Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 2, 2017 22:16:28 GMT 12
There are a few well known airlifts of food to save starving people, such as Operation Manna near the end of the war to help out the starving Dutch people; and of course the famous Berlin Airlift taking food into the surrounded city of West Berlin in that late 1940's. But I had never heard of this one, operation Hunger. I am sure there will undoubtedly have been other Kiwis involved alongside Stinson. Can anyone confirm if any other Kiwis were there in the RAF aeroplanes?
This comes from the ALEXANDRA HERALD AND CENTRAL OTAGO GAZETTE, 19 JUNE 1946
OPERATION HUNGER
Thousands of hillmen living among the vast jungle-covered mountains of the Northern Frontier of Burma have during the past two months, learnt to look to the skies for salvation from impending famine. With their stores empty of food, not even seedling rice to plant in the paddy fields, awaiting the onset of the monsoons, they saw aircraft of the Royal Air Force which brought them the weapons of war now bringing the veritable "manna from heaven."
It is the biggest peace-time operation of the R.A.F. in South East Asia "Operation Hunger."
Racing the monsoons which make flying among the mountains of Northern Burma, more hazardous, Dakotas and Halifaxes dropped 2.400 tons of rice and 180 tons of salt in forty-one days to the Kachin villagers of the hills. The shadow of famine has been banished from Northern Burma. The paddy fields are planted and soon the young rice will be sprouting. The Kachin people who have benefitted from this rescue operation had special claims on their assistance. There are no more loyal people in South East Asia than these dogged farmers and hunters of the Hills' country. They fought bitter battles against the invading Japanese. When the leaders parachuted down to them and said that the Japs must find no food from their fields, they loyally obeyed. The paddy fields lay bare and uncultivated. They lived on stores of seed rice. They faced inevitable famine this summer, depending on their friends to see them through. Six thousand tons of rice had to be distributed within the Kachin territories to save the situation.
The army and the civil authorities could manage to distribute slightly more than half of this by rail and road but thousands of the Kachins live among the roadless mountains — here transport by any of the ordinary means is impossible. How could food reach them before famine set in. Could the R.A.F. help? The transport aircraft left in Burma had already in hand a considerable commitment in supplying by air our troops engaged in driving bandits from the Burma Frontier area. When the operation was proposed, there was in Burma only one Squadron, No. 62, which could undertake the task, and this Squadron was due to disband in mid-March. Outside help had to be sought.
No. 10 Squadron Dakotas came from Poona to Meiktila, Liberators of No's 159, 355 and 232 Squadrons were borrowed from India and No. 298 Halifax Squadron, formerly engaged in the Hump Road to China run, also took part.
The operation was entrusted to No. 340 Wing and Group Captain Gordon Finlayson handed over on the spot control to Wing Commander T. M. Buchanan, Officer Commanding R.A.F. Meiktila, whose home is at Kirkwall on the Orkneys. His first task was to reconnoitre from the air height dropping zones which had been selected by the civil authorities.
The Kachin country, seen from the air, resembles nothing more than green thick, piled carpet, crumpled and folded into gigantic heaps; mountains 10,000 to 12,000 ft high covered with virgin jungle and split by savage gorges. The dropping zones had to be located on ridges as far as possible clear approaches and clear gateways. They were cleared of jungle growth marked out with bold white letters. The villagers prepared stores for the food and the headmen made arrangements to distribute it by pony and porters.
On 15th March "Operation Hunger" was launched. Dakotas and Halifaxes were based at Meiktila to which the Army carried rice stocks by rail. The Liberators based at Pegu carried 7,000 lbs. of rice per aircraft on each trip to the advance Base at Mytikyina. The Halifax aircraft carried 12,000 of rice per aircraft, dropping 6,000 and landing the other half of their load carried in the bomb bay panniers at the advanced airstrip.
But it was the Dakotas which shouldered the bulk of the job. Each morning early they would take-off with a full load from Muktira, fly the long haul over the mountains to the dropping zones and down would go 6,000 lbs of rice from each aircraft to the waiting Kachin in their jungle clearings. Back to Myitkyina went the Dakota to reload and carry back over a comparatively short haul a second, often a third, load of rice to the dropping zone before they raced the thunder clouds building up over the hills and the gathering darkness back to their Meiktila base. When the weather over the hills was so bad that the dropping zones could not be visited, the Dakota pilots were busy transferring rice from Meiktila to Myitkyina so the next day they could fly more short sorties and make up the deficit.
