The most dangerous month

By early 1942 the Allies, with both the Japanese and German secret codes in their possession, were aware of the plan for the Germans, Italians and Japanese to join forces and capture the Middle East. The war had been going badly at home, Rommel was at the gates of Cairo, the Japanese were at the frontiers of India, the Far East was in Japanese hands and we had lost the British and Dutch Far Eastern fleets.

The Japanese had occupied the Andaman's, and only undefended Southern India and barely defended Ceylon stood in between them and their proposed link up with the pro -Nazi Vichy French in Madagascar.

The Lotus Eaters & Guerrilla Band

When we arrived at Colombo we found that the runway had yet to be built so we bedded down a best we could on the steps of Colombo racecourse grandstand. Our Blenheims started to arrive, via Karachi, at nearby Ratmalana along with carrier borne Hurricanes for 30 and 258 Squadrons.

Meanwhile all around us was beauty! Exotic blooms and fruit, everything green and clean. In the evening fireflies in the bushes glowed so brightly that erks were catching them in jars to read in bed.

Civilians were friendly and helpful Sinhalese and Tamils lived happily together and there were no beggars.

The only member of the XI Squadron to be deeply unhappy was Bully out Pi-dog, bought from an Arab for a tin of bully beef in the desert. Surrounded by drabness all his life he simply could not come to terms with so much greenery. Fortunately, workmen making the runway soon dumped a mountain of sand nearby, Bully gave a yelp, galumphed to the top and would not budge for a week.

The ‘enemy’ infiltrators? Well, led by ’Blossom Trestrail, they had all gone through half an hour before we set up the road bock!

However there was one exercise which was to have repercussions throughout the command! A party of Airmen scaled the perimeter fence of a nearby Army unit, hung ’sabotaged’ notices upon the principle building and made good their escape.

As a result, it seemed to us, almost at once all sorts of courses were introduced: jungle courses, weapon training and unarmed combat (You know use the rim of your tin hat to chop the bridge of a Japs nose before diving down to tug and twist his goolies with both hands....) We never discovered the effect on the Japs, but it upset us just thinking about it.

Very little time left

Fortunately, unlike other units, the RAF was moving at great speed. Having witnessed the wholesale destruction of the aircraft under his command in Greece in 1941, Air Vice Marshal D’Albiac was determined that this tragedy would not be repeated. 413 (Canadian) squadron of Catalina flying boats had already left the Shetland Islands for a mad dash from halfway around the world. While 30 Squadron (Hurricanes) remained at Ratmalana, 258 Squadron (Hurricanes) eventually landed on a hastily constructed makeshift runway at the racecourse.

Six houses, including that of Ceylon’s Chief Justice, were quickly knocked down and the racecourse runway lengthened. Just seven days before the Japs arrived, XI Squadron Blenheims started to land.

Already the Japanese were on their way. The same first Air Fleet which had attacked Pearl Harbour had been joined by a second fleet from the Bay of Bengal. Although there were 4 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 18 light cruisers, 20 destroyers, 7 submarines, 1 light carrier and 5 carriers with over 300 aircraft including their wonder fighter, known to us at the time as the Navy-0 officially named ’Zeke’ it was universally known as the ’Zero’.

Firing two machine guns and two 20mm cannons it was an aggressive gun platform which could out manoeuvre all allied fighters. Before one was captured for evaluation, many an n experienced Spitfire and Hurricane pilot was to lose his life learning this fact. To obtain such performance the safety of the pilot was not considered. He had no protective armour, no self-sealing petrol tanks and little internal strengthening. The ’Zero’ was mainly riveted together - the front and back halves actually joined by a row of rivets. One burst from a machine gun and the aircraft crumpled like paper. Unfortunately, it was a long time before anyone was in a position to find out.

To oppose this air and sea armada, Colombo was defended by the two Hurricane squadrons. The only bombing force was XI Squadron’s Blenheims. There was a further Hurricane squadron (261) a long way away at Trincomalee on the other side of the island. The Fulmars, Swordfish and Wildebeests already on Ceylon were to prove absolutely useless. However shortly after we arrived at the racecourse, Wildebeests sucessfully div bombed us with toilet paper...

On 2nd April Squadron Leader Birchall arrived from the Shetlands with the first of 413’s Catalina’s. No time to unpack, he and his crew immediately went on patrol. They discovered the Japanese closing in for their attack and sent off an accurate report before being shot down by Zeros from the Akagi, the Japanese flagship.

