Tales

It was during the Korean War. The young naval aviator was sitting in the Bridge Mess of the light fleet carrier HMAS Sydney telling his Air Group Commander how the mission he had just flown in a Firefly had been a failure due to the lack of a Gyro Gun Sight (GGS) picture. He outlined how he had discovered after start up that the GGS was not working, and how he had checked all his switches and even changed the bulb, without success. As time did not permit the ‘Greenies’ (electricians) checking the system he had decided to launch with the remainder of his flight, accepting that he wouldn’t have a serviceable gunsight. In the ground attack mode, the GGS projected a fixed cross on the ground at infinity which provided an excellent aiming point for strafing. However, it wasn’t used for low level bombing and they hadn’t found much to strafe recently so it wouldn’t really affect the mission.

Tales

Definitely the lighter side of aviation! Although it had been decided in the work up prior to Sydney sailing for Korean waters that the Fireflies would be employed as dive bombers, armed with two 500lb (225kg) bombs this had proved to be less than successful. On arrival in the operational area, the Fireflies had been allocated the task of knocking out all the bridges in an area of about 95km by 95km to the north west of Seoul. The standard attack profile for dive bombing was a 55 degree dive from 8000ft releasing at 3000ft, but experience soon showed that dive bombing bridges was not the answer. To the frustration of the squadron aircrew it was found that a pair of 500lb bombs could straddle a bridge and yet cause little damage, merely throwing up a lot of water. Taking a bit of a gamble, it was then decided to bomb the bridges in a low level attack using delay fuses and aiming for the abutment purely by eye. This proved to be outstandingly successful and soon there wasn’t a bridge left standing in the area of interdiction. Although quite a few aircraft were hit by ground fire, only one aircraft was actually shot down over North Korea with the crew being lifted do you have a tale to tell? If so, then why don’t you share it with the world by sending it in to ‘Tales’, Australian Aviation, PO Box 3105, Weston Creek ACT 2611 or fax it on (06) 288 2021. Readers who have their tales published will receive a six issue subscription with our compliments. Current subscribers will have six issues credited to their current sub. You can remain anonymous if you prefer and the editor naturally has the right to edit material as required. So go to it, tell us your favourite aviation tale, and join in the fun. out by helicopter in what turned out to be one of the most dramatic rescues of the war. Following the daily round of knocking out all the bridges (which the North Koreans would rebuild overnight), the Fireflies would carry out a road recce looking for targets of opportunity to strafe with their four 20mm cannon. Because of the complete dominance of the area by the Air Forces of the United Nations at that period of the war, the only traffic to be found was the occasional ox cart. These would be attacked somewhat reluctantly, only because they had been declared legitimate transport targets. Groups of more than seven persons on the ground were also declared legitimate targets although most pilots found that they couldn’t count and hence could ignore peasants working in the fields. Equally the stoic Korean peasant would ignore the aircraft passing overhead, never bothering to look up. Returning to our young aviator. He was just then telling the CAG how it had been his luck that on the very day that his gunsight decided to fail the flight had come across some Chinese troops in the open. It was easy to tell the difference between Koreans and Chinese as the latter were very concerned about saving their skins and would run for cover if they thought they had been discovered from the air. “All I could do Sir, was to point the nose in their direction and spray – it’s a pity my gunsight wasn’t working otherwise a few more of them would have been discussing the afterlife with Confucius – the ‘Greenies’ will have to sharpen up on their maintenance”. Just then there was a knock on the door and a Petty Officer ‘Greenie’ enquired for the young aviator – “We’ve found out what was wrong with your gunsight Sir”. The young aviator feeling that CAG was giving him a sympathetic ear, repeated to the Petty Officer the views he had just expressed on the need to sharpen up on the maintenance standards, ending up by enquiring as to just who had been responsible for his lack of a gunsight that morning? The Petty Officer waited patiently until the young aviator finished. “I don’t know about all that sir, I only came to tell you that the gunsight brilliance control was turned right down”. (Norman Lee, Weston)

Mouse House

Found one day, an entry by a Flight Attendant in the Cabin Condition Log: “Mouse seen lurking in galley”. To which a rectification entry was made by a Ground Engineer as follows: “Mouse seen leaving aircraft”. Obviously he couldn’t be bothered to go looking for a stowaway mouse. (L Sun, Sydney)