The estimated delivery of rice was to be 48 tons per day. On the first day only 18 tons were dropped, but within a week, one day saw 87 tons of rice go down, and on the 20th April the peak figure was reached. All through the operation, on an average of 60 tons per day was dropped and with the weather steadily deteriorating the race with the monsoon was won.
On the evening of the 24th April, W/C Buchanan was able to signal back to Rangoon that the last of the rice had been delivered nine days earlier than any one had dared predict at the outset.
All the rice was delivered by free dropping three fold sacks and this meant that the pilots had to skim over the dropping zones at something like 200 feet for the Indian despatchers to dump the sacks in the little clearings. But before they could reach dropping zones, the aircraft had to feel their way up wind gorges between mountain walls, their tops covered with menacing clouds.
But the inevitable price had to be paid. On the 29th March, 1946, a fortnight after the operation had started, three Dakotas and piloted by P/O G. R. Stinson of Musselburgh, Dunedin, left Myitkyina on a day without a cloud in the sky. They did not come back. Search parties, both air and ground, were sent to scour the area. On April 2nd, fragments of a wrecked aircraft were seen in thick jungle near the village of Myukhptaw. The Kachins from the village found the second wreck nearby. There was one survivor only, an Indian despatcher, who had a miraculous escape, being thrown out through the open door of the aircraft as it crashed into the hillside, and landed in a clump of bamboo which broke his fall. The remains of those who were found were buried by the Christian Kachins who held a strangely impressive little service on the mountain side by the wrecked aircraft. The cause of the crash can only be surmised and it is thought the two aircraft flying in formation went up the wrong valley discovered too late that it was a cul-de-sac, tried in vain to climb out over the mountain wall and crashed into the hillside in trying to extricate themselves.
Rumours of strangers in the remote Kaukkwe Valley filtered through. Search parties equipped with elephants, walkie-talkie radios and native guides fought their way through the jungle. Old airstrips deep into the jungle on the broadway of "Wingate's Chindit Operation were re-opened, and daring pilots flew fifteen aircraft in and out of them on their searches, but the rumours were unfounded and the search had reluctantly to be abandoned.
This comes from the ALEXANDRA HERALD AND CENTRAL OTAGO GAZETTE, 19 JUNE 1946
OPERATION HUNGER
Thousands of hillmen living among the vast jungle-covered mountains of the Northern Frontier of Burma have during the past two months, learnt to look to the skies for salvation from impending famine. With their stores empty of food, not even seedling rice to plant in the paddy fields, awaiting the onset of the monsoons, they saw aircraft of the Royal Air Force which brought them the weapons of war now bringing the veritable "manna from heaven."
It is the biggest peace-time operation of the R.A.F. in South East Asia "Operation Hunger."
Racing the monsoons which make flying among the mountains of Northern Burma, more hazardous, Dakotas and Halifaxes dropped 2.400 tons of rice and 180 tons of salt in forty-one days to the Kachin villagers of the hills. The shadow of famine has been banished from Northern Burma. The paddy fields are planted and soon the young rice will be sprouting. The Kachin people who have benefitted from this rescue operation had special claims on their assistance. There are no more loyal people in South East Asia than these dogged farmers and hunters of the Hills' country. They fought bitter battles against the invading Japanese. When the leaders parachuted down to them and said that the Japs must find no food from their fields, they loyally obeyed. The paddy fields lay bare and uncultivated. They lived on stores of seed rice. They faced inevitable famine this summer, depending on their friends to see them through. Six thousand tons of rice had to be distributed within the Kachin territories to save the situation.
The army and the civil authorities could manage to distribute slightly more than half of this by rail and road but thousands of the Kachins live among the roadless mountains — here transport by any of the ordinary means is impossible. How could food reach them before famine set in. Could the R.A.F. help? The transport aircraft left in Burma had already in hand a considerable commitment in supplying by air our troops engaged in driving bandits from the Burma Frontier area. When the operation was proposed, there was in Burma only one Squadron, No. 62, which could undertake the task, and this Squadron was due to disband in mid-March. Outside help had to be sought.