The Japanese continued to strafe the sinking flying boat. Two Canadians were killed and all the remaining six were wounded, three hit several times.

They were dragged aboard the Akagi and clubbed repeatedly for refusing to divulge whether or not they had sent a warning signal to base.

Just when their tormentors were almost convinced that no warning had been sent, H.Q. in Ceylon radioed them loud and clear to repeat their warning message.... The beatings continued with renewed fury until they were bundled, unattended into a tiny paint locker too small to stand or lie down.

There were many acts of heroism in the ensuing battle over and around Ceylon, but none greater than the courage displayed by Birchall and his crew.

Winston Churchill believed that Birchall and his crew “made one of the most important single contributions to victory in the Far East”.

During the Japanese raids two more Catalina's were shot down. Once they had sighted the carrier force they knew, with fast Zero fighters in pursuit, their fate was sealed. However, one flying boat, by the captains audacity, survived by keeping at wave top height, lifting to fifty feet for a quick sighting, then down again before they were spotted.

Back in Ceylon not a moment was lost. With such a warning, 70 merchant ships got up steam and left harbours all over the area. They headed Westward out of harms way. The main naval force, all that was left to guard the ocean between the coast of Africa and India headed for a secret atoll.

Unlike Pearl Harbour, there would be no easy pickings for the Japanese when they arrived.

At the racecourse, Wing Commander Smyth announced the news. We were confined to camp, not allowed to sleep on th4e top steps of the Grandstand and were to expect enemy air attacks the following day - Easter Sunday. Many of the airmen could not help but remark upon the strange coincidence that it was Easter Sunday 1941, exactly a year earlier, when XI squadron, at Menidi, Greece, were attacked for the first time by Messerschmitt 110s and 109s and many of our Blenheims destroyed.

That evening the guerrilla band descended upon the guardroom to arm and distribute the hand - grenades to pre - arranged positions. The Japs were in for a rude awakening if they landed and tried to take us on, we thought at the time.

Upon reflection the guard room must have presented quite a scene with a dozen airmen working in an enclosed space, grabbing detonators, arming the grenades, inserting the pin with a nonchalant twist (no time to split the ends properly) before chucking them back in their long wooden boxes... The newly appointed defence officer stuck his head in the doorway, took one look, and beat a hasty retreat.

Outside the guardroom the boxes of primed grenades were loaded into Rickshaws and deposited around the perimeter. We had previously arranged to pay the unsuspecting and perplexed coolies ’Danger money‘, an additional rupee on top of his fare. We then took up our positions and awaited the Japanese onslaught...

Easter Sunday 5th April 1942

By dawn the Japanese had closed to 200 miles from Colombo and aircraft were taking off from the carriers. Thirty-six dive-bombers, fifty-three attack bombers and thirty-six Zeros made landfall in the Galle area. For thirty minutes they flew up the coast to Colombo, seen by a thousand people or more. They wee also sighted by a flight of Fulmars, tracked by radar and sighted by two of 30 squadrons Hurricanes on patrol. Yet the nerve centre of our defences, Fighter Operations Headquarters in Colombo inexplicably remained ignorant of the Japanese arrival...

At Ratmalana, dive-bombers were attacking the runway as 30 Squadron raced to get their Hurricanes into the air. Bombs dropped from low altitude, burst among the taxiing aircraft but, although several were damaged, all but one managed to get airborne.

Nearby, at the racecourse, airmen stared in disbelief at the formations of aircraft droning past overhead. Vic Seymour recall seeing a smiling Sinhalese walking down the road calling out ”Lovely practice! Jolly good practice“. Then, seeing Seymour take cover, he suddenly realised his mistake and dived head and shoulders down a large outlet pipe...

Fighter Operations Headquarters telephoned 258 Squadron’s C.O. asking him to inform them if he saw any enemy aircraft. Squadron Leader Fletcher, about to take off replied curtly that there were hundreds of the bastards and they were overhead! Fighter Operations Headquarters gave neither of the two Hurricane Squadrons that precious advantage of HEIGHT - the only advantage they could have had over the more agile Zeros.

Fletcher’s MkII Hurricanes were followed by the slower MkI’s led by ’Denny’ Sharp, a New Zealander whose exploits against the Japanese in Singapore were already legend. He later became XI Squadrons Commanding Officer in Burma.

Japanese bombers had already selected their targets and columns of smoke were rising from railway workshops and an oil depot. As they turned to attack the harbour installations they came upon six Swordfish loaded with torpedoes and shot them all down, strafing the survivors.

