Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 2, 2020 13:17:49 GMT 12
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DIVE-BOMBER CREWS
GOOD RECORD AGAINST JAPS
After approximately five months in the Pacific area, during which time they harassed enemy gun positions and bombed Japanese airfields with marked success, a Dauntless squadron of the Royal New .Zealand Air force has returned to New Zealand. The only dive-bomber squadron of the R.N.Z.A.F., its function was to cover the enemy guns and allow the torpedo-bombers through, and in the role of an anti-fiak escort for the Avengers it performed well.
The squadron had its first taste of real action at Bougainville where the Japanese were beginning to make trouble around the perimeter. Once established there, after the servicing unit had prepared the way, the men digging themselves in under constant fire from Japanese artillery, the squadron lost no time in getting into action.
It arrived at its base at midday on March 22, and at 5.30 the next morning it carried out its first operation. The squadron's tent lines were close to the front line, and shelling was going on all the time, and was particularly heavy while the ground crews were starting up the aircraft. Usually the shelling would begin at dawn and the squadron would go up above the enemy positions in an endeavour to pick-up the gun flashes so as to pinpoint the guns.
The first two days the squadron did local work, attacking gun positions around the perimeter, from then on its job was to supply 12 aircraft each day for the major strike on Rabaul. From an average strength of 15 aircraft, the squadron sent up 12 every day but one for nine weeks - a particularly fine record. On that day there were eleven aircraft available several having been shot up the previous day.
BOMBING STRIKES DESCRIBED.
Interviewed on his return to New Zealand, Squadron Leader T. J. MacLean de Lange, of Auckland, Commanding Officer of the R.N.Z.A.F. Squadron, described the bombing strikes on Rabaul. The target was usually an aerodrome he said and the strike would consist of 60 Allied Dauntless and 30 torpedo-carrying Avengers. The task of the Dauntless was to cover the enemy gun positions defending the field, and each aircraft was allotted a gun to cover. This was done earlier, at the briefing, when the crews were shown photographs of the target, which were studied carefully.
In a series of intense and deliberately-planned assaults on enemy airfields the flying crews did their job well and left behind them strips whose surfaces were pitted and scarred through merciless pounding. Just how accurate was their bombing is shown by the following confirmed report:
Official results of three bombing attacks on Japanese airfields by Dauntless and Avenger aircraft disclosed that 254 hits had been scored on the runways. At Vunakanau 96 hits were scored, at Lakunal 84, and - in a second attack there — 74. All these hits were confirmed, but there were other occasions when the bombers were successful, but no confirmed results obtained.
"The rear gunners did a great job of work, too," said Squadron Leader de Lange "While the bombers were coming out of a dive the gunners would strafe the guns on the ground like fury. Very often they silenced them for the period of the attack. It was also their responsibility to maintain radio communication and by being always on the job and getting messages through they were more than once instrumental in saving lives."
GUN POSITIONS BLASTED.
The Dauntless crews blasted enemy gun positions with the same determination and accuracy with which they battered airfields and strips. Their bombing was too accurate for the Japs' peace of mind. Just how many guns were credited to the squadron is not known, but 10 direct hits and from six to eight damaging hits were confirmed. To knock out a gun an aircraft has to place its bomb within a five yards' radius of the target.
If the bomb falls wide of the mark, it does not necessarily mean the bomb-aimer has failed. Far from it. The impact will quite likely throw up so much debris around the gunner on the ground that his judgement will be impaired, and accurate shooting prevented. In the later stages the ack-ack seemed more intense, said Squadron Leader de Lange. This was probably because the strikes were smaller and the ground forces were no doubt concentrating their fire on the fewer aircraft.
"There is certainly nothing wrong with the Dauntlesses as dive-bombers," he added. "They did a great job, and stood up to the heavy stuff admirably. Naturally, we would have liked them to be faster The fighter-bombers had that advantage— they were fast." . The Dauntless squadron flew their aircraft to an American base and handed them over before their return. They came back to New Zealand in aircraft of the New Zealand Transport Squadron. It was a fast trip. They left Guadalcanal at 3 a.m. one day and at 6 o'clock that evening were in Auckland.
