358 SQUADRON, RAF: JESSORE, INDIA: May 1945 Some memories thankfully fade with time and we are able to “carry on” but the terrible brutalities of war will never fade. The events of my 25th sortie are as sharply focused today as they were fifty-five years ago. I had just celebrated my 21st birthday and VE Day (Victory in Europe) was a distant 3 weeks in the past. We were however working harder than ever as the allied winter offensive of 1944/45 pushed the Japanese south out of Burma. 357 & 358 Squadrons carried out Special Duty activities throughout South East Asia Command for British SAS, American OSS, and the French SIS transporting agents and supplies into Drop Zones located in Burma, Malaya, Siam, French Indo China and the Dutch East Indies. We flew American B-24 Liberator bombers, which had the required range and carrying capacity. Takeoffs were in the afternoons to give the maximum number of hours under the cover of night while over enemy territory. This often provided spectacular sunsets outbound and colourful sunrises many hours later on the return flight. The blackness of night also enabled us to penetrate the monsoon weather fronts by flying between the lightning flashes emitting from the ever-present cumulonimbus clouds. The missions were solo, unescorted sorties that penetrated deep into enemy territory. The shortest mission was to Burma and the 8-hour duration was considered only a circuit and bump. A day earlier we completed our longest mission, which was to Singapore where four Australians were disrupting the Japanese from a hideout in the mountains. The mission covered 3000 miles and took 23 hours & 50 minutes. It was flown at 500 feet above sea level except for the actual drop at the DZ. The payload was only 4 containers as three of the four bomb bays were required for fuel cells. The next day we were being briefed for what was to be our most dangerous and costly sortie. 29 MAY 1945 "P" for Peter Ground crew. The mission orders were being read: “Smith, you will be dropping three OSS agents and 14 containers into a DZ near the town of Khorat, Siam (now Nakhon Ratchasima). There will be an OSS observer along to witness the drop. Your takeoff time is 00:00 hours to place you over the DZ at dawn. Your aircraft is “P” for Peter. The I.O.(intelligence officer) will brief you on enemy activities. Good luck.” Well isn’t that just peachy keen. This means we will be returning in broad daylight from 600 miles behind enemy lines with only the tail and mid upper turret. The front turret, ball turret, beam guns and armour plating had all been removed long ago to make room for heavier payloads. In addition, it was to be the first trip under the new policy of making the drops at dawn or dusk. Oh well, there are always plenty of clouds to take cover in. Sure!! Following the briefing we drew our parachutes, weapons and rations from stores and checked out the B-24. Everybody would be fully armed. This was to be the last mission of my tour and I was looking forward to more pleasant pursuits. In fact, a plan was already in place to meet up with by best friend Jim Gibson who had remustered to Bomb-aimer and recently arrived at 356 Squadron from Boundary Bay. We had been together all through school and joined up together in May 1942. The reunion was set for July in Darjeeling. As it turned out we did meet in July ‘45 but not as planned. We had a long flight of over 15 hours ahead but I was too keyed up to rest. I finished reading a Mickey Spillane novel “You only Die Once” and after dinner sat through the station movie “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. What could be more prophetic? Escape from Siam RAF 358 Squadron, Burma 1945 Introduction: The 25th Mission The Mission Beginning B-24 Shot Down, then On to Bangkok Escape with the OSS Back at Calcutta Mission List Postscript 1: Vermont Christmas Re-Union Postscript 2: Restoring Crane No. 7862 Harry Smith's Awards More Siam 1945 RAF Memoirs of SE Asia: 358 Squadron Special Ops and P.O.W by William A. Pugh Introduction Arrival in India At Jessore, India From the Crash Site to Bangkok Bangkok P.O.W. Camp Escape and Return to the United Kingdom Back to War Lore: The List Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Harry Smith This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com