Hi, S. Giesea, Someone sent me scanned pages from a book showing both of the wrecked B-24s that crashed on takeoff on 25 Nov 1943. The scans were not high resolution. I believe the book, out of print, is the Tenth Air Force Story by Ken C. Rust. I can't know which one was your great-uncle's bomber. The page 49 close-up shows that the starboard rudder (the right-side oval vertical rudder) is up in the air, not touching the ground. The bottom photo on the other page, showing a rear fuselage in the distance, reveals that the port rudder is up in the air. That's how I concluded that one photo is of the wreck of your great-uncle, and the other crash photo shows the second wreck. Regards, Matt
Christopher Shores Air War For Burma is the definitive book on this. Must read for anyone interested in this theater. (The third book in the Bloody Shambles series.) Page 48 appears to put Hove (Western Burma) in the forward area of the coastal province of Arakan, hacked out of the jungle. Edit: Hove was also known as Mardhaibunia, 75 nautical miles SSE of Chittagong http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/2283 On the beach, South of Cox's Bazar: http://wikitravel.org/en/Cox's_Bazar From: RAF Fighter Pilots Over Burma: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives By Norman Franks
My late father in law Frederick William Pearce served with 357 Squadron I don't know which liberator crew he flew with, but we have some records of flights from Digri before they all moved after the squadron disbanded.
Hi Peter I am doing some research my wife’s uncle was Bob Cross who served with 136 Squadron in India/Burma. He was the highest scoring pilot in SEAC. I am lucky enough to have his log book! On Boxing Day 1943 he shot down 2 x Army Type 1 Fighters. I have just got a model of that aircraft its a Nichimo Nakajima Ki43-1 Oscar. All the instructions are in Japanese but luckily there include a passable English translation! I am really keen to get it as accurate as possible as regards colour scheme markings etc & to that end I know that it will be very difficult if not impossible to identify the actual aircraft which were downed but I could find a likely Japanese squadron which was operating in the area & get the details of that it may be the way to go. I have no idea if there are any records of the Japanese air war to the extent whereby squadrons & losses can be identified Having looked at your blog you seem to be a man who knows a lot about the Japanese aircraft! I am wondering if you are able to help me in my research as regards any info on potential Japanese squadrons operating in that area at the end of 1943, colours & markings etc. I am not sure if there are any Japanese Historic aircraft people I could contact to see what info they have & if its possible to identify the location & details of an Japanese squadrons & their losses on that day. Also could you point me in the direction of any books/publications which may assist my research? Basically anything that’s going to help me make a good representative model of the aircraft shot down. So, if you can help me, I would be very grateful. Having looked at Bob’s logbook and the story of 136 Squadron ‘The Woodpecker Story – 136 (Fighter) Squadron as far as I can make out at the time of this action the squadron was based at Ramu in the Arakan. Any help you are able to give me would be very greatly appreciated! Regards Max max@samuel-camps.co.uk
My Dad was with 20 Squadron on George and Hove. George’s location is, as already stated, Nidania - see the Google Map link below. George’s runway consisted of former paddy fields adjacent to the beach. Hove was located at Madhaibunia. In his memoirs the CO at the time, Andrew Millar, gives the name as Madhaibunja. In his wartime reports he gave its position as Lat: 21deg 08min, longitude 92deg 06min. If you want to find it on Google Maps today, the name is Madarboniya. The runway was the beach. The image below is one of the squadron's Hurricane Mark IID's flying over Hove, returning from a sortie over the Arakan. (Crown Copyright) I’ve shown the locations of Nidania and Hove on this Google Map: Google Maps
