The Plane my Dad Crashed:Dad's Airforce Yarns.

My Dad, when he had had his Whisky & Soda, used to tell me about his rather brief stint in World War 2. He said he was commissioned in 1944, while there was still a war going on (I’ve checked, his DoC is 17^th. November, 1944.) After training, where I still haven’t been able to google-mine, he was first posted at Cox’s Bazar – now at the southernmost tip of Bangladesh. From RIAF records, I think it was No. 7 Squadron (the Battleaxes). A little later the squadron moved to Silchar.

Dad used to talk about this aircraft that the squadron flew – the Vultee Vengeance. “ A bad copy of the German Stuka – Junkers 77 dive bomber – the yanks put together an untested plane and dumped it under Roosevelt’s lend-lease and the British Government dumped it on us, natives, who were being sumptuous enough to want our own “native” Air- Force.”

The main role of this squadron was in giving air support to the “Chindits” a guerilla force led by Brigadier Wingate. The force was operating deep within Burma behind enemy lines and the “Chindits” had even developed secret landing strips and air fields inside Japanese occupied Burma, with exotic names like “Trafalgar Square” and “Piccadilly Circus”. This involved precision bombing which could only be done by “Dive-Bombers”. Screaming down in an almost vertical dive from over 10,000 feet above, the planes needed to release their bombs fairly close to the ground. But from this point, the pilot had a herculean task of getting out of the dive and not slamming into the ground.

The German Stuka was by far the most successful Dive Bomber. It dived down screaming – to add effect, there were air- driven sirens which could add to the scream, The bombs too had acoustic sirens when they fell. The plane recovered easily from the dive leveling out at 300’ above the ground and turning around rapidly to strafe the ground whit its eight wing mounted guns – plus a rear facing gun to ward off attacking enemy fighters. The psychological of a Stuka attack effect was more than the 1,000 pounds of Bombs it carried on under wing mounts. No wonder, Poland surrendered after just two days of Stuka attacks.

The Stuka also pioneered the “Double dihedral” or Bent wing concept. While being effective in managing high Gs, the bent wing had to be strong enough. This concept has been used in several US air craft even up to the Phantom F-4. The Vengeance too was a Bent Wing. The trouble was, even if you succeeded in pulling out of a dive, you may have stressed the wing enough that it will fall off – “qualify for wings on the shoulders and a harp !”

As a lad of eight or ten I listened to these “Dad’s Air Force Yarns” and stored them away in my memory often relieving them as I indulged in Aero Modelling – my favourite hobby. Many evenings he would have company, fellow squadron mates, Squadron commanders, etc. I also remember many names of Dad’s colleagues at home and in parties at the Officer’s Mess – PC LAL, Moolgavankar – both rose to become Chiefs of Air Staff. With today’s info-fed world I can Google mine and it is quite amazing to realize most of these yarns were basically true – perhaps with Dad’s own little spicing up.

About the Vengeance, here I’d like to quote from Mukund Murthy:

“Joe Ezekiel of 7 Sqn. said that when the Vengeances first came to the Squadron, they acquired the reputation of widow-makers as they had a tendency not to pull out of dives - embarrassing, I would imagine, for a dive-bomber! One of the pilots who crashed in this manner was Dayanand Bhavanishankar Kagal, whose daughter was born posthumously. The Powers-That-Were sent an RAF hot-shot pilot to explain to the Natives (a Sqn Ldr who apparently thought little of the Indian pilots) that the Vengeance was perfectly safe to pull out of a dive, no matter what. He apparently called all the pilots together and harangued them, and questioned their courage, and technical capabilities, equally. He then walked out to the nearest Vengeance, started her up, taxied her out, took off, climbed to 10, 000 ft, deployed his dive-brakes dived, and..........well, just - dived !

The subsequent accident inquiry, after the funereal,  revealed that the Centre of Gravity (CG) of the aeroplane was too far forward without an Observer/ Ballast in the rear seat, causing it to get into a terminal dive, irrecoverable even with full nose-up trim. Needless to say, subsequent solo flights at the OTU at Peshawar, passed off smoothly with the pilots getting into dives with ballast  - or a supremely happy or terrified passenger - firmly strapped to the rear seat !”

I can well imagine:

Pilot to CO: Sir, I need to put in a practice dive run today.

CO: yes, I know, so?

