Far East Air Operations 1942-1945 (Despatches from the Front) by John Grehan & Martin Mace

Author:John Grehan & Martin Mace [Grehan, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Bic Code 1: HBWQ, HISTORY / Military / Aviation, Bisac Code 1: HIS027140
ISBN: 9781473841741
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

Tactical Support of 15 Corps.

102. Tactical support of 15 Corps followed lines closely parallel to those on which air support was furnished to the Fourteenth Army. There were, however, certain special characteristics which deserve mention. After the initial advance down the Kaladan Valley, the major forward moves of the ground forces were marked not by overland offensives leading to a break-through by mechanised formations, but by a series of amphibious landings at half-a-dozen points on the coast. Of the three island landings, those on Akyab and Cheduba were completely unopposed, while that on Ramree met only with slight opposition; few or no targets presented themselves and the air support on these occasions was therefore akin to a peace-time exercise. The mainland landings each achieved tactical surprise, but were all followed shortly by bitter fighting when the enemy entrenched himself in characteristic fashion and attempted to prevent the exploitation of the initial landing. Fierce battles then developed on the same general pattern as those for the Irrawaddy bridgeheads.

103. Two developments confined to operations by 224 Group deserve mention. The first was the use of Spitfires in the fighter-bomber role. The second was the employment from February onwards, of airborne Visual Control Posts, whose success was undoubted. From a light aircraft they were able to discern targets in the coastal jungle that were well concealed from ground observation, and so to pass directions to the aircraft waiting to attack. Two of these teams were operating by the end of the campaign.

104. Indirect support of 15 Corps centred largely around the maintenance of air attacks upon the long supply line on which the Japanese depended for the existence of their troops in Arakan. Its forward end among the coastal waterways and along the parallel road southwards to Taungup was covered by ground-attack fighters of all types, while the eastward track from An to Minbu – whose existence had been established by Beaufighters on reconnaissance – and the mountain road from Taungup to the railhead at Prome, also yielded valuable targets. Stress was laid by the army in March and April, 1945, upon the need for maintaining a continuous interdiction of the latter road by cratering its surface or precipitating landslides by bombing, even at the cost of denying ourselves the future use of a much needed supplementary land line of communication to the Irrawaddy valley, and fighter-bombers and also heavy bombers of the Strategic Air Force were accordingly diverted to this purpose. Targets along the Prome-Rangoon railway were attacked as elsewhere in central Burma; in this, the destruction of its bridges by Lightnings of the 459th Squadron in February was especially notable. The stores areas at Taungup and Prome were watched and bombed from time to time.

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