A Story of War

I organise a shooting party, but about 50 chaps with rifles come, and naturally we see nought. The guide, a BFF Hawaldar, fires the bush to drive stuff out but I don’t see it.

Yesterday we go and examine the landing ground, and I go for a walk up the river above the bridge, and sit on a rock and contemplate. The acme of peace up there. A Jap recco plane shot down over here by AVG who use Loiwing field. I set off from Laskio with all my kit, but my kit bag doesn’t seem to have arrived and is lost. Contains all my footwear, but worst of all my helmet and goggles. All I have now is the third pair of goggles. I buy a pair of PT shoes, and with chappies and flying boots, is all I have. S/L Stone very contemptuous of my organised shoot and brings back 15 doves last night saying they are wood pigeon! Today adjutant Crowther and I visit Nankham market with the Havaldar, and many strange sights seen.

China!

We leave Laskio (Pierce and self and one Merritt of 17 sqn), and drive to Loiwing. We camp on the road the first night, light a fire and broach a case of beer. Bully, cheese and dry biscuits fried on the fire form an excellent meal. Next day on and we reach here. Many hairpin bends on the road, and country very hilly in parts and like Assamese jungle in others. We arrive here near Pankham village on the border and live in the PWD bungalow, 17 sqn and troops taking over the BFF (Burmese Frontier Force) barracks. Excellent food out of tins etc, now living well on the country, and damn good sleeping at this height. We drive to China yesterday over a bridge where there’s a sentry and a bamboo barrier.

China much the same as this and at Loiwing is C.A.M.C.O.’s works. The sentry has a Kachha looking rifle with a bayonet and two stick bombs in his equipment. Also some sandpaper for cleaning his weapons, in a special pouch. A British tin hat. I cross the river and walk for some hours in China yesterday up in the jungle forest, but see nothing interesting except red ants nests up in trees. No fuel at Loiwing (the satellite), and they have no permission for aircraft to land there. It’s about 10 miles from here over the border. A Subedar of BFF fixes up all feeding and servants for us. Not too hot, and wooded hills all round.

Today Sunday, must go to a church parade, whilst I and Crossing, the QM, sit and talk to the Subedar and the locals about food etc. The Burma road a good one, and full of Chinese lorry convoys, going both ways. Pierce pulls over in a narrow bit of road to avoid a US Army jeep and gets two wheels in a ditch. The jeep pulls him out, but too far and he ditches on the other side of the road, throwing us all off into the paddy fields.

We drive on up to Laskio. A beautiful drive and a good river near Hsipaw where I would like to camp for a bit. Laskio has changed a bit.  More buildings and its full of the Chinese Army. Prices have soared alot and 50 Players cost at least 6/-. I get a watch for 55/- as the watchmaker at Magwe bolted with mine after the bombing raids. Harris is here with the Tiger Moth, having flown around Toungoo at 500′ looking for lost Chinese troops. A lot of B.O.’s on the Chinese military mission and I see A.B. Millar’s name in the book as having passed through and paid his messing. Also Major Theyre of Wilts on his way to command the DWs.

The scheme is for 17 squadron and us to go to Loiwing and reform and re-equip, and then come back down to the war, and for 45 squadron to stay here and do the same. Strange birds call all night and good sleeping under a couple of blankets. Thearle and Van Rooyen are due to return to Egypt. Van Rooyen and I go round and find some Burmese nurses and talk to them through their windows, but apart from that can’t even get a chota peg under 2/-. Moule finds some of his kit here but someone has stolen his gun from out of his case. Paddy puts his clock by his bedside, and when he wakes up it has vanished.

I go down to get into my a/c and see them all running for the bushes so I run too, and over comes another raid. It is followed by a dozen ’97′s’ turning and twisting like birds behind one another as they shoot up the ‘drome, their red suns and undercarriages clearly discernable. Like toy Frog aeroplanes. Then I go off on my R/T test with 17 Indian Division near Zigon, but not very satisfactory. On my return Pierce tells me we are off to Laskio, and another bombing raid starts. I count 27 bombers in formation. Hilton in our Hurricane flies to Akyab, and the six that remain out of 19 Blenheims. I see Parnell land with his legs up, but not hurt. I load our van with rations, a case of beer, and a lot of maps for O’Malley. O’Malley in his jeep, Pierce in his car, Moule in his, the two new PRU pilots Van Rooyen and Thirwell in a Hillman, and self, form our own convoy. We leave Magwe at 8.30pm and drive through the night until 2am, camping by the roadside near some water, before Meiktila. Tea and tinned salmon for breakfast and then off again.

