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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0823.PDF
FLIGHT, 26 June 1953 817 THE SHARP END Britain and Australia in the Korean War ... 2 By H. F. KING, M.B.E. Gloster Meteor 8s of No. 77 Squadron, R.A.A.F., head out for a last-light road recce. SOGGILY we heaved ourselves aboard Dakota A65-93 of No. 30 Transport Unit, to find as our companions two dozen Australian soldiers in slouch hats and long, wet greatcoats. They were lately out of the line and once the Dak. was airborne they began to nod on each other's shoulders—like so many babes in the wood, I thought (though I should have thought again before saying so to their faces). I watched the youngest polish off three apples before he sagged sideways; then, while he was still evidently asleep, another apple magically appeared in his hand, to be instantly dispatched, and followed by a fifth. I am sure there was an invisible cornucopia somewhere on that Dak., but I was unable to check because F/L. G. H. Stewart, D.F.C., kindly invited me to go forward. For the best part of three hours we flew Item Fox Roger along airway Green 10, and, as the hail punished the paintwork, F/L. Stewart told me how he had flown a Viking and Bristol Freighters over the Woomera range. Quite unexpectedly he was able to call "Cancelling Item Fox this time" as we approached Haneda; and so we landed, in the dusk of a dismal evening, without recourse to the American G.C.A. The business of getting finger-printed and photographed, and of drawing winter clothing, allowed us little acquaintanceship with Tokyo; but our parkas, with their manifold substrata, were most warmly appreciated at 4 o'clock on the morning of our departure. Though forced to stop and scrape ice from the screen, our Japanese driver had us out at Tachikawa in time to join a Korea-bound C-54 of a Combat Cargo Air Division. As day broke we made out the gargantuan shapes of Globemaster lis, their maws agape for a breakfast of troops. The Korean airstrip which was the Skymaster's first stop was four hours distant, and for that period we sat like wallflowers, with cargo massed at our feet. On the quartermaster's invitation (he toted a red-and-white-handled .45 in an armpit holster), we made our way aft to draw a paper-cupful of coffee from the urn provided. Our neighbour—a colonel of anti-aircraft—proffered,, gum and Luckies; and there was snow-flanked Fujiyama to marvel at, though distantly. When we landed at the strip the G.I. passengers filled their water-bottles from a converted F-80 tip tank, trestled up in the air traffic hut, and I myself basked in die pale sunshine watching the aeroplanes. Smallest, but by far the most numerous, among these were the gaudy Thunderjets of two fighter/bomber wings. They stood on the far side of the strip, shining among the drab dumps of tanks and bombs, the huts and tents, with brown snow- flecked mountains rising beyond them. Dominant on the field were the C-124S, which shook me to the marrow as they bore down the runway like juggernauts; and complementary to the usual Packets, Dakotas, Commandos, Beeches and Harvards, there was a solitary T-33, busy with circuits and bumps. As I watched, two Commandos came in with battle casualties. The men on the stretchers lay quite still, heedless of the busde around them. Our Skymaster was held at the runway end to allow pairs of F-84S to depart in a continuous stream, laden with 1,000-lb THIS, the second instalment of an account of R.A.F. and R.A.A.F. activities in the Far East and Korea, draws an intimate picture of the life and operational activities of the illustrious No. 77 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force. Since it was written, certain changes in personnel—notably the taking-over of command by W/C. A. Hodges, A.F.C.—have taken place; the substance of the article, however, remains unaffected. A third article will conclude this series. FLIGHT" PHOTOGRAPHS By L. W. McLaren demolition bombs, 100-lb "frags" and wing-tip drop-tanks. We flew for an hour over mangy brown mountains and muddy, icy rivers, and put down at a crowded forward base, where I added Bird Dogs, Beavers and Albatrosses to my tally of sightings. I humped my kitbag to a jeep, slumped in beside F/L. Ross Alexander, and we went bumping and jumping towards the base of 77 Squadron. This proved to be a vast, hill-fringed agglomeration of dust and mud (for the thaw was setting in), of P.S.P. planking, sand bags, rocket dumps, dug-outs, cables, tents, huts, aeroplanes, revetments, and iiak emplacements. Garish notices identified or advertised units, and cautioned jeep-drivers. I made my number with the Commanding Officer, W/C. John Hubble, A.F.C., R.A.A.F., and having appointed a later meeting, set about investi gating the Meteor dispersals. I saw that the aircraft had the standard silver finish, but differed from those of Fighter Command in having a radio com pass (the loop fr.iring for which is prominent on top of the fuselage), zero-length rocket attachments, and boldly inscribed individual names. The flying was incessant. Flashily marked Sabres screamed balefully northwards to the Yalu; RF-8os came whistling in from photographic sorties; and Meteors nosed out from their revet ments to go scurrying round" the taxi-track, blasting up the red dust. One Sabre, with compressor surge, landed very "hot" but came safely to rest at the far end of the runway. A B-26 disappeared beyond the hills and a pillar of smoke ascended. A helicopter whirred towards it. It was nearly time for the briefing of Meteor pilots for a last- light road recce. The sun was fast going down and the cold penetrating deeper under my parka as I stood outside the ops. hut with Major McFall, U.S.A.F. The major is Base Weather Officer, and he makes no secret of his affection for 77; they, for their part, have made him an honorary—the onlv honorary— member of the mess. The best of the weather, he told me, was just ending (it was late February), and a poor, transitional period between this and the summer monsoon was setting in. With its cumulus build-up, the summer itself would be poorer still—especially for the pre cision fighter/bomber strikes. In his briefings the major gave first consideration to the safety of the aircraft; second to the target weather. His prognostications owed much to the weather-recce, aircraft, which might be Meteors, Sabres, Invaders, Superfortresses, Sunderlands or Mariners, depending on the type of mission. There was no difference, he assured me, between briefing the Australian squadron and his
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