A Story of War

May 22nd 1942

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:56:47 +0000

Just played a game of cricket, first for four years and made top score (31). A little flying, not much good. A young I.A.F. chap tries to land in coarse pitch with wheels right back, overshoots, opens up and turns then stalls into the ground. I get the clock as its my old kite 4808. Passenger killed and we have a funeral.

Reggis Cox a Brigadier here, 23 Brigade, with Marriott of 2nd Leicesters as staff captain. Barlow, Clarcoates, Barder and alot others killed. Also Langford-James in a Blenheim. A letter from Bill (Robinson), now in Ceylon. Some girls in uniform arrive in Ranchi, attached to signals, and Tom and I get in on it with tennis and dancing and whatnot. One of them, one Patience Farraday, knew Malaya and the folk quite well. Much drinking in the Club, though I haven’t been tight here yet. Robin White and Teddy have a session ending about 6am in our mess truck, filled with dhotis and ghandi caps which they tear off people in rickshaws. Very hot here just now and I collapse on my bed after lunch which I never did before.

We are exchanging untrained pilots for trained ones from 20 sqn so I suspect we shall have to go back to the war again.

May 17th 1942

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:55:43 +0000

Joe and Olga depart for Ambala where he is to be an instructor. Tennis, football and drinking, and Pierce and I dine with Penton last night. My “Further Notes on Floating down the Indus” accepted for publication in the U.S.I. Journal. No fun flying these Lysanders after my Hurricane! I don’t seem to have an ambition just now. I drift along, and flying rather bores me. I wouldn’t mind going to Waziristan and being a Tochi Scout or something, but I don’t fancy any more operational flying if I can avoid it.

May 13th 1942 – Ranchi

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Sun, 13 May 2012 09:51:15 +0000

I go out to lunch with Baldwins and have a domestic afternoon playing with the Babe. Monday I go down to Cuttack with Maj Gen Symes and we recco Golapore on the Indian Ocean. Very sticky at Cuttack where there is a Hudson-less Hudson Sqn 62 and two large runaways with “tees” on both of them. Then find Tom Pierce has arrived and we go to the Club where Burt Mann gets intoxicated and, along with Paintal (7 Rajputs) AILO, and I dine with George Cutler, a great gross beast who supplies labour hereabouts and runs the Club bar. We escape about 11pm. A good club and the RAF are allowed to sign there, but not the Army, who have to buy books of tickets plus 20%.

Yesterday tennis with Pierce, some drinks and we feed with Raj Paintal and Joyce and the Nelsons on the floor of his tent. “Desce Khana” (?) again, but not a hot one.

Today I fly round for 3/4 hour over Ramgarh where there is a POW camp, and shoot up some camps but too many shite hawks about and damn dangerous. We go up to work at 6.30 and finish at lunch, but if nothing to do it means just standing around, which is what the airmen do all day. A letter from ADC sending five invitations to an “at home” to be given to “selected officers of your mess”.

May 12th 1942

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Sat, 12 May 2012 09:38:20 +0000

Am I nuts? Not quite. I arrive on the train and see all the boys at the station, who have come to meet Hammer’s fiance and the bridesmaid Marianne Evans. We drink beer, 10am, and then back to the mess. It’s the white house in Hinoo which we have taken over and would be quite comfortable if there was a fridge of sorts. The servants are pretty bum but we manage, and are on rations too. Well, yesterday was the marriage, and Robin White and I were ushers at the Cathedral. A “Lizzie” flew over and dropped confetti. Then back to the mess and the binge lasts from 12 to 8 when the last guest departs.

I go off at 2.30 and lie down as I have to play football, and through my room to his goes Robin with Joyce Knowles to lie down as she is a bit tight. Later on she starts fighting him and I go in to assist, clad only in a towel. She is keen on biting and we have to calm her down a bit, almost stripping her in the process.

I go off to my football and end up in the Club at a dance. Meet Basil Seaton and Penton there and do some dancing with the Marianne and Betty, the 14 and a half prodigy. The rest of the week seems to have been spent drinking late at various places. I take General Symes of 70 Div to Jamshedpur and on a recce of his area, and am due off to Calcutta with him tomorrow. We are under 70 Div and beat up their camps occasionally but that’s about all. 30 officers and 300 men got out of Myitkyina and the Japs now in Loiwing and Yunnan Province.

I thought I was doing well with the bridesmaid but Teddy has now taken her over and anyway she is going back to Murree, a nurse in B.M.H., tomorrow. I have no aim and ambition just now, unless it’s to get married, but who to – and I’m not ready yet. Hope nothing contracted in Calcutta. It’s going to be hot here soon despite 2000′ odd. Officially promoted F/O from 30/10/41. Haig in 155 fighters at Risalpur. Dozens of new A/SD chaps in the sqn.

