Charlie

[Paddy]

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more very soon

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[Paddy]

19 April 1942

Patrols continue at a steady rate.

We hear of massive bombardmeants of Rangoon to our north.


2 May 1942

This morning was to be it.

3am callout

7th Fighter Squadron rolled out first

They had operational cap

We watched 4th Fighter Squadron leave intermixed with all 3 bomber squadrons

Then our mighty 5th and the 11th Fighter Squadrons took off.

We were sent on Fleet Combat Air Patrol.

And the fleet was an amazing sight.

Puerto Princess was the target.

Our Flight spent some time over the mighty Battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse. They sure do look Majestic.

Even up here in these dark clouds, you could feel the power when they unleashed their big guns.

Throughout the day we rotated our roles for the Combat Air Patrol.

Watching the Anzac Diggers storming the beaches was amazing.

Albeit, the long wait seems to have been worth it.
Before retiring to sleep, I read some of the history of the HMS Prince of Wales, a 35,000-ton King George V class battleship built Birkenhead, England, was completed in March 1941. In late May, while still not fully operational, she was sent into action with the German battleship Bismarck and received significant damage from heavy gunfire. Following repairs, Prince of Wales carried Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to Newfoundland. There, on 9-12 August, Churchill joined U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Atlantic Charter conference, the first meeting between the two English-speaking leaders of what was emerging as the "Grand Alliance" against the Axis powers.

Following her return to British waters, Prince of Wales went to the Mediterranean, where she successfully engaged Italian planes off Malta in late September. Sent to the Far East with the battlecruiser HMS Repulse to counter the swiftly developing Japanese threat in the region, she arrived on 2 December 1941. On 8 December, the day of the Pearl Harbor Raid on the other side of the International Date Line, the Japanese landed in northern Malaya.

It sure seems like a great career for a ship that has been in the water less than two years old.

[SKILORD]

Promising....

I want more!

Neat picture there, btw.

[unscratchedfoot]

C'mon dude, more material please.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Lovely pic that great stuff Paddy keep it up

[marcuspeddle]

This is great, Paddy. I like the one soldier's view of the war. I think I'll try it for my next story.
Have you ever tried a game called Hearts of Iron? It's made by Paradox and it's a real-time simulation. The clock ticks on but moving troops and so on takes time so it doesn't feel like Warcraft or anything. And you can pause the game to give orders, check units and so on. And, you can play any nation of the world, including Australia.

[Kaos XIII]

tight

[Paddy]

13 May 1942

Only a few scrapes with Jap in the air so far.

Yet 7th Fighter Squadron are at half numbers due to several major air battles in the last few weeks.

And 11th Squadron have lost 2 fighters to accidents, 2 more to Jap flak flying support to the bombers this week, and 4 to Jap Zeros.

19 May 1942

Patrols, Combat Air Patrol, Bomber Support, Naval Support, Cricket Players, and bloody good beer drinkers. The Group Captain certainly knows how to keep us busy.

I am not sure some nights who are the biggest drinkers, ourselves, or the mosquitoes that wait our every move.

4 June 1942

With the success of the attacks on Puerto Princess so successful, we are rotating back to Singapore.

9 June 1942

Then they bounced us up country – Rangoon.

This out post of the Empire repeatedly bombed over the last months.

29 June 1942

As we capture one island, the Dutch lose another. Tenate fell to the Japanese yesturday.

1 July 1942

Massive fighter action here in Rangoon.

I bagged my 3rd Jap bomber two days ago.

Yet my proudest achieve was mixing it up with some Zeros this morning. I know have a Zero painted on my Mustang. All I can say is bring it on.

4 July 1942

A contingent of Yanks turned part of the base into the home of the Red White and Blue. I think they got a shock that we all got into it so much… Afterall they are the colours of our flag too.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

marvellous old chap

[unscratchedfoot]

Yeah, keep spinning the yarn, Big Bad Pad. Let's hear about some good shoot em ups.

[Paddy]

9 July 1942
Early morning found us at Angels 11, soaring high above the South China Sea. Our mission brief was just that, brief. Intel wanted us up and covering this patch of sky for the next few days… We were to tackle any airborne foes, spot shipping and possibly vector in bombers on any that we sighted. This sure does make for long and slightly boring days… Up before the3 sun, in the sky as the sun crests the horizon, and patrolling a slightly cloud covered patch of water.

At this height we could easily see the land on both sides of the Sea, and there was just a hint that we could get some action in the water ways.

4 hours had ticked by, only two faint sightings so far, and nothing really to chase after. The Sqd Leader was keeping a tight leash on us. He was quite determined to keep us in one operating group as Intel had requested.

