Hi all, Am reading this short memoir that I just mentioned picked up and it mentions Boston bombers in the spring of 1942. I'm not familiar with the type so I looked at Wikipedia but I was wondering how successful it was in the light bombing role and how long it was used for in North Africa/the Med. "While the airplanes we saw most often were the JU 87s, the Stuka dive-bombers, we much preferred the Douglas 'Boston' bombers flown by the South African Air Force! They flew over us in tight formations and seconds later we could hear the rumble of their bombs. We always counted them as they came back and never did fewer return than went out during the campaign." - Stuart Waters, One Man's War
See: No. 3 (S.A.) Wing - Wikipedia They Boston and Marauder light bombers, unclear what happened after 1943 though. The technical Wiki reveals they had two names, but has nowt on North Africa: Douglas A-20 Havoc - Wikipedia Some clues here: B26 Marauder Association and finally the most detail on a museum website: Douglas Aircraft - Gloucestershire Transport History See an enthusiastic South African story: South African Air Force – Page 4 – The Observation Post
Used right until war's end. The first one I see lost was on No. 24 Squadron SAAF, W8378, lost 22 November 1941 (crew survived, pilot awarded the MC for his work with the partisans). The last Bostons lost in the Med were two (BZ626 and BZ627) from No. 55 Squadron RAF, lost 25 April 1945. Regards, Dave
Joe Baugher’s site has the complete history of the various A-20 Havoc/Boston versions. Douglas A-20 Boston/Havoc
First use during Operation CRUSADER, as unaccompanied fast daylight reconnaissance/bomber. That didn't end well (SURPRISE!) and gave rise to an incident called the 'Boston Tea Party' where I think five out of a raid party of six were shot out of the sky. No. 24 Sqdrn ORB has that loss for 23 November. They started CRUSADER with 14 operational planes and were the only operator. All the best Andreas
Dates in the Wikipedia article (and the OP blog) are not correct. The establishment of No. 3 South African Wing was quite complicated administratively, and only authorised on 3 November 1941. All the best Andreas
That is, without a doubt, the most abysmal example of an ORB I have ever seen. No serial numbers, no personnel and the handwriting of a drunkard suffering fits. Anyway, I was incorrect this morning. The first loss this squadron suffered was on 22 November, daylight op. Boston W8375 "P" t/o LG 112. Crashed near Gambut at 1030 hrs whilst on a reconnaissance of the Sidi Rezegh, Gambut and Maddalena area with two other Bostons. Crew commemorated on the Alamein Memorial. Boston W8378 is shown in AIR81 as lost 24 November 1941. I hope there isn't going to be a quiz. Regards, Dave
Concur with that, it is pretty bad, and the scan quality does nothing to restore it's attractiveness. Yeah that's the one I had, but seems to be a different plane then. My understanding is that AIR81 is a derived register, so the ORB should take precedence? All the best Andreas
