Hi all, I'm trying to track down which squadrons would have flown Austers in and around Imphal (India) and Burma in March '44. I'm hoping someone might be able to help? To cut a long story short, I'm trying to track down a ferrying sortie made by an Auster in March 1944, from MS82 on the Tiddim Road, to one of the Chindit airstrips (all research so far suggests it was 'Broadway'). The only information I have is from a soldiers memoirs (who was in the same RE Company Section as my grandad) which states it was an RAF Auster, plus due to various circumstances at the time, I can narrow it down to between 5-24 march '44, but other than that, I don't have much else to go on. So far I've uncovered the RAF AOP Squadrons (651-666) and of all of those, the only one that operated in and around Imphal was 656 Squadron (specifically 'B' flight). I've got the 656 records but haven't found any sorties that were carried out anywhere near the areas of interest. As a precaution I've also checked the rest of the records (not just 'B' flight) but with no luck. I've also looked into USAAF 1st Air Commando who were in charge of the air ops for Operation Thursday, but although they had 100 light aircraft, none were Austers. I've started hunting it from the Chindit side of things too and have so far checked the HQ records of 77 and 111 brigades but also had no luck there. I'm just wondering if anyone knows of anyone else who could have been flying Austers in this area during march 1944? Any other RAF Squadrons who may have flown Austers, either the whole squadron, or maybe could fighter or other squadrons also have an Auster attached to them for some reason? If not, maybe it was 656 but the flight wasn't captured in the squadron logs perhaps? It was a very urgent job so maybe it wasn't captured by the pilot or squadron logs because of this? Thanks for any help, much appreciated!
I can take a quick look at my copy of Unarmed Into Battle, if you don't have one? I guess maybe this would only confirm the same list of... 1 active squadron.
Thanks Chris! I don't have that book so if you wouldn't mind looking, that would be great thanks! Even if it just confirms that, that'd be helpful to know
Thanks for the heads up, yep I've been speaking to him over on the India and Burma area. I just thought maybe there might be some RAF buffs who might know a lot more about the Auster or whether or not they'd be attached to other Squadrons (eg not just in AOP Squadrons). I'm getting the feeling that it might become another dead end, whereby the event occurred but for whatever reason, wasn't captured in diaries/records and so no way of finding out more about it. But I'll keep digging as you never know what you'll unearth until you look
Looking at Unarmed Into Battle, I'm afraid I can only seem to shed negative light on things. At the bottom of page 111 it says "Single-handed 656 Squadron had to fulfil all the demands of the 14th Army" and shortly after describes how all the Squadron except 'B' Flight went into action on the Arakan Front on Jan 28 1944. Mid-April Squadron HQ and C flight went to Kohima leaving A Flight supporting 15 Corps. 'B' Flight left Calcutta March 9th etc etc. "When the ground party linked up with the Austers again we moved to Kangliatombi, a main airstrip five miles south of Imphal" (no date given) "One of the first orders given to the Flight was to send two sections to join 20 Division in the Kabaw Valley, some 25 miles to the east of Imphal. On March 21st Tamu was abandoned and the sections had to work from an appalling strip at Moreh (three miles from Tamu) where they were constantly under fire and lost one aircraft in a crash a week later." I'm afraid that's all it gives for that period.
'B' Flight left Calcutta March 9th etc etc. "When the ground party linked up with the Austers again we moved to Kangliatombi, a main airstrip five miles south of Imphal" (no date given) Kanglatongbi (correct spelling!), is incorrect as there is no airfield there! This has been confused many times with Kangla Airfield which is indeed south of Imphal. Lionboxer
Thanks Chris C, that's useful to know! I've got the squadrons official history book (on Kindle) called 'From Austers to Apaches' and also a personal account by a member of 656 which was published as "Fire by order" and both have pretty much the same information too. There is a squadron association though, with an email address for the archivist so I might try my luck there as the squadron history book does quote a lot of personal flight logs so I may get lucky and find one with an entry that isn't in the official sqdn record?! (I know I'm clutching at straws, but you never know lol). Unless I can find another possible source for an Auster to be in the Imphal arena, then i guess I'll have to conclude that it was from 656 B flight but just not logged. As their sorties didn't start until 10/3 that would at least alter my possible date range from 5-23 to 10-23. They would also mean it wasn't in the opening stages of Op Thursday but at least 5 days after, so the need for RE men to fix the dozer would've been in order for the machine to fix damaged strips I guess. I'll keep digging..... Thanks again!
There are so many similar sounding places not just on the Imphal plain, but in India in general, it always takes me extra time to have to double and triple check them before I'm happy I've got the right one lol And that's not taking into account the innumerable times places are misspelt, often in different ways on the same Division/Brigade/Company diary page! Lol
