voyager_663rd
Posts: 1193
Joined: 2/11/2003
From: Toronto,
ON, CANADA
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Thanks for the story F4U Killer. It's nice to add personal touches to this topic. I don't feel so wrong now about adding a little bit more "history" to it. With Jim having said he's basically finished with mods for this one, here's a bit more "story".
In my research, I came across why there were so few corsairs left in British possession after the war. The corsairs that Britain obtained were through the U.S. Lend Lease program. They were provided free to their British allies as the U.S. contribution to their war effort.
That was one of the reasons the U.S. govt offered its citizens for their "largess". "Hey folks, it's only a loan. We're going to get them back when the Limey's are through with them".
Well, the end of the war came and so came the end of Lend Lease. The U.S. didn't want the birds back. The Brit's couldn't afford to pay for them. With the blessings of both the British and U.S. government, the VAST majority were outright destroyed--literally, sailors pushed them off the carrier decks into the Pacific to sink to the bottom of the ocean. Those that were still on land were sent to wrecking yards where they were crushed flat as pancakes. None were to survive save those that were either shot down/abandoned elsewhere or "spirited away" by private individuals.
Kinda reminds me of the story of our own Avro Arrow. Different circumstances but still, destruction at the hands of the governments of the day. Anyways, here is one of the stories, as I found it as written by K S Nair:
Japan, 1946
Imagine a coalition air force consisting of American, Australian, British and Indian fighter squadrons, operating from airbases close to a city devastated by nuclear strike, patrolling the seas around the Korean peninsula. This is not a fictional scenario from the latest Humphrey Hawksley or Tom Clancy techno-thriller - it was actually happening, 57 years ago.
In early 1946 No 4 Squadron, Royal Indian Air Force, was selected to go to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces. The selected contingent numbered 40 officers, of whom 25 were pilots. Seven of those 25 were the new Pilot Officers.
It was decided that the squadron would ferry its aircraft from Bangalore to Cochin (now Kochi), where they would embark for the voyage on a Royal Navy aircraft-carrier. The squadron was told that they would not have to land on the carrier - their aircraft would be loaded on - but they might have to take off from the carrier when they reached Japan. They therefore fitted wingtip extensions onto their aircraft (which were otherwise clipped-wing variants), and developed wooden pegs to hold the flaps in a suitable position for short take-offs. They practised short take-offs, until they could all take off within 200 yards.
BN Surendra, one of the Indian DFC awardees, brought a case of Scotch to the squadron the night before they were due to ferry their aircraft to Cochin. It was 1st April, Air Force Day, and an occasion for celebration; and the pilots may have, ill-advisedly, sat up and finished Surendra's gift.
Pilots and aircraft set out for Cochin the next day, 2nd April. The first section of four aircraft was led by Flying Officer WR Dani flying NH795. On approaching to land at Cochin, which had a short runway with grass on the approach, he hit telegraph wires and overturned. He survived the crash, but suffered glycol burns and could not travel with the rest of the squadron to Japan. (WR Dani was later to command No 5 Squadron when they converted to Canberras, and to retire after a distinguished career as an Air Commodore.)
At Cochin, there was a batch of brand-new Vought Corsairs, American-built carrier-borne fighters that had been provided to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm under Lend-Lease. They were so new that they still had brown-paper coverings on their instruments; but as they were Lend-Lease aircraft, they were required to be scrapped, now that the war was over. Again, RAF and FAA personnel were surreptitiously and systematically stripping them of their radios. The RAF Station Commander caught on, and announced a general amnesty if all the stolen radios were returned and placed "outside my office by tomorrow morning." Whatever the alternative it can't have been pleasant; Digby recalls that most of the radios were in fact returned by the deadline.
Ironically, the Corsairs were disposed of, in keeping with the requirements of Lend-Lease, not long afterwards. 30 of them, together with FAA Types as Corsairs and Helldats, were actually loaded onto the same aircraft carrier as No 4 Squadron, and were simply pushed overboard once the ship had reached deep water.
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1940s/Digby02.html
More stories to be told. . . . .
< Message edited by voyager_663rd -- 2/27/2004 4:12:50 PM >
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