EVENING POST, 22 JUNE 1944
DIVE-BOMBER CREWS
GOOD RECORD AGAINST JAPS
After approximately five months in the Pacific area, during which time they harassed enemy gun positions and bombed Japanese airfields with marked success, a Dauntless squadron of the Royal New .Zealand Air force has returned to New Zealand. The only dive-bomber squadron of the R.N.Z.A.F., its function was to cover the enemy guns and allow the torpedo-bombers through, and in the role of an anti-fiak escort for the Avengers it performed well.
The squadron had its first taste of real action at Bougainville where the Japanese were beginning to make trouble around the perimeter. Once established there, after the servicing unit had prepared the way, the men digging themselves in under constant fire from Japanese artillery, the squadron lost no time in getting into action.
It arrived at its base at midday on March 22, and at 5.30 the next morning it carried out its first operation. The squadron's tent lines were close to the front line, and shelling was going on all the time, and was particularly heavy while the ground crews were starting up the aircraft. Usually the shelling would begin at dawn and the squadron would go up above the enemy positions in an endeavour to pick-up the gun flashes so as to pinpoint the guns.
The first two days the squadron did local work, attacking gun positions around the perimeter, from then on its job was to supply 12 aircraft each day for the major strike on Rabaul. From an average strength of 15 aircraft, the squadron sent up 12 every day but one for nine weeks - a particularly fine record. On that day there were eleven aircraft available several having been shot up the previous day.
BOMBING STRIKES DESCRIBED.
Interviewed on his return to New Zealand, Squadron Leader T. J. MacLean de Lange, of Auckland, Commanding Officer of the R.N.Z.A.F. Squadron, described the bombing strikes on Rabaul. The target was usually an aerodrome he said and the strike would consist of 60 Allied Dauntless and 30 torpedo-carrying Avengers. The task of the Dauntless was to cover the enemy gun positions defending the field, and each aircraft was allotted a gun to cover. This was done earlier, at the briefing, when the crews were shown photographs of the target, which were studied carefully.
In a series of intense and deliberately-planned assaults on enemy airfields the flying crews did their job well and left behind them strips whose surfaces were pitted and scarred through merciless pounding. Just how accurate was their bombing is shown by the following confirmed report:
Official results of three bombing attacks on Japanese airfields by Dauntless and Avenger aircraft disclosed that 254 hits had been scored on the runways. At Vunakanau 96 hits were scored, at Lakunal 84, and - in a second attack there — 74. All these hits were confirmed, but there were other occasions when the bombers were successful, but no confirmed results obtained.
"The rear gunners did a great job of work, too," said Squadron Leader de Lange "While the bombers were coming out of a dive the gunners would strafe the guns on the ground like fury. Very often they silenced them for the period of the attack. It was also their responsibility to maintain radio communication and by being always on the job and getting messages through they were more than once instrumental in saving lives."
GUN POSITIONS BLASTED.
The Dauntless crews blasted enemy gun positions with the same determination and accuracy with which they battered airfields and strips. Their bombing was too accurate for the Japs' peace of mind. Just how many guns were credited to the squadron is not known, but 10 direct hits and from six to eight damaging hits were confirmed. To knock out a gun an aircraft has to place its bomb within a five yards' radius of the target.
If the bomb falls wide of the mark, it does not necessarily mean the bomb-aimer has failed. Far from it. The impact will quite likely throw up so much debris around the gunner on the ground that his judgement will be impaired, and accurate shooting prevented. In the later stages the ack-ack seemed more intense, said Squadron Leader de Lange. This was probably because the strikes were smaller and the ground forces were no doubt concentrating their fire on the fewer aircraft.
"There is certainly nothing wrong with the Dauntlesses as dive-bombers," he added. "They did a great job, and stood up to the heavy stuff admirably. Naturally, we would have liked them to be faster The fighter-bombers had that advantage— they were fast." . The Dauntless squadron flew their aircraft to an American base and handed them over before their return. They came back to New Zealand in aircraft of the New Zealand Transport Squadron. It was a fast trip. They left Guadalcanal at 3 a.m. one day and at 6 o'clock that evening were in Auckland.
EVENING POST, 22 JUNE 1944