To their great disappointment the harbour was almost empty of shipping. They had to be satisfied with attacking three small naval vessels undergoing repair. (Nevertheless, they reported back to the FlagShip that the harbour they attacked had been ’jammed with cargo vessels’)

Despite being jumped by the enemy at Ratmalana, 30 Squadron put up a wonderful fight and shot down several Japanese, but not without suffering casualties. Two pilots were wounded and five killed. Only five of their Hurricanes remained serviceable. Fletcher had led 258 Squadron against the bombers, shot one into the sea and was knocking pieces from a second bomber when he was hit by our own Ack Ack. Nursing his stricken Hurricane back towards the racecourse he was then attacked by two Zeros and forced to bail out. The Japs continued to machinegun him but he feigned dead and landed in a nearby Dagoba. A Buddhist Priest rushed out and covered him with a saffron robe before dragging him to safety.

Pilot Officer MacDonald, A Canadian with 30 Squadron, was seen to shoot down an enemy bomber into the sea before crash landing on the two mile long Galle Face Green. He climbed out of the cockpit and walked into the Colombo club for a drink.

He was more fortunate than a Sergeant Pilot from 258 Squadron shot down near the Galle Face Hotel, strafed on the ground by Zeros was; he staggered into the hotel and called for a drink. However the Malayan barman gave the dignified reply” surely sir, you know I’m not authorised to serve non commissioned ranks...”

258 had lost 9 out of their 14 Hurricanes, two pilots wounded and five killed. 4 Fleet Air Arm Fulmars had also been shot down. All in all we had lost 27 aircraft and destroyed an equal number of Japanese. However the enemy losses had been front line aircraft and experienced airmen, whereas half our loses were obsolete Fleet Air Arm aircraft. The Japanese admitted to 5 aircraft lost, but they also claimed that Colombo harbour had been ‘jammed with cargo vessels’. More than five aircraft were seen to be shot down by independent witnesses. Japanese reports were unreliable, untrue and often entered the realms of fantasy, - like the seriously accepted story of the Zero pilot attacking a battleship who, being out of ammunition, dived down low, drew his Samurai sword and decapitated the captain on his bridge... Japanese bombs had also killed 90 civilians and injured 77. Unfortunately on their way back to the task force they sighted the Cruisers Dorsetshire and Cornwall. A new force of dive-bombers despatched and both ships wee sunk.

As soon as the single runway at Colombo was clear, Wing Commander Smyth D.F.C., took off with 9 Blenheims, carrying semi armour piercing bombs, to seek out the enemy. As the Blenheims became airborne a machine gun opened up on them from near the end of the aerodrome. Paddy Duff yelled to me and we bundled into a truck, Tommy guns loaded, and drove off in the direction of the shooting.

We found the culprits, and Indian Army unit. Paddy was beside himself with rage. How dare anyone fire on XI Squadron aircraft! He was as angry as that day at Menidi when he stormed up the runway firing off a Lewis machine gun at the strafing Messerschmitt 110s...

LAC Duff, no respect for rank at the best of times, made the C. O. and his Officers fall in. The man were inspected and the tell tale 0.303 cases discovered. The culprits were marched away.

Unfortunately XI Squadron was directed South while the Japs changed course and headed West. No contact was made and the aircraft returned with their bombs in tact.

A brief contact was regained on the 7th and once more Wing Commander Smyth took off with his Blenheims to find the Task Force. However once again incorrect directions were given and the Japanese appeared to have vanished. Two days later they reappeared outside Trincomalee on the North East of the Island.

Trincomalee

Before they were shot down and killed, ‘Tommy’ Thomas and the crew of Catalina ‘Y’ sent a message of the sighting on the 8th of April. Once again as many ships as could get up steam, cleared the harbour and headed for safer areas. This included the little aircraft carrier Hermes, devoid of aircraft. All that remained was a tanker, three Naval Auxiliary ships and a merchantman (believed to have been loaded with Whisky).

Back at the racecourse XI Squadron were re - loading the bombs for the their attempt to attack the Japanese carrier force.

At China Bay (Trincomalee), unlike 30 and 258 Squadrons on Easter Sunday, 261 Hurricane Squadron had been alerted in time and already fifteen Hurricanes had reached 20,000 feet.

