RAF Airfields in Bengal and Arakan

Discussion in 'Burma & India' started by airlana, Dec 10, 2009.

  1. airlana

    airlana Member

    I'm doing some research work on airfields used by the RAF in Bengal and Arakan. Some of the airfileds were little more than landing grounds and in use for only a short time.

    What I'm after is a decent map that shows the exact location of the various airfields.

    In particular

    Feni or Fenni, Feny
    Dohazari
    Hathazari
    Ratnap
    Rumkhapalong
    Ramu and the satellite fields of
    Hay
    Reindeer
    Lyons
    George - Nidania
    Hove

    There's plenty of 'general' maps but all are pretty useless in pinpointing the locations.

    If anyone can assist, I would be very grateful

    thanks in advance

    Ash
     
  2. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    [​IMG]

    Not very detailed but this gives the rough position of each airfield.

    Feni - 18
    Dohazari - 23
    Hathazari - 20
    Ratnap - 33 (Inset)
    Rumkh - 32 (Inset)
    Ramu 3/Hay - 28 (Inset)
    Ramu 1/ Reindeer I - 58
    Ramu 4/ reindeer II - 59
    Ramu 2/ Lyons - 60
    George / Nidania - 34 (Inset)
    Hove - 36 (Inset)
     
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  3. sol

    sol Very Senior Member

    Peter thank you very much for this map.

    Cheers
    Enes
     
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  4. airlana

    airlana Member

    Many thanks Peter for posting the map.
    I have Jefford's book "R.A.F. Squadrons" and use it quite often but the maps are what I call 'general' nature.

    Perhaps I should explain in a little more detail.

    Below is part of the 1:250,000 scale military map for the area south of Cox's Bazaar. Many of the locations I refer to are marked on the map. The town of Ramu is at the junction of the two roads east of Cox's Bazaar. That's fine, but where exactly was the airfield.? In the middle of town?, some miles north of the town?, some miles south of the town?

    That's what I'm trying to find out for each of the airfields.

    I'm sure the information exists somewhere. Perhaps RAF records of the time [I've tried searching but no luck] Maybe ex pilots or ground crew from the many squadrons that operated in those areas have some details.

    All of the books on RAF operations in the area mention these fields - several by Norman Franks, Bloody Shambles & Air War for Burma, Innes, Thomas, Osprey series etc but each only have general maps.

    Anyway I'll keep my fingers crossed.

    regards

    Ash.......another crazy Aussie:)
     

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  5. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Hi, Ash,

    Reviving this thread from nine or so months ago...

    If you're still researching Bengal and Arakan airfields, I can't promise that my sources can provide further evidence, but perhaps someone with access to Kew can check them out for you.

    In the 1990s at Kew I madly rushed through some wartime SE Asia material and scribbled a few notes on interesting findings. Among them were sources for airfields, though I honestly don't know if they include Allied a/f's in Bengal and the Arakan. But I wanted to pass this along to you in the hope that, indeed, there will be something here for you. I'm listing things that, per my notes, don't mention Bengal or the Arakan, but maybe there's more here. Of course, these could amount to zilch for you...I can't say.

    From those old notes. These, I think, are all South East Asia Command intelligence publications; I have not searched the Nat. Archives catalogue for further info:

    File AIR 24/1297: Great mini-guide to all Burma airfields, showing runways and perimeter tracks in thumbnail fashion.

    AIR 24/1304, Oct 1944, vol. 1: includes China airfields list.

    AIR 24/1307, Nov 44, part 2: includes plans of airfields in French Indochina & Siam (plans from early 1944).

    AIR 24/1310, Jan 45: an airfield list, including Japan.

    AIR 24/1311, Feb 45: there is an airfields section.

    And then I have a scan of an RAF Liberator airman's purloined copy of Sheet NF-45, a 1945 1:1,000,000 (1" = 15.78 mi) map of the rectangle of India bounded by 20 to 24 deg N. Lat, 84 to 90 deg E. Long. This is a big chunk of Bengal, but only the NW corner of the Bay of Bengal.

    Upon this map are plotted many of the airfields in Bengal and the Calcutta area, such as Digri, Salbani, Jessore, Dum Dum, Piardoba, Kharagpur, Alipore, Dhubalia, Pandaveswar, and Barrackpore.

    Attached is a sample of the NF-45 map interior, plus a crop from the legend showing the adjoining sheets.