Pilot: I need a ballast.
CO: Can't you take the Mess Cook up?
Pilot: Not allowed anymore, Sir, After the last Mess Cook returned to the ground after the sortie - he was safe but certainly not Sound. What went up as reasonably smart and quite brave individual came down as a hysterical, blubbering lunatic - I believe he has still not recovered.

CO: strap on a sack of atta.

Pilot: No sir, I need a live ballast.

CO: Take that young chap who just came in – the signals fellow. What's his name Damal Rajagopal. Say I've specifically ordered him up as CoPilot / Signaller / navigator.

And, that’s how Dad got to fly – and crash in a Vengeance. Luckily they fell, without wings on a small clump of trees, I think, and escaped serious injury.

To commemorate this Air Commodore Aero Models introduces this Paper & Card board Free flight 12” wing span Vultee Vengeance in colors of No.7 Squadron, RIAF.

A quick comparison between the two aeroplanes may help put the two into perspective :

	Junkers 87-D Stuka	Vultee Type 72 Vengeance IV
Engine	1300 hp Jumo 211J	1700 hp Cyclone R-2600-19
Weight	14500 lbs	15600 lbs
Span	50 ft 1/2 in	48 ft
Length	36 ft 5 in	39 ft 9 in
Height	12 ft 9 in	14 ft 6 in
Wing Area	344 sq. ft.(D-1)/ 363 sq. ft.(D-8)	332 sq. ft.
Max speed	250 mph	273-279 mph
Ceiling	24000 ft	22000 ft
Range	620 miles	600 miles
Wing Loading	42. 15 lb/ sq. ft (40 lb - D-8)	47 lb/ sq. ft
Power loading	11. 15 lb/ hp	9.18 lb/ hp
Armament	2 X 7.92 mm MG 17's in the wings 2 X 7. 92 mm MG 81's Observor	4 X  .30's in the wings (1-III) 2 X  .30's for the Observer (I-III) 4 X  .50's in the wings (IV) 1 X  .50 for the Observer (IV)

A brief comparison between the dive-bombing techniques of the Stuka and the Vengeance :

Vengeance :
a) Approach target at approx. 12, 000'
b) Target goes past trailing edge of wing (usually port)
c) Select bombs to 'live,' bomb doors open
d) Wing over into dive
Alternately
b) Open bomb doors and fly over target
c) Observe target through window on floor
d) When target directly below half-roll into dive
e) Select dive brakes and dive at 70-90 degrees
f) Terminal velocity speed in dive approx. 320 mph
g) Release bombs at 4, 000 - 3, 500' agl
h) Retract dive brakes and initiate pull-out 3, 000' agl
f) Complete pull-out by 500' and exit or engage ground targets with guns

Stuka :
a) Approach target at approx. 13, 000'
b) Target goes past trailing edge of wing (usually port)
c) Close radiator flaps
d) Supercharger off
e) Wing over and half-roll into dive
Alternatively
e) Stick forward into dive
f) Set angle of dive 70-90 degrees(red lines showing various angles marked on canopy side panels)
g) Accelerate
h) Apply dive brakes
i) Release bomb 1, 600' agl
j) Retract dive brakes, open radiator shutter, supercharger on, initiate recovery
k) Recover around 700' agl and exit or engage target with guns

Readers will note the similarity of techniques, as also the following differences, in that the Stuka released its bomb from a lower height whilst executing recovery at a greater height (the latter advantage is arguable, as a higher aeroplane at low speed is possibly under a greater threat to ground fire).

^ No.7 Squadron's Groundcrew service a Vengeance at Kumghirgham (Silchar) in March 1944


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Formation

No.7 Squadron , Indian Air Force was formed on 01st December 1942 at Vizagapatnam under the command of Sqn Ldr Hem Chaudhuri. Under Air HQ formation order 268 dated 18 Nov 42, personnel from 104 Squadron, IAF and 353 Squadron, RAF as well as Nos 3 and 6 Coastal Defence Flights were drawn to provide No.7 with manpower. Since the Vultee Vengeance aircraft with which the Squadron had to equip was yet to arrive, the formation used Wapiti and Audax aircraft of the CDFs for the time being.