Then our squak boxes came alive with some bizarre screaming…

“Mayday Mayday, HT5564 we are going down… help we are going down… ahhhhhhh!!!”

Well this surely woke us from any doldrums that was afflicting us. To have come through so loud and clear, they were close to us…

A few of the lads started up, talking and wanting to run off on the hunt. This was when the experience of the CO and the older lads really came out.

“HT5564, this is Red Roo, we hear you 5 x 5… what is your location?”

“Mayday Mayday, HT5564 we are going down… we are just north of Sibalac Point”

“HT5564, this is Red Roo, we hear you and are responding now.”

“Roo Leader to Flights 1 & 2, with me lads. Flight 3 stay the course at this altitude, and watch our backs.”

“Flight 1, Roger Red Roo”

“Flight 2, Roger Red Roo”

“Flight 3, Roger Red Roo”

“Red Roo Leader to Grafton Base. Red Roo Leader to Grafton Base. Be advised we are heading to Sibalac Point to assist HT5564.”

“Grafton Base to Red Roo, we have you listed. Be advised Naval elements are also moving in that direction to work on a recovery mission.”

The next twenty minutes were quite tense. As we moved into the area, the cloud cover thickened. As we came closer to the point each flight was sent into a slight spiral, ever vigilant for the Jappaman and the aircraft that took out HT5564.

This all proved very futile, as we never laid eyes on any enemy aircraft.

HT5564 left quite a mess across the bay of Sibalac Point. Yet in amongst this mess two bright orange life rafts were being slowly paddled into the bay.

Our Flight came in low and we waggled our wings, bringing welcome waves from the lads in the rafts.

From the wreckage and the oil spread across the calm waters of the bay, I felt quite uneasy about coming down in water…

[Mad Bomber]

Originally posted by Paddy the Scot
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The Mustang was of British design and made to British order for the Royal Air Force


The company that made them happened to be in the US of A.

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Not exactly.

Some info on the Mustang:


It all started in 1939, when the British needed more fighter aircraft. They showed interest in the Curtiss P-40 Warhark and the Bell P-39 Aircobra amoung others. Neither were their first choice, but that was the best that the Americans had and the British could not wait for any new designs. They decided the P-40 would be the one. James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger, president of North American Aviation, was approached by the British to build the P-40 at the North American production facility because Curtiss Aircraft was at full capacity. Kindelberger told the British that it would take 120 days to tool up for the P-40.

Then Kindelberger somehow, with no real evidence that it could be done, convinced the British that North American Aviation could design and build a new fighter that was better than the P-40. The new fighter would fly faster, higher, farther, be more maneuverable and pack more firepower. The British took NAA at their word because they had performed well with British orders for the NAA Harvard trainer. British approval by letter of intent was given on 10th April 1940. Shortly after, 23 May, a contract order was placed by the British for the first 320 aircraft designated NA-73.

78,000 man hours and 102 days later, the prototype, NA-73X, rolled out of the hangar - without an engine. 18 days later, the Allison V-1710-39 was ready and on 26 October 1940, NX19998 took to the skies for its maiden flight with test pilot Vance Breese at the controls. On 9 December 1940 the British Purchasing Comission sent a letter to North American Aviation stating that the NA-73 airplanes have been given the official designation of "Mustang".

Part of the US approval for export to Britain was that 2 examples of the Mustang would be turned over to the USAAF for evaluation. The US was very slow to evaluate the new fighter designated XP-51. After evaluation they were also slow to place orders, but interest picked up and orders were placed by the US which included the A-36 Apache. The A-36 was a P-51A set up for dive-bombing ground attack. In all over 15,000 P-51 Mustangs of all types were built from 1940-1945.

Significant design changes came about when the Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 was used in the P-51B/C and then when the bubble canopy P-51D/K was introduced. The P-51D was the most produced model and was favored among most pilots. The P-51H was a redesigned version but entered service to late to make an impact on WWII.

Source: http://www.p51.mustangsmustangs.com/p51.shtml

[Paddy]

hoyy, who is telling this here story

thank for that MB... I will have to go through my many books and see where I referenced that information from

cheers for your intel

[Mad Bomber]

Originally posted by Paddy the Scot
hoyy, who is telling this here story

thank for that MB... I will have to go through my many books and see where I referenced that information from

cheers for your intel

No prob. I origionally wanted to post a small paragraph about it but it had a lot of valuable info that I didn't know so I posted nearly the entire excerpt.

As for your story, its not bad, but I think that your style could use some polishing. In particular, I think that you use quotes and statements too often and at times it becomes confusing without a reference as to exactly who is talking.

Taken for the whole its an entertaining story, keep up the good work.

[Grandpa Troll]

Nice work, keep it coming!

Gramps