    None of the a/f's you listed fall into the NF-45 area. I have never seen any of these surrounding sheets, which, no doubt, show airfields and landing grounds as seen in NF-45. You might try the RAF Museum.

    Cheers,

    Matt
     

    Attached Files:

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  6. airlana

    airlana Member

    Many thanks Matt for reviving the thread and the details you've given.
    Yes, I'm still chasing information, it's all painfully slow.

    I'd tried the NA previously but not really knowing which files I was looking for didn't get far. Today I've tried looking up Air 24/1297 which then takes me to subseries and upon clicking that, it takes me on a loop, round and round. Must be doing something wrong. What I need is a breakdown of the file so I can select the parts/pages needed and order them. Maybe that detail is not available online and I'll have to email them. Or perhaps you or someone knows the right procedure. Any help would be appreciated.

    The portion of map NF-45 you kindly showed, I have. Seem to remember it appearing somewhere on the web. maybe one of your earlier posts. The 1:1,000,000 series maps are subdivided into 16 sections of 1:250,000 scale, so NF-45 breaks down to NF-45-1 through to NF-45-16. Most of these for India and Burma I have, but sadly they don't show many of the smaller strips and landing grounds.

    Many of the larger airfields, Digri, Salbani, Piardoba, Kharagpur, Dhubalia etc although now deserted and derilick, are visible on Google Earth, quite often in surprising detail.

    regards Ash
    airlana
     

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  7. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Hi, Ash,

    I'm writing from work...so I must keep it fairly short (he says...). When I have a chance, at home, I intend to post some samples of wartime air photos I discovered at the US National Archives of Digri, Pandaveswar, and Salbani airfields. So many Allied airfields are covered by photo recon overflights, and the imagery can be spectacular. There is great coverage of Japanese airfields, too. For example, google on Mingaladon and "Matt Poole" and you will find examples.

    Unfortunately, the process of researching the imagery availability, and then ordering, and then viewing is terribly cumbersome. It takes two or three working days to get the film for viewing, once ordered -- that is, IF it is delivered to Maryland from the underground storage facility in the midwestern US. Sadly, if an ordered can of film fails to show up when the order is filled, the Nat. Archives people in the midwest do not even tell the Nat. Archives folks in College Park, Maryland why the can of film has not been/cannot be delivered, or if it even exists anymore! It's a classic case of poor communication, and it is terribly frustrating for researchers. It could be that the can has been ordered by someone else and has not been returned back to the underground facility. Or the film was lost...or damaged...or destroyed years ago. A very flawed system it is, but nevertheless it is an amazing source for spectacular imagery from the war.

    Purchasing reproductions (the cans usually hold rolls of 9 by 9 inch negatives) is very costly, and that's where a viewer's use of a digital camera is magnificent ...and there is no fee whatsoever. I will post some examples of digital reproductions done with a cheap camera.

    I'm very sorry that I can't help you with College Park, MD research at this point, due to a lack of time and energy.

    The US Nat. Archives is one of the great underutilized archival sources for WWII research. Very possibly The Aerial Reconnaissance Archive in Edinburgh holds similar unclassified WWII recce imagery of Burma and India, as well -- do a google search and you might be able to find a point of contact. Of course, being in Australia creates some problems for accessing both the US and UK photo recce archives.

    Each of the AIR 24 sources I listed in my previous posting, as I recall, is a bound volume filled with a wide variety of monthly intelligence summaries. The airfield graphic in the first one I listed, AIR 24/1297 (from April 1944), was probably an oversized well-printed map of Burma with thumbnails of the many airfields keyed to lat/long locations. The large sheet of paper folded up neatly to fit the dimensions of the bound book, which was perhaps an inch or two thick. I just don't know how far west the airfields were plotted. I seem to recall that this particular example was printed in black and red ink.

    Maybe, just maybe I can call on a friend to check out the Kew AIR 24 sources I listed and to take sample digital images. Perhaps in an e-mail to me you can elaborate on what, more or less, is the focus of your research, as this could help us to help you. As a registered member of this site you can send me an e-mail via the site (clicking on my name and choosing an option), or you can just write me at feb2944 AT aol.com (remove spaces, change AT to @)

    That NF 45 map bit that I posted can be found on-line (with some annotation in red) in a pdf file of my research into the loss of two RAF Libs which collided over India on 26 July 1945, killing all 14 men. There are two versions of the pdf file on my friend Robert Quirk's website, at: http://www.rquirk.com/seac.html .