We get some fuel at Mandalay from a RIASC pump near the gates of the old fort and then on up here. I am behind the Hillman and rather slow, with trouble from impurities in the petrol. Paddy is waiting at the top of the hill with some baskets of strawberries at 1.5 annas each! We park in the Club here, sleeping by our vehicles outside in case anything is stolen. We dine at Angelino’s and watch the popsies, as nothing obtainable in the Club, and then to bed, to freeze under three blankets as its 3000′ here. Reminiscent of Dhara Dun.

45 sqn Blenheims and 17 sqn Hurricanes as escort go off at dawn to bomb Mingaladon. The PRU brought home some pictures showing aircraft all over the runways. They get attacked before their run up and all the way back to Henzada. 45 sqn shoot down a few, drop their bombs and 17 sqn get a few more. I arrange to do an R/T test with 17th Division today and am trying to tune my radio with the ground station, on the satellite, when I suddenly see 18 strange aircraft in straggle formation. I head for the bushes, with the fear in my heart, as they appear to be coming down to ground strafe us. Then the sky fills with planes and a stick falls along the E/W strip of the satellite and also apparently in the town where a petrol dump goes up.

We run further out into the bush and more and more formations appear. There is some high cloud, so they can be seen quite clearly against it. They knock hell out of the aerodrome, but don’t appear to notice the satellite and Navy ’0′s swoop down in the smoke and machine gun it. Dog fights all over the sky and a Hurricane comes in low over our heads, quite slowly. Off they go and we return to the dispersal. I then hear an ominous noise so out we go again, to see 18 bombers heading south. More bombs fall and then about 17 come in at 10000′ from the east with the ack-ack going through them, but bursting high. A DC2 looms through the smoke and goes away again, to come back afterwards and land on the satellite. I return to my R/T and get it working by 4.30, so instead of beating the sun I decide to do it tomorrow. Perhaps I will get a rocket, but I don’t fancy flying after all that. But they may catch me tomorrow.

I go on operations again. Hilton and I fly to Park Lane, the Prome landing ground, and then try an R/T test with the army on milestone 135 (north of Zigon); the R/T fails, so I go off and do my recco of Myogwin railway at 50 feet, with Hilton weaving behind me. He loses me once or twice but we manage OK. Hardly operational flying though, as it all seemed to be on our side of the “line”. We have two Hurricane 1′s and Pierce and Harris go one day, and Hilton and self the other. That’s the scheme anyway.

Another day at Yenangyaung, and Paddy and I buy a couple of bottles of wine, which we consume in glasses with ice, during a local beer drought which lasts for two days. Saw Penton at Park Lane.

We go to Yenangyaung a couple of times to swim, and yesterday hit a black partridge on the way home. Moule arrives from the front to be Paddy’s stooge. On Friday 13th I take off in a Hurricane and wonder why the tail won’t come up. I put the tail trimmer forward a bit and the stick and give it full throttle. The end of the runaway looms up. DC2s etc, and I just manage to get off like a Lysander. I then look at the revs and am horrified to see only 2000! I throttle back and they drop to 1600 and off the clock so I come in and land quickly, and find the constant speed has not been properly connected.

A lot of Blenheims being lost on low level reccos so I expect we shall have some trouble, as Pierce seems to fancy this low level stuff. A Blenheim got back the other day with the pilot shot dead, and the crew bale out over the ‘drome.

We have a ‘Laskio Bus Service’ wagon as our flight office and the PA’s car which I obtained by a wangle. I still don’t seem very keen on this flying, but I expect it’s through having nothing to do. As we are non-operational just now, we have been made duty pilots, so I’m sitting in the office doing nothing just now. We mess in the Commissioners house – very pleasant drinking beer on the lawn in the evening, though there aren’t many glasses, watching the sunset on the Irrawaddy and listening to the Quoels (Brainfever birds).