Hi Kev,
This is an aside but you may find it of interest. I posted it into a thread we have running on the Wings over New Zealand forum about RNZAF War Correspondent Dorothy Cranstone the other day after coming across it on Papers Past, as she is likely to have been the author of this great article (her husband told me she used to fly on missions with the RNZAF and RAF guys in India-Burma when she could).
Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 30, 5 February 1945, Page 6
(Does anyone have more details of this all kiwi crew and their squadron?)
BURMA SKY TRAIN
ARMY FED BY PLANES
NEW ZEALANDERS’ PART
(R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service.) AIR COMMAND, South-East Asia, February 3.
Battling their way over precipitous mountains and across the jungled plains of north-west Burma, the Fourteenth Army has been almost entirely dependent on the Royal Air Force for supplies. Nowhere in the world is an army contending with such difficulties of communications. New Zealand airmen are playing their part in the solution of the problem.
Operating across the trackless jungle covered ranges, far from any port or railway, building roads and countless bridges as they go, units of the Fourteenth Army have been incessantly fed from the sky by supply-dropping aircraft of the Eastern Air Command. The aircraft maintain a constant goods tram service. This requires skilful flying, especially in the monsoon weather when clouds shroud the mountains and gorges which the aircraft must negotiate before pin-pointing their valuable cargo on to tiny targets.
Today, New Zealanders flew on a supply-dropping mission to our forward troops now closing in on Mandalay. Briefed for a dawn take-off their aircraft was one in a long line flying up out of the famous Imphal Valley, where last year our forces were besieged by the Japanese for three months. Flying at 6000 feet, the aircraft crossed through heavily forested ranges into Burma. Just at sunrise, it flew over the fabled Chindwin River and came down on to the forested foothills and later the plains and paddy fields of north-west Burma. From then on, the aircraft flew at tree-top level to avoid enemy fighters.
FANTASTIC PAGODAS.
Fantastic golden-spired pagodas flashed past. Smoke rose from cosy Burmese villages. Patrolling Spitfires raced ahead. Here a constant menace to low-flying aircraft are the innumerable large birds which hole the planes if hit and often cause disaster.
A tall, fair New Zealander, Flying Officer S. W. Hamilton (Frankton Junction), was piloting one of the Dakotas, and he pointed out the scenes of fierce earlier battles. Braced against the wind at the hatch, three New Zealanders pushed the piles of parachuted cargo out. In all, the aircraft made 12 runs over the dropping zone. Later, the aircraft landed on a dusty airstrip near Shwebo and disembarked food for the troops in that area.
Skimming home over the tree-tops, streams of aircraft were passed. They were all maintaining this sky-train supply service. Flying back into the the ranges towards tiny mountain-girt Imphal, is reminiscent of the Hutt Valley. The Dakota flew for miles beside that marvel of military engineering, the 7000 ft climbing Tamu Road: Suddenly the wireless operator, Warrant Officer P. J. Henricks (Redwoods Valley), made a quick gesture. The hitherto carefree members of the crew snatched up their sets of earphones and listened with intent faces. Dance music was coming over from Los Angeles.
Other New Zealanders in the crew were Warrant Officer L. H. McNamara (Maunganui, North Auckland) and Warrant Officer A. T. Davies (Tauranga).
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Wartime&action=display&thread=14865
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