    If you write me an e-mail, I'll be happy to send you the entire NF 45 map, which was purloined during the war by a Liberator bloke, F/Lt Percy Miller DFC. I think he was a navigator with 99 Sqn; 99 Sqn historian Martin Bond shared this map with Robert Quirk and I and said it came from Percy. You can see Percy's pencil lines on the map, in fact -- navigational courses, I believe.

    Thanks for posting those Google images. The imagery of some of these has been updated in the last year or so, and they provide some wonderful resolution views. It's a blast to compare Digri, Salbani, and Pandaveswar wartime detailed imagery with Google imagery. The then-and-now aspect is fascinating to me. (If you download Google Earth, you can zoom in closer than if you just view the imagery through Google, and you can measure lats and longs, too.)

    Oh no...the pressure is on for me to return to my money-earning job. Cheers for now.

    Matt
     
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  8. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Hi again.

    Here are examples of the overlapping imagery of Digri, West Bengal on 26 Feb 1944, found at the US National Archives. Compare the inverted "V" of the main runway and marshalling strip to the Google image posted by Ash recently. The 1944 imagery is almost, not quite, in alignment with the Google shot.

    These old images show Liberators of RAF 159 Sqn. Along the marshalling strip are five Libs -- likely the five from B Flight which took off late that afternoon for an op to bomb Mingaladon, the Rangoon area's main airfield. The six Libs clustered around the turning circle are likely the six from A Flight which flew that night's op.

    Among the aircraft which participated on the 26th were A Flight's BZ926 (named "Pegasus") and B flight's BZ962 ("Daring Diana"), both shot down three nights later. Although I can't identify them individually on the imagery, I feel it is a safe bet that they are among the Libs being prepped for the op on the marshalling strip. See the closeups.

    These were taken with a small digital camera, in a mad rush. Nothing fancy at all. A proper contact print would be superior...but would cost a pretty penny. The digital route is a freebie. Not too bad at all.

    Cheers,

    Matt
     

    Attached Files:

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  9. airlana

    airlana Member

    Hi Matt

    Many thanks for all the information you have provided. It has cleared the air on a few points. I have used Robert Quirks website previously and also read the article on the Liberators accident. It didn't dawn on me that you were of course the author until I saw the link in your post above. The reasearch work you've done and all the follow up is a credit to you.

    I've got a couple of full-on work days ahead, and it's now almost 2.0am Sunday, so later in the week I'll email with my specific interests and how I became involved in the CBI theatre, B-24's, airfields and much more.

    best regards Ash
    airlana
     
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  10. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    If they're of any use, I have originals of map NG-43 (Rajputana) with airfields correct to Feb 1945, NF-47 (Mandalay), NE-46 (Irrawaddy), NF-45 (Calcutta), NG-45 (Bihar), NG-46 (Assam), NE-47 (Rangoon), NE-44 (Godavari), NG-47 (Tali), ND-48 (Khong), NC-48 (Saigon) plus two USAAF charts - 677 B II (Ban Pua) and 556 C III (Chieng Saun). Update details have been removed from all the other charts, but these were all my father's and used on SD flights between July and September 1945.

    They cover pretty much the whole of NE India, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and the southern part of Vietnam.
     
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  11. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Vitesse, that's one nice bunch of wartime maps. I'm sorry, but I'm confused about your statement "Update details have been removed from all the other charts." Are you saying that only NG-43 has airfield symbology similar to the piece of NF-45 that I posted?

    That wouldn't surprise me, as I realize that in addition to NF-45 (Calcutta) with its airfield info, I also have three other scanned color copies that are devoid of any airfield data: ND-44 (Madras, 1942 edition), NE-46 (Irrawaddy, 1942 ed), and NE-47 (Rangoon, 1945, 6th ed). You have two of these three. Contact me if you want the scan of the Madras sheet for your collection. (I must thank Martin Bond, 99 Sqn historian, for sharing his copies with Robert Quirk and myself.)

    What SD squadron was your father in? Liberators, I presume.

    Ash, thanks for your kind remarks. Some of us tend to get anal compulsive from time to time (or decade to decade, in my case) in our research, and the most satisfying part of this avocation is that I've shared some of the findings with the families of victims/casualties.

    I'm looking forward to hearing more about your specific interests.

