FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1561.PDF
676 FLIGHT, 28 October 1955 In the old days ... by the tail of a Horsley at Donibristle, (I. to r.) P/0. V. P. J. G. Doherty, P/0. G. L C. Jenkins, W/C. G. S. M. Insall, V.C., M.C., Station Commander, F/L. R. Jones, F/L. G. V. T. Thomson, F/0. C. E. Morse, F/0. C. E. Spencer. No. 100 SQUADRON . . . Australian Hudson reported two cruisers, 11 destroyers and two10,000-ton transports, accompanied by barges, ten miles off the coast, heading for Endau. Japanese fighters based at Kuantan,formerly occupied by No. 100 Sqn., were providing air cover for this fleet. The forces available for opposing them were 21 Vilde-beests and three Albacores of Nos. 100 and 36 Sqns. and nine Hudsons of Nos. 1 and 8 (GR) Sqns., R.A.A.F. The attack was therefore mounted in two waves, the first of nineHudsons and 12 Vildebeests escorted by 15 Buffaloes and eight Hurricanes, and the second of three Albacores and nine Vildebeestsescorted by four Buffaloes and eight Hurricanes. Because of the previous night's activities the torpedo bombers were not able toset out until the afternoon and were thus committed to a daylight attack in the face of plentiful fighter cover from Japanese NavyZero fighters. The present chaplain-in-chief of the R.A.F., Canon A. S. Giles,who consecrated the Standard last Friday, was with the squadrons at the time and has recently written to S/L. Kunkler: "I saw thesquadron setting out on that last raid on Endau, in which they were practically obliterated. Their, actions were more than theordinary fulfilment of duty; for flying Vildebeest aircraft on a daylight raid, they knew that they had little chance of comingthrough unscathed. As I spoke to many of them before they set off, I knew a good deal of their own feelings: their gallantry,therefore, to me is a very real thing . . ." In the attack the first wave was able to make some use of cloud cover and pressed homeits attack; for the loss of five Vildebeests they claimed one cruiser and two destroyers sunk, both transports hit and one set on fireand casualties among troops on shore and in the barges. The second wave was less fortunate and, being exposed by clearweather, were intercepted before they reached the target. Six Vildebeests and two Albacores were shot down and other aircraftdamaged and crews wounded. Twelve Zeros were shot down. Altogether Nos. 100 and 36 Sqns. lost more than half theiraircraft in this action and both their commanding officers, S/L.s R. F. C. Markham and I. T. B. Rowland. The remaining aircraftwere badly shot up and many men wounded. Both units were therefore withdrawn to Java three days later, so that they couldbe reorganized. Under S/L. J. T. Wilkins the remnant as a com- posite unit was finally established at Tijikampek in Java and wasthere joined by the ground crews on February 15th. They con- tinued operating, now at night again, and sustained further losses,S/L. Wilkins failing to return from one operation. Finally the last two Vildebeests took off to try to fly as far as possible alongthe island of Sumatra. When they ran out of fuel they ditched off Bencoolen, hoping to get ashore and find some craft to take themon to Ceylon. Unfortunately they had ditched within reach of the Japanese, and were taken prisoner. At about this time oneVildebeest is said to have carried no fewer than 18 people simul- taneously in an evacuation flight. Though the official dispatches speak of the amalgamation ofNos. 100 and 36 Sqns. into one unit in Java, some sources hold that No. 100 was in fact disbanded after the Endau raid andreturned to Australia with the six Beauforts which had reached them in Malaya only shortly before the fatal raid. There hadbeen so little time for conversion that only one Beaufort sortie had been flown, by S/L. P. Mitchell, who is now stationed atKinloss. It must have been the intention to reform No. 100 with Beauforts in Australia, but official records next record the squadronas being reformed with Lancasters in England. Up till this time the squadron had had in its possession a hand-painted flag bearing the skull and crossbones which had been their emblem since the days of the F.E.2B on the Western Front;Except for one deviation in the form of a bulldog, this had been their emblem all the time. The motto on the flag was "Blood andbrains," but under the badge of the bulldog, seen on the fin of A Horsley at Donibristle, were the words "nemo me impunelacessit"—no one provokes me with impunity. This is in fact the motto of the Order of the Thistle, and was a Scottish associationprobably inspired by the squadron's location at the time. By the style of painting on the Horsley fin this seems to have been theofficial badge and motto at the time. Soon afterwards, however, the badge reverted once more to the skull and crossbones and,after a rather obscure incident, the motto became "Sarang tebuan jangan dijolok," a Malay phrase which has been variously inter-preted as the admonitory "do not stir up the hornets' nest" or the instruction "do not just stir up the hornets' nest," with theimplication that it would strike back unless completely wiped out. In the first interpretation the hornets' nest refers to No. 100 Sqn.while in the second it refers perhaps to a possible enemy. The reason for the temporary adoption of the bulldog emblem is notclearly explained. Now ... by the tail of a Canberra at Wittering, (I. to r.) F/O. G. J. Skermer, F/L. G. M. Bailey, "A" Flight Commander, F/L. W. H. Miller, F/L. G. Wilson, adjutant, S/L. C. P. H. Kunkler, squadron commander, W/C. R. C. Cobbe, acting station commander, and F/O. H. W. Ellerbeck. The original flag mentioned above was kept by the squadronright up to the time of its dissolution in Malaya, at which time it was in the possession of F/L. E. Trillwood, the adjutant. He wastaken prisoner, but kept the flag with him throughout his captivity until, through wear and tear and climate, it fell apart and had tobe discarded. The flag-pole was nevertheless preserved and brought out of captivity to the transit camp at San Francisco,where F/L. Trillwood waited for repatriation in October 1945. But there it too had to be abandoned since there was not roomon the transport provided to take it any farther. Photographs of it still exist, however, and one is reproduced on p. 674. It is not known whether any of the personnel from Singaporejoined the squadron on its reformation in England, but the records have it that No. 100 once more joined the conflict in the firstpart of 1943 as a Lancaster unit with Bomber Command in England. From then until March 1945 it operated from Walthamand built up a close friendship with the townspeople. Its first sortie was with eight Lancasters against the U-boat pens at St.Nazaire on March 4th, 1943. Targets soon afterwards included Nuremberg, Northern Italy and Pilsen, all long-range raids; andby the end of the year the unit held second place in its group for the number of successful sorties completed, and had the lowestlosses. The Commander was then W/C. R. V. Mclntyre. During 1944 eighteen raids were made on Berlin, and on oneoccasion an aircraft collided with a German night fighter and returned minus six feet of wing, but with some pieces of the fighterstill embedded in the airframe. On another occasion P/O. Booth was caught by a Me410 while on a mining sortie. He dived for14,000ft with 410 m.p.h. on the A.S.I. The trimmers jammed and the stick loads were relieved by tieing some Mae West cordsround the stick and lashing them to the pilot's seat-stay. Another Lancaster got back from the marshalling yards at Vierzon withoutailerons. In fact the squadron was in the thick of actions in sup- port of all the major military operations of those years. Whenhostilities ceased the unit was employed dropping supplies in Holland and returning P.o.Ws. from the Continent. In the summer of 1946 the squadron was re-equipped withLincolns and was ready to settle down to a peace-time role, but by 1950 their active services were once more required and they (concluded at foot of page 678)
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
