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Dakota Operations in the Far East
submitted by: Anthony Harratt
I recently happened upon a scrapbook which contained a number of articles and photographs from
old aviation magazines. Very few had credits to them or their source or author recorded but judging
from the faded nature of the pages they were quite old. This particular tale relates to the experiences
of an RAF navigator in the immediate post war period. I have re-written the story from the original
first person style purely because I am unable to credit the author or source. If anyone knows the
article, can identify the writer or source I would be extremely grateful. I am sure DC-3 fans
everywhere will enjoy these memories. Anthony Harratt
In the period immediately after World War II the Royal Air Force had almost 2,000 DC-3's on its roster
provided by the United States under the lend-lease agreement.
The vast majority of these DC-3's were attached to RAF Transport Command.
At this time conversion to the Dakota was the responsibility of RAF Dishforth in Yorkshire, England where
circuits and local flying were carried out. Once conversion was completed crews attended a short support
training programme at RAF Syerston. Here formation flying, low-level cross-country flying, glider-towing,
paratrooping and various types of supply drops were carried out. Once this section of training was completed
the crews were deemed competent enough to be allocated to squadrons.
In 1948 one of the squadrons operating Dakota's was 48 Squadron of Air Command, Far East based at
Changi. Few 'scheduled' services were undertaken with the majority of flights being on an 'as required' basis
and generally of a military nature.
Regular training flights were the most common type of flying mainly for the benefit of pilots so that they would
not lose touch with single engine flying, landing and overshooting, low-level flying, bad weather circuits and
emergency take-offs and recovery from unusual positions. Operational sorties were flown from Changi to a
variety of places including Dum Dum Airport at Calcutta, Butterworth and Rangoon (Mingaladon).
Another regular trip was the twice weekly 'leave special' to Kuala Lumpur and Butterworth for the benefit of
troops stationed out east who wished to spend their leave in the Cameron Highlands or on Penang Island.
Leave centres were specially built at these places. There were less frequent trips to a small island some 150
miles south of the Andaman group, Car Nicobar. The claim to fame of this little place was the RAF's
maintenance of a medium frequency radio beacon. Before the return trip to Singapore could be made the
aircraft had to be hand refueled from 4 gallon drums in temperatures of 95-100 degrees.
Another destination was Hong Kong. This flight entailed a briefing at 0100hrs with take-off some three hours
later. To retain a safety margin refueling was carried out at Saigon, very often with shells being fired from one
side of the airfield to the other. Weather at Hong Kong could be most unpredictable and frequently caused an
obstacle for landing aircraft. In the mountains ringing three sides of Kai Tak there were a number of fatal
crashes when the weather closed in. The usual approach to Kai Tak was via the curved approach which is still
in use today.
The squadron was called upon to assist in the evacuation of a British mission at Maymyo in Burma. During the
emergency there three DC-3's were positioned at Mingaladon to await arrangements being made firstly to
supply the mission with food by air drop and later to fly out the occupants from the nearest airstrip at Anisakan.
This airstrip was at a fairly high altitude, rather short in length and being decorated with numerous bodies. The
whole lot was guarded by armed Karen troops. One plane landed without incident and parked alongside a
Spitfire wreck which had been captured on the ground and literally hacked to pieces with axes!
Once all three DC-3'a were on the ground loading commenced. One Dakota had a full load of passengers
including nine standing plus freight and was, in the words of the nav', 'quite full'. The Gooney taxied to the
extreme end of the strip and locked on the brakes. Then the throttles were pushed forward and full power
obtained, the brakes were released and quarter flap dropped. The tail showed a reluctance to leave the ground
but happily the Gooney climbed away taking its load to freedom.
Major servicing was a bit of a nightmare and for various reasons could not be undertaken in the Indian
sub-continent. Such servicing could, however, be undertaken in Adelaide, South Australia. The flights went
south from Singapore via Sourabaya, Dutch Timor (Kupang airfield), Darwin and Alice Springs. It was
generally a pleasant flight with night stops being made. The whole adventure lasted some five days.
Various crews 'enhanced' their journey by examining the tops of volcano craters, flying round Bali to admire the
scenery and shark hunting (without success!) in the Timor Sea.
Thunderstorms were a great problem in Asia. Following American research in Florida using Northrop Black
Widows a flight of all-weather Harvards was formed at Changi to give pilots experience of thunderstorm flying.
Once pilots returned to the transport squadrons thunderstorms were flown through instead of around at an
altitude of around 9,000 feet. The drill was to switch on the cockpit floodlight and switch out the auto-pilot,
reduce speed and traverse the storm keeping the aircraft as level as reasonably possible. Once used to the
darkness, lightning and hailstone noise the ride was quite acceptable but there was a certain amount of
wallowing and the loss or gain of height.
During the time of the crisis in Malaya three Dakota squadrons, 110, 52 and 48, took turns to spend six month
tours at Kuala Lumpur in an army support role. Navigation called for some very precise map reading and pilots
had to develop accurate supply dropping techniques. Many of these drops to army ground patrols were in hilly
country or in rising valleys which made the job quite hazardous. The normal operations involved sizing up the
situation from a safe height before carrying out a dummy run prior to carrying out the actual drop. This resulted
in quite a high level of accuracy. These hazardous missions sadly claimed victims in 110 and 52 squadrons.
That the original author sees fit to record his thanks to the Douglas Aircraft Company is a fitting
tribute, once more, to the venerable DC-3. In all his flying he never encountered an emergency in
any DC-3 he flew on despite flying functions far outside the scope of its original design.
Anthony Harratt
England
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