    Here are another couple of goodies for now -- a frame of 26 Feb 1944 imagery of SALBANI and its 355 Sqn Liberators, and a cropped bit of another image taken that day, showing a line of Libs. The two photos were not shot with the same alignment to north. Salbani is only twelve or so miles from DIGRI, the airfield seen in the photos I posted the other day.
     

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  12. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    Matt: sorry I didn't make myself clear. The two copies I have of NG-43 are the only ones which have the full legend and all margins - all the others have been trimmed, so all edition details have been removed. I know the SD squadrons were always keen to save take-off weight, but surely that's carrying it a bit far? :D The USAAF charts are on stouter paper and have all legend details on the reverse.

    The ones which have overprints re bases are NG-43, NE-44, NF-45 and NG-45. Most of the Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma and Thailand maps are criss-crossed with pencil lines showing what I assume are projected flight courses and even marks which may show DZs, although I'd guess those are probably PoW camps rather than missions where supplies or Joes were dropped to fighting units. There are also some pencilled-in co-ordinates in some of the margins, which I haven't yet cross-checked against the ORB entries.

    My father was in 358 Squadron (P/O Husband's crew). Going O/T a bit: from a story he told me they may have been the crew flying KL632 when it force-landed due to engine failure shortly after take-off at Dorval on May 4th 1945 - might you have any details on that which aren't in Oughton's book?
     
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  13. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Vitesse,

    Now this is really getting interesting. First, thanks for clarifying the map situation.

    358 Sqn and the Husband crew! This summer I was contacted by John McCracken in Scotland, whose uncle, Jimmy Wilson, was a 2nd pilot on the Husband crew for part of his tour on 358. Write to me at feb2944 AT aol.com and I will send you the back and forth e-mails between John and myself. Jimmy is alive, and although he does not have his logbook (at last word -- probably destroyed in a fire in Scotland), he remembers the crackup you asked me about. John was heading up on holiday to visit with Jimmy, as of 2 Oct, so he will have more info.

    I won't have anything else on the KL632 accident at Dorval until I hear from John after his chat with Jimmy.

    I have numerous 358 Sqn files I can send you. Here's one bit of artwork I found on this modeling website:

    www.hyperscale.com/2008/reviews/decals/ddk7218reviewpm_1.htm

    Jimmy Wilson flew in Karioka Joe, which was KH392, for some of his ops with 358, so maybe your dad also flew in this Lib.

    Hopefully, in addition to Jimmy Wilson, one or two of your dad's crew are still around.

    Cheers,

    Matt
     

    Attached Files:

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  14. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    Looks like they flew together a lot! This is my late father, formerly 166780 F/O JJ Armstrong:

    BBC - Weather - Jack Armstrong

    He joined the Met Office shortly after he was demobbed and after training he was posted to Ismailia in 1949, moving on to Bishopscourt and then Blackbushe before being posted to London Weather Centre in 1955. Promoted to P/Met O, he took over Southampton Weather Centre in 1973 before moving to Innsworth, which he was tasked with closing down and transferring its operations to the new Weather Centre Wales in Cardiff.

    I know he was in contact with at least one of his old crew before he died, but unfortunately a lot of stuff - including letters, address books and a part-completed memoir of his service days - has gone missing after various moves and a house fire.:banghead: I've still got his goolie chit though ;)

    I'd love to see those emails - check your inbox!
     
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  15. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Vitesse,

    I sent an e-mail, in response to yours, before I went back to this forum to discover your message. Yep -- it's all coming together. I'd put some things about your father in the e-mails I'd sent to the nephew of one of your dad's 2nd pilots, as you will see when you read the material.

    Too bad about the fire and so forth. The 2nd pilot, Jimmy Wilson (still alive and kicking in Scotland), also lost memorabilia in a fire.

    OK...the thread hijacking is over...back to Bengal and Arakan airfield stuff. To get back on track, here are sample air photos of the US 7th Bomb Group airfield at Pandaveswar, in Bengal, taken on 22 Feb 1944. These are scans from proper photographic prints. The original negatives at the US Nat. Archives were each something like 9" X 17" -- larger than the 9" X 9" negs of the Salbani and Digri photo missions of 26 Feb 1944.

