RAF Memoirs of SE Asia
358 Squadron

Arrival in India

by William A. Pugh

On arrival in Bombay, India on July 28, 1944 and, after a short stay at WORLI outside that city, I was posted to the R.A.F. Station in Poona where I was assigned to a crew being assembled for dispatch to 356 Squadron. However, I was hospitalized with dysentery and missed joining them. After discharge from the Military Hospital in Poona I was in limbo but would be assigned to various interior flights until I was reassigned to a new Squadron of 'Liberators' being formed at Kola, Mysore State. I became a member of F/O H. V. Smith's crew in November 1944 and subsequently learned that F/O Smith was a Canadian from Winnipeg and we, the crew, would come to know him as 'Smithy'.

Our Squadron No. 358 initially operated from Digri for three weeks, then we moved to an advance base (90 miles east of Calcutta) named Jessore. We then operated from there as a Special Duty (SD) Squadron. Our flights were made to transport men and supplies for the Underground Movement and took place during moon periods: that is to say 5 days before the moon reached its full and 5 days after. For the first two months we operated like this. It may not seem much, but the worst part of it from our point of view was that we were out practically all the time during those 10 nights. Long trips - 14 to 18 hours - (on one occasion 23 Hrs. 40 Min.) intermingled with short 8 to 10 hour ones to give us a breather!

When the British 14th Army really got moving and were sweeping everything before them by March of 1945, our Squadron was ordered to speed up operations with the result that daylight drops came into being.

Our Squadron strength at the outset of operations should have been 25 aircraft. We only received 18 'Liberators' and, as we were losing an average of 5 planes during each moon period of 10 days, our ability to perform the tasks assigned to us was being tested to the utmost as replacement crews and planes were slow in arriving.

We had been losing a lot of aircraft and good crews, and our position was pretty desperate. We learned from Admiral Mountbatten our C-in-C, S.E.A.C. that replacements were slow in coming forward (aircraft as well as men), because of the war in Europe being at its height but, as soon as that was over and finished we would swamp the Japanese with everything we had. I don't know how many aircraft we had lost up to the time of our fateful trip, but on the inaugural operation of our Squadron we lost 6 out of 10 aircraft which was a very heavy blow in more ways than one, when one takes into consideration that at least 10 crew were on board each plane.

All crews were finishing their tours of duty very quickly but they kept flying until replacements arrived. I knew one crew very well who had done over 300 hours, being out every time possible and had long since completed their tour of duty. Before going on R & R the crew were ordered to fly to Calcutta to pick up their relief crew but tragically crashed into another plane on their landing circuit and all on board were killed. That's what you call Bad Luck. Regrettably there were many such stories one would learn about, especially when hostilities ceased in S. E. Asia. Many aircraft were lost with their crews and P.O.W. passengers being air-lifted to Burma and India. It was really tragic.

RAF Memoirs of SE Asia: 358 Squadron Special Ops and P.O.W

More RAF 358 Squadron

Escape from Siam RAF 358 Squadron, Burma 1945

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© Copyright 2001 by William A. Pugh.
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