May 4th 1942 – Calcutta

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:04:16 +0000

I am ordered to fly the Hurricane to Myithyina and then DumDum with long range tanks. Weather very bad and much rain, and everyone leaves Loiwing for Myithyina and India. (Like hell I go to Myithyina!! I set course direct for Calcutta!!). But the road from Bhamo is down (up) due to the heavy rain. Paine and I are left, he to demolish, and I to wait for the weather. The AVG leave and all the villages are burning.

I set off on the 2nd through a hole in the clouds and do a bit of cloud flying, but lose control and suddenly see the earth above me as I come screaming down in a corkscrew dive. (I got off the satellite because the main field is still O/S and we had to burn a perfectly good Blenheim there.) Then I lose my map, but continue on my course until I see the sea to port. This is all wrong and I stooge about at 1000′, absolutely lost for about an hour, then happen to strike Goalando on the Ganges. Petrol is short so I set a course for Maheshgang which is marked on the map, but turns out to be a seaplane base. On reserve tank I try to make DumDum, arriving with 10 gallons left after 4.5 hours.

Off to the Grand where I see J. Benbow. We go out to Saturday Club and I see Mann and Reggie Cox, now a Brigadier in Ranchi where 28 sqn is. I call at 221 Group to find I am still a P/O as India have referred the case to Air Ministry, Stevenson not being qualified to promote me.

A bit of shopping, 20/- of “bhaint”, shocking, and I go by train to Ranchi tonight. That first beer tasted nice. Met Donald Gordon again, mad as ever. Two Chinese mission chaps turned up on May 1st at Loiwing and brought a bottle of Scotch so Paine and I had a party. The monsoon came early I think, and today I hear that the Japs had got up towards Bhamo and 17 sqn and Burwing are in danger of being caught.

Three Jap seaplanes bombed shipping off the mouth of the Hoogly the other day and also two ports on the Malabar coast. Mann says Carey was after A/Coop Hurricane pilots for some job or other, so I suppose I shall have to go.

April 30th 1942 – Loiwing, China

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:53:57 +0000

Laskio in Jap hands now. All they have to do is to drive to Namtu and then march by jungle tracks for three days north and they are here. After writing the last entry there is an alarm and the usual noise heralding the approach of Japanese bombers. Very high, 20,000′, I just see between 12 and 20 bombers. They bomb the field and return home. Hundreds of holes in the runaway, a DC3 damaged and repaired next day. The AVG were away from home, ground strafing south of Laskio, where they shoot down some 17 Navy ‘O’s. One large four engine job seen and suspected to be a captured Fortress.

The Laskio rearguard turn up here and reorganisation in progress. W/C Spencer is coming to command a small skeleton wing with a half a dozen refueling parties, and when the rains have ended aircraft will come from India and operate from China. Pierce is off in the Hurricane to Shwebo to contact the army and see what the position is, and tell them ours. After that quien sabe? 17 sqn have departed, hopefully, in lorries to India, by guess or by God.

April 28th 1942 – Last Man in to Bat

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:49:54 +0000

I go down the road that evening and see nothing much except a few lorries at Konghai-ping crossroads. Further up I squirt at two lorries, the first stops and men rush out and hide, I miss that, but the second I catch in a pass on a winding gradient corner; but the burst kicks up the dust just behind it. I then see two aircraft, but avert panic by recognising them as two Blenheims, they get frightened too, and swerve off. Chaps rush for cover here and there off the road but whether Chinks or Japs I don’t know.

The AVG, 17 of them, blast a convoy on that road up from Loilem, the Kittyhawks with 40lbers. Next morning the Japs have moved up the Bofors type ack-ack and Pierce has a hell of a time at zero feet. He squirts some troops on the ground, but no more to add to my one bullet hole through the top cowling. S/Ldr Stone then says he has no pilots to ferry the Hurricane to Loiwing and back for a daily, so much against my inclination I am sent, with orders to be back by 1600 hrs to do a recco.

I go to Loiwing, with some luggage in the back, but the weather takes a hand and I can’t get off. The Burwing evacuation convoy comes in that evening, but the food is still as good as ever. I get off after lunch yesterday and have a wonderful trip down. Round the monster 7600′, as he is in cloud, but down alongside the Burma Road under the low fleecy clouds, and through the rainstorms.

Flap in Laskio! Two ’97s shot up the ‘drome that morning and damaged a Blenheim there. Then two “irks” mending a car down the road were ordered back to Laskio “as quick as you can”, in English, by a Chinese officer. The two evacuate and chinese troops and tanks come driving back. G/S Singer and his staff don’t know what to do, are all packed up, and are just waiting to blow the joint up, and burn the damaged aircraft.

