Enemy Strengths and Weakness

Heroes Remember

Enemy Strengths and Weakness

Transcript

Interviewer: Mr. Sutherland-Brown, you were telling me about the dangers of ground attacking from enemy ground fire, did in fact the squadron lose aircraft in that manner? Oh yes. We had about the same rate of loss as bomber command, so 30% or something like that. And as I say, have said, some of these are through accidents, you know, when your flying through the odd scattered palm trees, you know you have to be very alert, you're going at 250 miles an hour or more. And so we've talked about the monsoons and the hazard there. But the chief hazard was ground fire. Every railway station had Japanese gunners in it and as I've told you, the Japanese soldiers were brave in the face of fire because they always shot back at ya with rifles. It's hard to believe but they did. Interviewer: During that period of time,what was the strength of the Japanese Air Force? Well, it was of course, we had complete control of the air by, soon after I was there. But they still had a lot of fighters and they were very mobile, the Japanese squadrons weren't like ours. They had, the airfields had the ground crew and they only, they could move from one to another with just a few specialists. So they go from one airfield to another and they, they also retreated back to, under the pressure that we put on them, back to Xian(sp) as it was called then, Thailand. And we'd come up to Meiktila or Mingladon(sp) at Rangoon to do specific operations and then go back again, they're very mobile. But they were greatly outnumbered and outclassed Interviewer: I was just going to ask you about the quality...? Well, the Oscar Fighter was a very manoeuvrable, good fighter but wasn't heavily armed and it had almost no armour. But at sea level, we were as fast as they were because we were, had derated boats and we could go 320 miles an hour when you went through the gate, if you know what that means, which was about the same speed. So if they saw you from above they only had sort of a possibility of one attack, jumping you as it was called. No our chief enemy was ground fire. Interviewer: During your tour, did in fact you come under attack from Japanese aircraft? I never did, no. But colleagues did of course and some were shot down.

Description

Mr. Sutherland-Brown says how their biggest threat was enemy ground fire. He also explains that the Japanese were very mobile but were out numbered and out armed.

Atholl Sutherland Brown

Mr. Sutherland Brown was born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1923. Mr. Sutherland was the youngest of three sons, all of whom where in the military. His father had an extensive military background, but resigned just before Hitler took power. Mr. Sutherland enlisted at the age of 16 as a private with the Piper 16th Canadian Scottish. He then finished his education at Victoria College before joining the air force at 18.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 03:38
Person Interviewed:: Atholl Sutherland Brown
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Asia
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: Bullfighter Squadron
Occupation:: Pilot

Language selection

Enemy Strengths and Weakness

Heroes Remember