After W/T course at Bombay and Operational Training at 152 OTU in Peshawar, the unit acquired its first aircraft on 20 April 1943 at Phaphamau, near Allahabad. By mid 1943, flying training and gunnery training was being accomplished at Kohat. The first taste of action was over Northern Waziristan on 3 Dec 43, when Flt Lt KL Bhatia and Flt Lt PC Lal dive bombed targets near the Tochi river. Pending transfer to the Burma front , the unit was delegated to go to Gwalior for training with an Army formation for close support activities. While the first batch of two aircraft being ferried made the flight to Gwalior safely, the second batch of aircraft had run into poor visibility and dust storms. Of the nine aircraft that flew in this batch on 19 Feb 44, three crashed. Two pilots and two gunners were killed, while Fg Offr Gocal and his Gunner Ghosh survived their forced landing. The remaining aircraft arrived at Gwalior the next day. After training extensively with the Army, the Battleaxes were given orders to move to Kumbhirgham in Assam by 12 March 1944. The Squadron deployed at the Uderbund airstrip, about 12 km from Kumbhirgham.

Second World War: 7 Squadrons first tour.

The first operational sorties from Uderbund were flown on 28 Mar 44, when six Vengeance bombers led by Sqn Ldr Chaudhuri attacked Kenji on the Chindwin. The operations continued into the month of April 44, when targets like Myothit, Japanese army encampments at Imphal, Army convoys on theTiddim Road etc were just a few of the umpteen number of missions flown by the Battleaxes. The first fatal loss was on 1st May, when Fg Offr EH Dadabhoy was lost flying in the bad weather in a valley west of Imphal. His gunner, JH Dordi baled out of the aircraft and was able to trek back to friendly lines over the next two days. On 8th May, Fg Offr M Latif Khan's Vengeance crashed just after take off. Though the gunner Sgt Ghosh was extricated out of the aircraft, Fg Offr Khan was found to be dead in his harness. The aircraft's ordnance exploded soon after. Another casuality was towards the end of May, when Fg Offr M Engineer was trying to formate with a group of USAAF B-25 bombers after getting lost. Mistaking him to be a Japanese Oscar, the B-25 gunners fired on the Vengeance, killing Sgt KC Ball, the rear gunner.

The rest of operations involved Dive Bombing missions on numerous sorties on Maungdaw and Razabil, with the Vengeance being the ideal weapon of war against the targets in the mountains and thick jungles. At the begining of June, the Battleaxes were told to move to Ranchi . Command of the unit passed onto Sqn Ldr AB Awan. His tenure was short, on 21st July 44, Sqn Ldr PC Lal took over as the CO of the Unit. Three months into his command, the Squadron was to move to Peshawar to convert to the Hawker Hurricane. The conversion started in earnest and the Battleaxes took on their new role with gusto doing over 1000 Hours on the new aircraft by Dec 44. Close cooperation with the Army followed by the allocation of Tac R Role for the squadron. In March 45, the Squadron was sent on its second tour of duty on the Burma Front.

Second Tour

The move to Imphal was completed by the end of March, with the first op sortie on the Hurri being flown on the 30th, when some river craft were attacked near Seikpyn. Recce and close support patrols were the order of the day during those times. At one point, the Hurris provided escort to the aircraft of 1 Squadron on a recce role. On 14th Apr 44, Fg Offr JS Kochar flying a Hurricane lost airspeed in a turn while dropping a message to XXXIII Corps HQ and was killed in the impact. Two weeks later the first casuality due to hostile action occurred, when Fg Offr KR Rao flew into a steel wire stretched by the Japanese over the Irrawady. Fg Offr NS Prasad was shot down and killed by ground fire two days later over the same area. However the month of April saw the Squadron carry out a fantastic total of 1033 hours of flying, which was unequalled by any other Squadron in the 221 Group.

The month of May saw allied forces go further south into Burma towards Rangoon which fell on 2 May. To provide more prompt support, the squadron flew south to Magwe airfield. On 11 May, a Japanese Army Convoy was totaled by accurate bombing. Five days later, the Battleaxes were commended by 221 Group and told to stop Operations. The same day, sadly saw the loss of Fg Offr Dolly Engineer, who crashed trying belly land his Hurricane.

The Squadron moved to Samungli in June 1945. And from then till the Japanese surrender in August 45, carried out mundane duties like DDT spraying and leaflet dropping over the NWFP. Sqn Ldr Lal handed over command to HC Dewan in Sept 1945. In October 1945, for his leadership of the squadron in the unit's second tour of Operations, Sqn Ldr Lal was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the last such award given to the IAF in WW2. In November 1945, the Battleaxes requipped with the Supermarine Spitfire , after moving to Gwalior.