    Note the small dark spot in the bottom right of the photo named "Panda,crash2". This is discoloration from the burn site of one of the two 9th Bomb Sqn B-24s (of the 7th BG) which crashed on takeoff for a mission from Pandaveswar on 25 Nov 1943, three months earlier. Following upwards from this dark spot to the point 1/2 way between this spot and the concrete turning circle at the end of the runway (top right), you should be able to see a linear scar across rice paddy dikes, stopping at the burn mark. More evidence of the crash -- either 42-73064 (skipper: John S. Crall) or else 42-73216 (skipper: William S. Balfe). All 10 men aboard each bomber died in the crashes. Other bombers had to take off over the burning aircraft. (I have not found the evidence of the second crash site.)

    Regards,

    Matt
     

    Attached Files:

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  16. sol

    sol Very Senior Member

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  17. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Hi, Sol,

    Glad you liked the images, and thanks for the link. The author, Jim Fail, was a Liberator crewman out of India.

    I have one more India airfield image to share -- Kailakunda, approx 4 miles west of Kharagpur in West Bengal. At the time of this photo, 26 Feb 1944, the airfield was being prepared to receive B-29s, which arrived in the latter part of March. This explains why no aircraft are visible in revetments or on hardstands.

    It is still an active Indian Air Force base -- compare to Google, or to Wikimapia at wikimapia.org/184013/Kalaikunda-Air-Force-Station . It is fairly easy to match then-and-now. Pakistan Air Force F-86 Sabres did some serious damage here during a 7 Sept 1965 surprise attack on Kalaikunda during the war with India.


    Regards,

    Matt
     

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  18. airlana

    airlana Member

    Hi Matt

    ............ so later in the week I'll email with my specific interests and how I became involved in the CBI theatre, B-24's, airfields and much more.

    best regards Ash
    airlana

    Hi Matt, sorry to have missed last week, work seems to be never ending. Will put it at the top of my 'must do' for this week. Thanks also for the photos you've posted elsewhere in this thread.
    regards Ash/airlana
     
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  19. maxs75

    maxs75 Member

    Not very detailed but this gives the rough position of each airfield.

    Feni - 18
    Dohazari - 23
    Hathazari - 20
    Ratnap - 33 (Inset)
    Rumkh - 32 (Inset)
    Ramu 3/Hay - 28 (Inset)
    Ramu 1/ Reindeer I - 58
    Ramu 4/ reindeer II - 59
    Ramu 2/ Lyons - 60
    George / Nidania - 34 (Inset)
    Hove - 36 (Inset)

    Hello,
    can you give the details of each airfiled shown in the map?
    Maybe a scan of the list to avoid typing all the names.

    Thanks in advance
    Max
     
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  20. SGiesea

    SGiesea Junior Member

    Vitesse,

    I sent an e-mail, in response to yours, before I went back to this forum to discover your message. Yep -- it's all coming together. I'd put some things about your father in the e-mails I'd sent to the nephew of one of your dad's 2nd pilots, as you will see when you read the material.

    Too bad about the fire and so forth. The 2nd pilot, Jimmy Wilson (still alive and kicking in Scotland), also lost memorabilia in a fire.

    OK...the thread hijacking is over...back to Bengal and Arakan airfield stuff. To get back on track, here are sample air photos of the US 7th Bomb Group airfield at Pandaveswar, in Bengal, taken on 22 Feb 1944. These are scans from proper photographic prints. The original negatives at the US Nat. Archives were each something like 9" X 17" -- larger than the 9" X 9" negs of the Salbani and Digri photo missions of 26 Feb 1944.

    Note the small dark spot in the bottom right of the photo named "Panda,crash2". This is discoloration from the burn site of one of the two 9th Bomb Sqn B-24s (of the 7th BG) which crashed on takeoff for a mission from Pandaveswar on 25 Nov 1943, three months earlier. Following upwards from this dark spot to the point 1/2 way between this spot and the concrete turning circle at the end of the runway (top right), you should be able to see a linear scar across rice paddy dikes, stopping at the burn mark. More evidence of the crash -- either 42-73064 (skipper: John S. Crall) or else 42-73216 (skipper: William S. Balfe). All 10 men aboard each bomber died in the crashes. Other bombers had to take off over the burning aircraft. (I have not found the evidence of the second crash site.)

    Regards,

    Matt



    John S Crall was my great Uncle I never met!
    Thanks for the pictures.
    If anyone remembers John S Crall let me know.

    Thanks,

    S Giesea
     
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