Aircraft Losses in SEAC (India, Ceylon, Burma) - 1st Update - Harvards and Hurricanes

[peterboer]

Jagan,

You may want to check the Appendix of my paper "Hawker Hurricane emergency shipments for Singapore, Burma, Ceylon and the Netherlands East Indies, December 1941-April 1942" published on www.academia.edu (just fill in Peter Boer in the search window) for more serials and data on losses from the period January 1942-April 1942.
Thank you for making your data available in this way. The data base is fast becoming a most valuable research tool.

Peter Boer

[Jagan]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the tip and for sharing that document. Quite an informative and comprehensive paper on a topic close to my heart. I will verify the information related to India and Burma and consolidate whatever information from it with due credits - many thanks.

FWIW, I kept myself away from adding the Malaya and Sumatra / NEI Hurricane losses . your work covers that gap very well.

As an aside, a parallel database i was working on is a database of All Hurricanes that ended up in the far east - a list of about approx 2300 numbers that include the ones that went to Malaya and NEI. Your doc will again be very useful for me to update fates etc..and maybe even add new entries..

[peterboer]

Thank you Jagan; glad that my research can be put to good use.

For those members and readers who want to download my paper without having to sign up with academia.edu the following may be useful.

https://independent.academia.edu/PeterBoer

Best regards,
Peter Boer

[Jagan]

Can anyone shed light on what these two Casualities from the AWM NAA Site

A705	166/5/660	BALL Eric - (Pilot Officer); Service Number - 405991; 11C LD11; Place - Burma; Date - 14 August 1944
A705	166/30/38	NORTON, Geoffrey Charles - (Warrant Officer); Service Number - 400660; IIC HV 515; Place - Chittagong, India; Date - 11 November 1943

I dont have either Hurricanes in my list - Which units do they belong to?

The first serial LD11.. raises 12 possibilities

[COL BRUGGY]

Jagan,

Re: AUS405991 W/O (Pilot) Eric BALL RAAF

14/8/1944
No.4 Sqn IAF
Hurricane IIC LD121

Detailed to carry out an offensive recce of the Kaladan River area. After approximately 50 minutes flying time, during which no attacks had been made, the accompanying pilot observed W/O Ball dive to the ground. There was no enemy in the area in which Ball crashed. Map Reference PR 9075 (20.15N:92.55E). Also mentioned is Mayu Peninsula.

AUS405991 P/O (Pilot) Eric BALL RAAF - Missing

Commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, Column 443.

Alternatively, go to: https://www.awm.gov.au/index.php/collection/C1252724 - download, and go to p.31 of 535 (usual omissions/errors ie, 4 Sqn RAF, Serial "LD11" etc).

NB. Whilst at 56 OTU (2/3/43-3/5/43), Ball was involved in a mid-air collision. Hurricane I P2754 collided with Hurricane V6913 and crashed near Montrose, on 27/4/43.

More here: http://rafcommands.com/forum/showthr...rmen-27-4-1943

Col.

[COL BRUGGY]

Jagan,

Re: AUS400660 W/O (Pilot) Geoffrey Charles NORTON RAAF.

No.67 Sqn RAF.

Try Hurricane IIC HV815 - Norton's A9300 - p.32-4 of 46.

Hurricane IIC HV815 - 79/67/30 - SOC 30.5.46.

Col.

[COL BRUGGY]

Jagan,

Re: http://www.rafcommands.com/database/...php?uniq=JG612

Pilot was AUS414126 W/O (Pilot) Arthur Neville CLARK RAAF - survived war.

Col.

[Jagan]

Thanks Col, got them all. Already had Eric BALL but could not find him earlier as I was not searching the IAF table!.. NORTON is a new addition..

[Jagan]

15-12-1944 1884 F/O R S SHARMA 2 Sqdn. I have a date of death 5-12-1944 and a Hurricane serial - LD383. Tactical reconnaissance Kaladan Valley from Tinma (?) to Thayatubin (?) - never heard of these two locations!

Col

I was exchanging emails with Next of Kin of R S Sharma, and in that correspondence we figured out the locations.

The path of the sortie is given here - They flew to do a photo drop at KWANGYAUNG then a track of Tinma-Thayettabin. We are lucky that it contains a grid reference PN1148 and several place names. The GRID reference is what makes it easy to locate war time locations today.


The first snapshot below is of the war-time maps (available on Australian Archives at https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-234291975/ and https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-234292195/).

It must be assumed that Minthaguang is somewhere near LETPAN.


Luckily I found another 1:126720 scale map (Sheet 84/H/NW.. https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1286938619/view


The smaller scale map allows us to do some direct comparison with Google Earth - and after looking at it, I can pin down the following locations with some confidence:
Letpan village is here https://goo.gl/maps/mQzxjkQ9sdW46aYc8
Minthagyaung village is here https://goo.gl/maps/3edC9UfmepAF6BxN6 (This is where he was reported to have been recovered and buried)


The place where he may have been buried is not a forest or a jungle, but plain fields. So there is a good chance that the intel report from the war about his burial is true.