The Japanese pilots of the 91 bombers and 38 Zeros were taken completely by surprise and soon numerous air battles ensued. Flt. Lt. Fulford led his section above two formations of bombers, each pilot selecting his target. Fulford dived down upon his bomber, closed astern, and fired at point blank range. A part broke away and the aircraft was spinning, emitting white smoke. At 12,000 feet it went into a steep dive, a wing fell off and it crashed into the sea.

Now Fulford was being attacked by half a dozen Zeros. He could neither out climb nor match their tight turning circles and all the while the were firing at him. Using the only advantage the Hurricane had over the Zero, he turned on his back and dived vertically at 420 mph! Pulling out at 7,000 feet he climbed again to 24,000 feet, by now nearly out of fuel.

Below was a fresh bomber formation escorted by Zeros. After a long dive he shot down the nearest Zero and followed it down to confirm his kill.

261 Squadron put up an excellent fight but 8 of their Hurricanes were shot down. Two pilots had been killed and four injured. They had shot down 11 Japanese aircraft.

Disappointed at, yet again, finding no harbour, the Japanese bombed everything in sight. The RAF Station was attacked, two hangers damaged, an ammo dump blown up and the Officers Mess and airmen’s quarters hit. 3 Airmen were killed and 6 wounded. 17 civilians were also killed at the naval dockyard.

One Zero pilot circled the area and then deliberately dived on to a fuel storage tank - two years before the first Kamikaze pilots appeared.

As they were returning to their carriers, one of the Japanese spotted the Hermes. At about that time XI Squadron Blenheims were crossing the coast on their way to bomb the carrier force.

They had taken off that morning at 8 am, led, this time, by Squadron Leader Ault. Two returned with engine trouble and the remaining nine Blenheims set off in sections of five and four. There would be no fighter escort...

Their Finest Hour

By 10 am there was much activity around the carrier force. Aircraft were still returning from Trincomalee while a new reserve force of fifty dive-bombers and twenty-five Zeros had set out to sink the Hermes. Some returning bombers were being armed with torpedoes to finish off the British carrier. At this moment the nine Blenheims were passing North of the Hermes and Heading for the Japanese Task Force.

According to a Japanese report, at 10.20 alarms started to blare over the loud speakers and Action Stations called. In spite of attacks from the Zeros flying top cover, XI Squadrons Blenheims pressed home their attack, aiming at the FlagShip.

The carrier Akagi was straddled with bombs. The Japanese report only admits to several ‘near misses’ and no direct hits, but it is suspicious that the ship had to return to Japan afterwards for repairs.

Back at the racecourse, shortly after 1 o’clock, we heard the sound of a Blenheim in trouble. The aircraft limped over the Palmyra, one prop shot away, full of bullet holes and all it hydraulic fluid gone.

‘Sixty ten’* , minus undercart or flaps tore down the landing strip, the pilot only cutting the throttle at the last moment so as not to block the runway. It crashed into a pile of rocks and rubble by the perimeter road.

Three more Blenheims, all of them damaged, followed ’sixty ten’ and landed. We waited a long while but no more aircraft returned. Squadron Leader Ault and his section of five aircraft had all been shot down. That day the heart had been plucked from the Squadron..

Afterwards

By 10am there was much activity around the carrier force. Aircraft were still returning from Trincomalee while a new reserve force of fifty dive-bombers and twenty-five Zeros had set out to sink the Hermes. Some returning bombers were being armed with torpedoes to finish off the British carrier. At this moment the nine Blenheims were passing North of the Hermes and Heading for the Japanese Task Force.

According to a Japanese report, at 10.20 alarms started to blare over the loud speakers and Action Stations called. In spite of attacks from the Zeros flying top cover, XI Squadrons Blenheims pressed home their attack, aiming at the FlagShip.

The carrier Akagi was straddled with bombs. The Japanese report only admits to several ‘near misses’ and no direct hits, but it is suspicious that the ship had to return to Japan afterwards for repairs.

Back at the racecourse, shortly after 1 o’clock, we heard the sound of a Blenheim in trouble. The aircraft limped over the Palmyra, one prop shot away, full of bullet holes and all it hydraulic fluid gone.

‘Sixty ten’* , minus undercart or flaps tore down the landing strip, the pilot only cutting the throttle at the last moment so as not to block the runway. It crashed into a pile of rocks and rubble by the perimeter road.

Three more Blenheims, all of them damaged, followed ’sixty ten’ and landed. We waited a long while but no more aircraft returned. Squadron Leader Ault and his section of five aircraft had all been shot down. That day the heart had been plucked from the Squadron..