Details of Aircraft Losses by Date |
Text | Notes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
24 Nov 1944: Two flights of two RAF 177 Squadron Beaufighters were dispatched from their home base at Chiringa, India on this date to strafe traffic on the road connecting Lampang and Chiang Rai in Thailand.[1] Two of the 177 Beaufighters flew out at 0700 hours on the mission; finding the valley obscured by a 2,000 foot cloud base, the two diverted west to the Chiang Mai-Fang Road for the same purpose, and with some success, and returned around 1245 hours. At 1400, two more 177 Beaufighters, KW403 and NV376, flew out on the same mission. NV376 lost power in its port engine near Pyinmana and returned to Chiringa about 1715, leaving KW403 to carry on the mission alone. KW403 never returned. The assumed flight path is shown below:[2] Pyinmaya is called out because NV376 turned back at this point. That location suggests that the flight was headed for Lampang, rather than Chiang Rai, to begin its sweep. Entry in Summary of Events in 177 Squadron Operation Record Book for disappearance of KW403 on 24 Nov 1944:[3] Text, transcribed, expanded, reads:
Entry in Records of Events in 177 Squadron Operation Record Book for disappearance of KW403 on 24 Nov 1944:[4] Text (referring to NV376) transcribed, reads:
The crash site was never located and the names of the two crew members are carried on lists in the Singapore Memorial in the Kranji War Cemetery:
References: • Shores, 2005:[6]
• Umemoto, 2002:[7]
Umemoto comment:[8]
Afterword: the fate of Beaufighter KW403 with WO Hudson and F/Sgt Smith remains a total mystery.
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These pages were composed to be viewed best with Google Chrome. 1.^ Photo: Bristol Beaufighter TF Mark X, RD767.
2.^ Extract from Google Maps; annotated with Microsoft Publisher by author.
3.^ Operations Record Book, in RAF and Commonwealth Air Forces, No.177 Squadron Summary of Events, AIR-27-1117-19, pdf page 7.
4.^ Operations Record Book, in RAF and Commonwealth Air Forces, No.177 Squadron Records of Events, AIR-27-1117-20, pdf page 24.
Hudson is listed on Column 433, while Smith is listed on Column 435.
6.^ Shores, Christopher, Air War for Burma, Bloody Shambles, Vol Three (London: Grub Street, 2005), p 288.
7.^ 梅本弘 [Umemoto, Hiroshi], ビルマ航空戦・上 [Air War in Burma, Vol 2] (Tokyo: Dai Nippon, 2002)], pp 523.
8.^ Umemoto, ibid, p 328: text covering activities on 24 Nov 1944.
9.^ Japanese translations by Google Translate; edited by author.
10.^ Brown, A. Sutherland "Indian Days and Burmese Nights: Flying Beaufighters in Southeast Asia with 177 RAF Squadron." Canadian Military History 4, 2 (1995), p 12. |