As last man in to bat I am sent off down the road to see what’s going on. I take all my kit (most of it), which is tempting fortune if ever, and go down to Namlan, about 60 miles per crow. Pierce says keep out of range so I do it a la Mingaladon days. A steady trickle of transport coming back, and about seven miles north of Namlan 50-60 lorries parked facing north. Chink or Jap, quien sabe! I land, report, refuel and straight back to Loiwing, the last Hurricane out of Burma. Now the W/T seems out of order, but I expect a signal to go down there again anytime today, damn it.

60 operational sorties and still alive! Phew!

April 25th 1942

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:47:34 +0000

The Japs are coming Yohoho!

Pierce does a recce between Heho and Namsang on the road where they have broken through. He sees lorry loads who fire rifles and tommy guns at him. I am sent off in a Blenheim and we go down as far as Loilem without seeing much, though we get fired on by Bofors type. Lorryloads of Chinese troops pour past the mess and down the road to stop the gap. Very bad weather prevents me going down last night, but he goes off this morning and they are coming up the road near Kehsi Mansam on the road to Laskio. Everybody packing up and making ready to go to Loiwing, but not much hope of getting to India again. I am due off this evening to see where the Japs have got to, so hope I shall be alright.

April 22nd 1942 – Laskio

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 08:43:03 +0000

Sherkham of 59th here on his way to Maymyo and a staff job. He says 2/13th are in 17 Division and lost Lt Col Guy at Prome. I go down to Myittha for another recco as Meiktila getting too hot. Best camouflaged strip I ever saw, and when you get there it’s some time before you can see how to land on it and avoid the cactus. Taxiing into cover the tailwheel prangs so I take it off next morning straight to Loiwing, do a wheeler and a bit of a ground loop and pick up the other one from the satellite and return to Laskio.

Then down again, and yesterday morning I take off at 0605 with one landing light on recco. Chauk and the Pinchaung north of Yenanyuang but N.M.S. (JDW: nothing much seen?) except bullock carts. I return home, circle three times but no smoke and no corner strips so I try a landing. Manage to get down and then see Sides at the end waving me to stop; I can’t run off the end (and after) 20yds the wheels hit a hole, and up on her nose. I think she is going right over and on fire, but not enough momentum and she stops on her nose. I pull everything and leap out, having pranged my third Hurrican 11B and my fourth escape from death in one. Prop, wing tip, and wheels bent back but salvageable. Aircraft noises in the air, but we cover her in in cactus and Sides sends me home in his car.

Strawberries at Maymyo, two punctures and back at 7.45pm, having left Myittha at 11am. Saw half a dozen Sikh soldiers straggling up the road but hadn’t sufficient presence of mind to stop and question them. At Myittha we live in the PWD irrigation bungalow, a four course dinner and all booze except beer. I sleep on camp bed on verandah and very hot, so I don’t sleep much especially thinking of what the Japs do to their prisoners. I have now done 57 opps, but no respite, though I can’t go on forever, alive!

April 16th 1942

F/O Colin Dunford Wood — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:40:11 +0000

Pierce does quite a safe recce and I go down yesterday evening to Meiktila. First time up for three weeks but I manage OK and navigation is good. I have to taxi for half an hour under cover and over newly cut down bunds so that the engine nearly blows up by the time it’s finished. At full throttle I can’t get over some of the bunds and have to take a run!

Sides the Australian there, and we spend the night in PWD bungalow up the road. Meiktila has been reccoed and shot up daily, so they shift their quarters about as there seems to be an efficient espionage system there.

Some food by torchlight and I crawl under a mosquito net on a charpoy, though only get one hour’s sleep for thinking of what the Japs do to their prisoners! Sides works from 9 to 11pm getting the a/c out on the strip and I take off at 0610, but would have got off 10 minutes earlier if the chap driving me there hadn’t lost the way.

No task arranged with the army so Chaplin decides on a recco. Sinbawngwe to Magwe along the east bank. Own troops at Magwe and some way forward? I set course in the dark, get up to 1100′ and suddenly spot Satthwa, so turn off and dive down over Sinbawngwe. I then look back and see four aircraft following (I am about 2000′), but these dissolve into puffs of smoke, and that means ack-ack. I scoot round a hill and back east of the village to recco the road north, and see some flashes and up it comes again. I scoot and wheel down low but am between the gunners and the rising orb of the sun, so plenty more comes up but I am soon away. The road difficult to find, but I see some lorries, probably ours, some A/T and eventually return to Meiktila, thoughtfully in case the Japs be waiting there. I land, refuel, see Chaplin the A.I.L.O., and am off in ten minutes. A straight course, but I hit the railway at a point south of Hsipaw, and I skim up the road home. Three decent landings OK!