Library Reference Number: 053
Dakota Deliveries - Unlimited
Pilot John Park had experience of flying 18 different types of aircraft, and after flying with Ferry Command until 1944, he joined 117 Squadron in India flying DCS Dakotas. Bad weather was no excuse for failing to fly in the Far East campaign, and John gives a brief statistical account of some of the 704 flying hours he spent in trying conditions.
"It was interesting to read Alastair Lamb's 'Operation Manna' account in Branch Web Library (No.016) when food was dropped to the Dutch people. It brought back memories of how we operated in Burma -and firstly I would like to quote from a Memo sent to Eastern Air Command and from Lord Louis Mountbatten, C.in C. S.E.A.C.:-
In March this year (1945) we lifted 78,250 tons of supplies and carried 26,600 men - on best days we lifted almost 4,000 tons, which is by far the biggest lift of the whole war."
In that month, my crew and I - members of 117 Squadron logged 133 flying hours, made up of 37 sorties, and we were flying roughly every second day, until mid-August 1945. One day, the most hours flown by us was 10 hours 15 minutes, made up of 3 sorties carried out in atrocious monsoon conditions. We flew in all sorts of supplies- some dropped by parachute to marked DZs (Dropping Zones). Some by free-fall double gunny bags from 50 ft. and where paddy fields had been leveled, we landed 25 pounder guns, ammo, fuel, jeeps etc.
After the Japs surrendered, from 1st September 1945 we flew from Rangoon to Bangkok (Thailand) with troops and supplies, then on to Saigon (French Indo China) - till mid-November 1945 when I made my last flight in Burma - to Bombay (as a passenger) and the boat home.