大象传媒

IAN TANGLES WITH A BLENHEIM!

Following the much celebrated arrival of Dizzy and his fellow pilots in Ceylon in an old Lockheed tied together with rope, Dizzy regaled The Woodpeckers with tales of the fighting at Singapore and the fate of the pilots of 'A' Flight. Tales of massed bombers in impeccable formation and Zeros that could turn on a sixpence fell on receptive ears: they resolved never to turn with the Zero. This Connie, later mused, was to be basic to their survival.

More and more refugees were arriving in Singapore including the squadron ground crew. 136 Squadron now had rudimentary radar; on being scrambled solo one day Connie was not unhappy to find the plot of 50 seaplanes had turned into seagulls!

Another scramble at that time was more eventful! They had been joined by 11 Squadron equipped with Blenheim bombers which flew off daily fully bombed up and three times in one week they had watched an old Blenheim struggle, unable to make the take-off and spin burning into the rubber fields with terrifying plumes of black smoke.

One morning Connie and Ian Adamson ( the squadron Woodpecker artist) were scrambled to investigate approaching Japanese enemy aircraft. Just to Connie's left was a Blenheim approaching at a sharp angle - Ian was also taking off and neither party had been warned of the other! Connie shouted a warning to Ian as he went through the gate and hauled his Hurricane juddering into the air but watched in horror as Ian crashed into the starboard engine of the Blenheim which was still on the ground. Ian's Hurricane slithered over the wing of the bomber and burst into flames. Connie watched the wreckage burn as he climbed groggily as instructed to 16000 feet. ninety minutes later on landing he was very surprised to learn that Ian was alive but in the British Military Hospital in Columbo.

That afternoon he was given permission to go and visit Ian who was conscious but had his head and eyes swathed in anti-burn dressings. He had two main concerns: his sight and his newly acquired brown shoes. He recovered his sight but as far as we know, not the shoes!

CONNIE AND JOE EDWARDS TRAVEL TO BENGAL

Shortly after this Connie and his close friends, fellow pilots Joe Edwards from Canada and Viv Jacobs from New Zealand spent four days travelling by train to Asansol in Bengal. Many of the pilots were fighting in combined wings at the time, most concentrated in central Burma.

On March 21st the Japanese had launched massive air attacks and the former RAF airfield at Akyab had been under 25 hours of continuous attacks with fewer than 12 Hurricanes of their own to defend themselves. After more similar attacks not a single operational fighter was left. In that week Bunting, Freddie Fortune and Verne Butler were all shot down but not wounded, Goddard was wounded but safe and unfortunately Bob Payne was killed when baling out too low over the airfield.

DOPEY LE CRAW AND HIS FAMOUS MAE WEST!

Two great friends of Connie's, Eric Brown and Dopey Le Craw ( a French-Canadian) were both caught whren attacking Japanese bombers and both forced to bale out. At the end of March when the Squadron finally got together at Alipore, Eric and Dopey were both sharing a ward in the military hospital.

They looked horrible. Eric had third -degree burns , ameliorated by his landing in the sea and he was in his usual high spirits. Not so Dopey... As he had turned to attack the bombers, a sweep of Japanese fighters, in turn attacked him. He thought he could continue and squeeze through but he was hit in the face and baled out. Much to his chagrin he was in the sea for two hours before being rescued and as he continuously tried to inflate his Mae West by blowing, he failed! The reason for this was not clear to him at the time: the air from his lungs was escaping through the two neat holes in his cheeks!

Now, in hospital, next to Eric, he was suffering the exquisitely painful predicament of not being able to laugh as his jaws were wired together. He had his revenge upon the Japanese later...

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