No. 10 Squadron Dakotas came from Poona to Meiktila, Liberators of No's 159, 355 and 232 Squadrons were borrowed from India and No. 298 Halifax Squadron, formerly engaged in the Hump Road to China run, also took part.
The operation was entrusted to No. 340 Wing and Group Captain Gordon Finlayson handed over on the spot control to Wing Commander T. M. Buchanan, Officer Commanding R.A.F. Meiktila, whose home is at Kirkwall on the Orkneys. His first task was to reconnoitre from the air height dropping zones which had been selected by the civil authorities.
The Kachin country, seen from the air, resembles nothing more than green thick, piled carpet, crumpled and folded into gigantic heaps; mountains 10,000 to 12,000 ft high covered with virgin jungle and split by savage gorges. The dropping zones had to be located on ridges as far as possible clear approaches and clear gateways. They were cleared of jungle growth marked out with bold white letters. The villagers prepared stores for the food and the headmen made arrangements to distribute it by pony and porters.
On 15th March "Operation Hunger" was launched. Dakotas and Halifaxes were based at Meiktila to which the Army carried rice stocks by rail. The Liberators based at Pegu carried 7,000 lbs. of rice per aircraft on each trip to the advance Base at Mytikyina. The Halifax aircraft carried 12,000 of rice per aircraft, dropping 6,000 and landing the other half of their load carried in the bomb bay panniers at the advanced airstrip.
But it was the Dakotas which shouldered the bulk of the job. Each morning early they would take-off with a full load from Muktira, fly the long haul over the mountains to the dropping zones and down would go 6,000 lbs of rice from each aircraft to the waiting Kachin in their jungle clearings. Back to Myitkyina went the Dakota to reload and carry back over a comparatively short haul a second, often a third, load of rice to the dropping zone before they raced the thunder clouds building up over the hills and the gathering darkness back to their Meiktila base. When the weather over the hills was so bad that the dropping zones could not be visited, the Dakota pilots were busy transferring rice from Meiktila to Myitkyina so the next day they could fly more short sorties and make up the deficit.
The estimated delivery of rice was to be 48 tons per day. On the first day only 18 tons were dropped, but within a week, one day saw 87 tons of rice go down, and on the 20th April the peak figure was reached. All through the operation, on an average of 60 tons per day was dropped and with the weather steadily deteriorating the race with the monsoon was won.
On the evening of the 24th April, W/C Buchanan was able to signal back to Rangoon that the last of the rice had been delivered nine days earlier than any one had dared predict at the outset.
All the rice was delivered by free dropping three fold sacks and this meant that the pilots had to skim over the dropping zones at something like 200 feet for the Indian despatchers to dump the sacks in the little clearings. But before they could reach dropping zones, the aircraft had to feel their way up wind gorges between mountain walls, their tops covered with menacing clouds.
But the inevitable price had to be paid. On the 29th March, 1946, a fortnight after the operation had started, three Dakotas and piloted by P/O G. R. Stinson of Musselburgh, Dunedin, left Myitkyina on a day without a cloud in the sky. They did not come back. Search parties, both air and ground, were sent to scour the area. On April 2nd, fragments of a wrecked aircraft were seen in thick jungle near the village of Myukhptaw. The Kachins from the village found the second wreck nearby. There was one survivor only, an Indian despatcher, who had a miraculous escape, being thrown out through the open door of the aircraft as it crashed into the hillside, and landed in a clump of bamboo which broke his fall. The remains of those who were found were buried by the Christian Kachins who held a strangely impressive little service on the mountain side by the wrecked aircraft. The cause of the crash can only be surmised and it is thought the two aircraft flying in formation went up the wrong valley discovered too late that it was a cul-de-sac, tried in vain to climb out over the mountain wall and crashed into the hillside in trying to extricate themselves.
Rumours of strangers in the remote Kaukkwe Valley filtered through. Search parties equipped with elephants, walkie-talkie radios and native guides fought their way through the jungle. Old airstrips deep into the jungle on the broadway of "Wingate's Chindit Operation were re-opened, and daring pilots flew fifteen aircraft in and out of them on their searches, but the rumours were unfounded and the search had reluctantly to be abandoned.
