bombs" was no mean one—especially in dry weather. Various methods were used to ensure accuracy, especially from the natter Hurribomber strafes. Impact explosion would, of course, have solved the whole thing—but that had to be ruled out because of risk of blast damage to the aircraft. Eventually a skip-bombing technique was evolved. This was done with eleven-second delay bombs, dropped from as low as 100 feet (though this was sometimes risky on hard ground in case the bomb decided to return to the aircraft again). This skip-bombing would slide the bombs into the objectives (hillsides, basha huts, bridges, buildings, M/T, etc.) and the judgment of the length of skip was up to the pilot. In other words it was basically the same "Nelson's eye" technique which was used by Coastal Command for it depth charge dropping. The first "bridge busting" in Burma was done in this way by No 42 Hurribomber Squadron of No. 224 Group. They "bowled" their bombs in from 100 feet and were pioneers in a technique which has since become a Burma speciality. An interesting variant of this normal bridge- busting routine was the ultra-long delay bomb used on river bridges. These bombs would be slipped into the river under the bridge at the same time as the bridge was blown by an ordinary low level strike. The idea was that the delay-bomb would go off just as the Japs were getting on nicely with the job of repairing the bridge. Now that Thunderbolts have taken over most of the RT IN BURMA close support they too are working to the low-level N U E D) Nelson's eye " formula, and have achieved remarkable accuracy. The weight oftheir front gun fire><a big asset during the run-in, and they carry two 550-pounders which can give hefty " artil- lery " support. During the 82nd West African Division's lonely advance down the Kaladan Valley in Arakan, thf division dispensed with artillery, which they could not move over such rough going. They relied entirely upon 224 Group to provide the "shell-fire." This, I think, is the first example of such complete trust in air power •during the war, and the trust was more than justified. Ultra-close Support One of the advantages of the Thunderbolt is its ability to look after itself—an ability lacking in the Vengeances and the Hurricane. Japanese air opposition has been virtually nil for the last year in SEAC, but it may not always be so, and the close-support pilots now go out with much more confidence knowing that they can hold their own in a straight fight. Talking of accuracy—it has been interesting to see the confidence the army has had in giving out its " befffb lines." Two hundred yards ahead of our own troops is now regarded as unremarkable: 30 yards was once offered and taken (by Vengeances). Fifty yards has been done several times. The perfection of the V.C.P. has been a big help. Two examples of this were given by A.V-M. Lord Bandon at once of his conferences. He said that when one squadron was bombing some Japanese on a hill feature which the Army weie about to attack, half the squadron had com- pleted its line-astern bombing when the R.A.F. officer with the visual control post " rang-up " the squadron and said: " Last six aircraft are to cease bombing. Our troops are just starting to advance." On another occasion the V.C.P. was right forward in a jeep and the jeep was being , annoyed by being fired at by some Japanese a short dis- tance away. The V.C.P. Fit. Lt. rang up ami-said : "Please strafe Japanese 50 yards north of my jee^T' The Japanese no longer annoyed him ! The Air Vice-Marshal also described a typical " tactic" of necessity, evolved for dealing, with Jap troops on hill features. It had been found that a normal strike put the Japs' heads down all right—but the going was so rough that our own troops could not get up to the hill-top soon enough to take advantage. Several ideas were worked out—but even- tually we used HE. or fire bombs on the Jap positions. At the same time, we had strafing aircraft going round and round the hill shooting up the troops who were sheltering on the blind-side hoping to get away with it. For months on end during 1944-45 the tactical squadrons were flying 1,000 operational hours a month per squadron, which was almost double the normal rate expected. This could only be done because of the magnificent work bv,. the maintenance crews, and by the whole of the maini£n\ ance organisation in India which backed them up We were never short of aircraft, and we never had to damp down on operations through lack of serviceability. This record is the more remarkable when one remembers the conditions under which they had to work. Sometimes it was so hot that the men could hardly touch the aircraft. At other times it was so wet that they could literally sail to work in a dinghy. Close support tactics are naturally always being modified. Two interesting innovations during the later stages of
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
