New blog about RAF 238 Squadron

[mpierrela]

I started a new blog with pictures shared with me by the daughter of Gil Gillis.

http://raf238squadron.wordpress.com/...time-pictures/

He served with RCAF 403 Squadron but before he was with RAF 238 Squadron.
I have posted some articles on him on my 403 blog, but I decided to create a new one because of the many pictures shared by Cathy.

Hope you will enjoy and write comments if you find something interesting to add.

Pierre

[Larry]

Great link and very interesting photos, the title of which got me all excited as my father was on 238 Sqn in WW2. Sadly he was on 238 (Transport) Sqn with Dakotas in Burma and Australia, so I'll keep looking for more photos of the unit in Burma.

[mpierrela]

Originally Posted by Larry

Great link and very interesting photos, the title of which got me all excited as my father was on 238 Sqn in WW2. Sadly he was on 238 (Transport) Sqn with Dakotas in Burma and Australia, so I'll keep looking for more photos of the unit in Burma.

Feel free to share pictures and stories.
I can post anything you want on the blog.

Pierre

[Larry]

238 Sqn was reformed as a Transport Command on 1st December 1944 at RAF Merryfield. Originally to have Albermarles it received Dakota Mk III and Mk IVs and was tasked with supporting the British Pacific Fleet in Australia. The whole unit flew together to Australia in Feb 1945, via Istres, South of France, then Castel Benito in Libya, El Adem, Libya, then Tel Aviv in Palestine, Shaibah in the Gulf, then on to Karachi then Mauripur in India and finally Comilla in Bengal. I say 'finally' as 238 Sqn found that their journey to Australia had been disrupted by the need for 238 Sqn to support the 14th Army in its offensive.

One Dakota KN251 (with my dad on board!) crashed on take off at Castel Benito after failing to get airborne, as it was too heavily overloaded. It went through wire at the end of the runway and caught fire and so was written off. My dad actually went back in to the aircraft to get his kit and then attempted to put out the fire in one engine with a fire extinguisher until the fire crash tender arrived!

The attached photo shows one Dak that was hit by a Japanese shellfire up country at Meiktila.

The 'experience' of stopping off in India nearly killed my dad as he got dysentery but luckily after leaving 14 BGH, (British General Hospital), he was able to re-join his Sqn when they left for Australia at the beginning of July 1945 and flew in Dakota IVs (with overload tanks) from Comilla to Colombo in Ceylon (12 hours airborne) and then Colombo to Cocos Islands (17 hours in the air). After reassuringly finding these islands the Sqn later set off for Learmouth in Western Australia, which was then a dusty outpost, mostly with tented accommodation.

Incidentally in Burma and Australia 238 Sqn seem to have had no code letters or individual aircraft codes.

[Larry]

238 Sqn assembled at Parafield, near Adelaide on arrival. Note the lack of codes. Some if not all these aircraft had glider recovery gear fitted and this was removed. I think this is what is shown on the ground under the aircraft in the centre of the photo.

[BruceMk11]

Thanks Pierre. Looking forward to the captions.

Bruce

[mpierrela]

If you had anything to share with me, I will post it on the blog.
This blog has been created to reach out to people who have relatives who were associated with this squadron.
There is little on the Web...

For now...

I will post everything I have with the captions. This way names who appear on the back will serve as clues.

There is a picture with Pete Ayerst's name on it.
Google that just for fun...

Pierre

[Larry]

The air attachment; pilots and ground crew on arrival at Parafield and Dakota in the hangar

[mpierrela]

Can I use all this and post it on the blog?

My blog is not for profit.
There is never any donate button.
I just like to share.

You will see what will evolve from all this.

Lest we forget

Pierre

[Larry]

Yes certainly you can.