Many Canadians received the Burma Star for their service in Burma. Here is just one of many interesting stories: Burma Stars > Vintage Wings of Canada Art Adams, nicknamed the "Brick Bomber", points to his target on the painting by Lance Russwurm in the lobby of Vintage Wings of Canada. He was a "kicker" on C-47/DC-3 Skytrain/Dakotas in the Burma campaign. A "kicker" was a loadmaster on a Dak who often delivered supplies to remote places by literally kicking them out of the cargo door . He was aboard one Dakota transporting 2,000 bricks to be used to build an oven for cooking food when the aircraft flew at low altitude over a Japanese floatplane aircraft pulled up on a beach. By pitching bricks at the enemy aircraft, Art Adams became the only person to have done a "kill" with bricks. This kill has officially been confirmed in a Japanese magazine 12 years ago. Photo by George Mayer. A painting by Lance Russwurm depicting another "Canucks Unlimited" Dak from 436 Squadron and the infamous Brick Bomber. A description of the painting from the Spitfire Emporium tells the story: (Burma, 1945) In April of that year, 436 Transport Squadron was ordered to move operations from Akyab Island in the Bay of Bengal, down the Burmese coast to Ramree Island. This move was necessary to maintain supplies to the British 14th Army which was advancing on the Japanese. Ramree had been shelled and extensively damaged. S/L Dick Denison was instructed to fly a load of bricks to Ramree so the cooks could build ovens to serve the squadron's messing needs. A C-47 (KN210) piloted by Denison was transporting the bricks and couldn't gain altitude, due to being overloaded. Just as this became apparent, L.A.C. Art Adams spotted a Japanese seaplane beached on a small island. Someone shouted, "Let's get rid of some bricks!" The paradrop bell and lights came on, the signal to "Do the drop". During a few low passes, Adams pushed out as many bricks as he could. No sign of life was seen around the enemy aircraft and it is doubtful that any damage was done but, it was certainly the only bombing raid in World War 2 done with bricks. Denison later landed the Dak like a feather. It was overloaded by 2000 pounds! Painting by Lance Russwurm.
Wow, that's pretty funny! I just posted on another thread about trying to find the Burma Star Association in Toronto. Looks like there might be a some other active ones - in Ottawa/Gatineau.
That's a great story! I remember my dad saying that Spike Milligan's account of the war was pretty accurate, as the whole thing was a bunch of young lads with big toys to play with. To overcome terror or tedium, they had to get up to a lot of pranks.
