Reg
Posts: 2787
Joined: 5/26/2000
From: NSW, Australia
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Dili
The Spits were trounced by Zeros over Darwin...
No aircraft enters service without some sort of teething troubles and the introduction of the Spitfire (Capstan) into the defence of Northern Australian was certainly no exception.
Unfortunately unrealistic expectations preceded the arrival of the new aircraft and their slightly dissappointing debut due to factors not related to the aircraft itself brought a lot of unwarranted criticism. As stated below, their presence eventually closed down Japanese attacks on Northern Australia so there is no argument as to their effectiveness.
The following quotation is quite a good summay of the events concerning the early performance of the Spitfire Squadrons.
quote:
Spitfire, Mustang and Kittyhawk in Australian Service, by Stewart Wilson. Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1988. ISBN 0 9587978 1 1. p36.
Defending The Top End
With the formation of No 1 ('Churchill') Wing. comprising the RAF's No 54 Squadron and Nos 452 and 475 (RAAF) Squadrons, the defence of the Darwin area was being handled by a formidable force equipped with Spitfire VCs. The Wing was under the command of the legendary W/C Clive Caldwell, Australia's top scoring fighter ace with 20.5 victories confirmed, all of them against German and Italian aircraft while flying Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks and Kittyhawks with the Desert Air Force. Caldwell's time on Spitfires would add eight to that tally by war's end, seven of those while based in Northern Australia.
The Wing moved to the Darwin area in early February 1943, 54 Squadron to Darwin itself, 452 to Strauss Field south of the city and 457 to nearby Livingstone. It replaced Nos 76 and 77 (Kittyhawk) Squadrons, neither of which had seen a lot of action in the area. These RAAF units had in turn replaced the USAAF's 49th Fighter Group (also with Kittyhawks) , a unit which had borne the brunt of the first five months of the defence of Darwin and had endured almost consistent fighting.
Early operations were of mixed success, the negative side of it all stemming from the Spitfire's inadequate fuel capacity and a lack of proper tactics. At first there was success when a 54 Squadron Spitfire flown by Flt Lt Foster shot down a Mitsubishi Ki.46 'Dinah twin engined reconnaissance aircraft over the sea near Darwin.
It wasn't until nearly a month later that the Wing got another chance for action when a force of 16 Japanese aircraft (nine 'Kates' and sixteen 'Zeros') were intercepted during a daylight attack on 31 Squadron's Beaufighters at Coomalie. Caldwell personally led 54 Squadron in this action -bagging a 'Zero' while he was at it -and the final tally for the day was three Japanese aircraft destroyed for the loss of no Spitfires.
457 Squadron scored its first Australian 'kill' a few days later when another 'Dinah' was shot down, and throughout most of the rest of March further raids were intercepted by the Wing. The biggest battle was on March 15, when all three squadrons rose to meet the substantial force of 22 'Betty' bombers and no fewer than 27 escorting 'Zeros'.
A large dogfight ensued, resulting in the destruction of six Japanese bombers and two fighters at the cost of four Spitfires. More importantly, sufficient bombers got through to set some oil tanks on fire. One of the more successful pilots on that sortie was 452 Squadron's Fit Lt Alan Goldsmith, who shot down two aircraft and went on to become Australia's fourth highest scoring ace of the war with 16 victories to his credit.
Goldsmith's combat report gave a hint of troubles to come when he wrote: "landed with 3 galls petrol..."
After another few weeks of relative inactivity, the Japanese raid on Darwin of May 2 proved to provide the 'crunch' for Spitfire operations in the area and a complete re-think of tactics came about as a result.
On this occasion, Darwin's rudimentary radar picked up a force of 18 bombers and 27 fighters approaching the city at 30,000 feet. No 1 Wing scrambled but despite their advance warning did not get to the enemy formation until after it had dropped its bombs on Darwin. The skirmish which followed resulted in the destruction of just two Japanese aircraft at the cost of 13 Spitfires lost -five shot down, five due to fuel starvation and three because of engine failure and/or runaway propellers due to constant speed governor failure. Of the latter eight, all but two were eventually recovered, but the initial figures caused grave concern and allowed the press and some politicians something of a field day over the effectiveness of the Spitfire.
The problem and the losses stemmed from two causes -that the battle took place an ever increasing distance away from the Spitfires' bases; and that some hard dogfighting was indulged in by the pilots. The first factor stretched the Spitfire's meagre fuel reserves to such an extent that five aircraft had insufficient fuel to return home after the battle -despite Caldwell's warnings to his pilots to constantly monitor their fuel state; the second put the Japanese 'Zekes' in the box seat as not even a Spitfire could hope to outman oeuvre the nimble Mitsubishi in a dogfight and, of course, such flying used up fuel at an alarming rate.
The Spitfire received very bad press in Australia as a result of this action, although the losses were not so much a result of the aircraft itself, but due to incorrect tactics. After all, the American P-40 pilots of the 49th Fighter Group had learned months ago not to dogfight a Zero... As for the Spitfire -more fuel certainly wouldn't have hurt.
The Advisory War Council set up an official enquiry into what the public perceived as being a debacle -fuelled by the daily press -and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall George Jones, reported to it.
The result was the decision to fit drop tanks to the Spitfires and to ban dogfighting in the classical sense of the word. From now on, No 1 Wing's Spitfires would 'bounce' enemy formations from above, diving through them, shooting as they went.
The new hit and run tactics were tested to the full during the next Japanese raid on Darwin on June 20 when 25 bombers escorted by a healthy number of 'Zeros' was intercepted. This time the result was much more satisfactory for the pilots of 54, 452 and 457 Squadrons: 16 enemy aircraft were downed for the loss of only two Spitfires. During this engagement Wng Cdr Caldwell achieved another level of 'acedom' by shooting down his fifth Japanese aircraft, adding to the 20.5 Axis aircraft he'd already accounted for in North Africa.
Other battles had meanwhile taken place, the Wing intercepting raids on other targets in Northern Australia and coming out well in front. In fact it was during this period, that this mixture of British and Australian pilots effectively ended Japanese ambitions in the Darwin area, in combination with the Allies' increasingly successful campaign against the Japanese in New Guinea.
Despite the air superiority established by No 1 Wing's Spitfires by the second half of 1943, the Japanese continued mounting the occasional raid against Northern Australia but by the end of the year attacks on Darwin had ceased. The last large enemy formation to fly over that city was in early September when a single 'Dinah' on a reconnaissance mission arrived with an escort of no fewer than 20 'Zeros'. Obviously the Japanese had become tired of their previously unaccompanied 'Dinahs' failing to return home with the intelligence information required.
On this occasion the Wing put up the not insubstantial force of 46 Spitfires but, despite it having nearly an hour's warning thanks to radar and larger number of aircraft, the enemy aircraft still had the advantage of height when the initial skirmish broke out and came onto the Spitfires from above. The score was three-all at first, but improved to seven-four in favour of the Spifires as they chased the Japanese away.
_____________________________
Cheers,
Reg.
(One day I will learn to spell - or check before posting....)
Uh oh, Firefox has a spell checker!! What excuse can I use now!!!
|
Printable Version
RE: Spitfires, totally useless or what? - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread