mc3744
Posts: 1957
Joined: 3/9/2004 From: Italy Status: offline
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May 6th, 1942 Air war A good day with night bombing, most of the heavies took off from Diamond and Alice (some 200 planes) and I managed to destroy 25 Japs on the ground (in Rangoon and Daly). Not bad. The first Wellington’s III are ready and the squadrons of Wirraway’s are being deployed for night time training (see picture). The pool situation is very good, the only aircraft with the pool at (0) is the Martin 139, every other plane has some replacements available in pool. India The CV Illustrious has arrived in Karachi, together with her escort has set sail for Colombo. It will bring my fleet to (1) CVL, (3) CV, (5) BB, (1) BC, (10) cruisers, (5) CLAA and (21) DD. Once I have the Seafire’s I can start thinking to use the RN fleet for some raiding operations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Popondetta, Papua, 1942-12-12. Two RAAF Wirraway aircraft stand on the grass shortly after landing close together at Popondetta airstrip. Before Wirraway A2-103 (left) had come to a complete stop, its pilot, Pilot Officer (PO) J. S. Archer, had leapt from the aircraft and run across to the Control Tent where he had found the Control Officer talking to NX34655 Captain Alan Oliver Watson, Dental Officer with the 2/4th Field Ambulance. Puffing hard, PO Archer exclaimed excitedly, 'Sir, sir, I think I've shot down a Zero!' To this the Control Officer replied, 'Don't be silly, Archer, Wirraways can't shoot down Zeros.' 'Well, sir,' continued Archer, 'I went in to look at the wreck off Gona and I saw this thing in front of me and it had red spots on it, so I gave it a burst and it appeared to fall into the sea.' Within a few minutes, a dozen telephone calls from observers all around the Gona area confirmed Archer's story. While on a tactical reconnaissance mission over the Japanese ship wrecked in the sea off Gona, Archer and his observer, Sergeant J.F. Coulston, had sighted the Zero 1,000 feet below. After diving on the Japanese aircraft, they had fired a long burst into it with the Wirraway's two Vickers .303 machine guns, causing the Zero to crash into the sea. Archer was later awarded the DFC for his exploit.
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