A Story of War

Follow one man's war day by day, 70 years on, from Waziristan and the North West Frontier, Habbaniya, the Burma campaign, India & the Rhine.

December 18th 1942


We progress from 4+1 pr to 3+2 pr to 2+3 pr to 2+4 pr and I get an odd 88% and 75% on 4+1 and 3+2 respectively. (JDW: does anyone know what this means?) Tomorrow we leave for Cairo, and presumably go back on the next ship or flying boat. Not much on here: flying in the morning, a little reading in the afternoon, and drinking by night. The trouble is the early dinner – 7pm to 8.30 – which means you have to go to bed around 8pm or so, which is a bit of a bind. But by some judicious drinking I can usually get into bed in a fit state for sleep, so am OK. They posted us here from India, and so we lose our Indian rates of pay.

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CDC Dunford Wood

2 responses to “December 18th 1942”

  1. Steve Warner Avatar
    Steve Warner

    I read up further on the web on the Hurricane IID and the training that was done with the 40mm cannons equipped on each wing. A pilot was considered ready for anti-tank ops if he could fire 3 pairs of shots per attack run, and get 50% hits on a full size tank silhouette. He’d be 15-20 ft off the ground doing up to 240 mph, and approaching from 1,000 yards out. As your dad was flying with only 15 rounds per cannon, it makes sense that they were being trained to fire pairs of aimed shots in various combos.

    Reply
    1. James Dunford Wood Avatar
      James Dunford Wood

      Hi Steve – Fascinating, thanks for that explanation.

      Reply

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