Williams, Douglas Owain (Oral history)

British NCO served as wireless operator with 194 Sqdn, RAF in India, 1942-1943; served with 31 Sqdn, RAF during First Chindit Expedition Operation Longcloth in Burma, 2/1943-4/1943; served with 194 Sqdn, No 177 Wing, RAF in India and Burma, 1942-1944 including Second Chindit Expedition Operation Thursday in Burma, 2/1944-6/1944

REEL 1 Background in Port Talbot and London, GB, 1920-1939: family; education; employment; move to London. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Air Force in GB, 1940-1942: volunteering for Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR), 1940; training as wireless operator/air gunner, 1940-1941; flight from GB to India, summer 1942. Aspects of period as wireless operator with 194 Sqdn, RAF in India, 1942-1943: recruitment to squadron; operating Lockheed Hudson. Recollections of operations as wireless operator with 31 Sqdn, RAF during First Chindit Expedition Operation Longcloth in Burma, 2/1943-4/1943: detachment to 31 Sqdn, RAF for Operation Longcloth: composition of crew; method of locating Chindit groups; method of air dropping supplies; navigation procedure; lack of Japanese air opposition. Recollections of period as wireless operator with 194 Sqdn, No 177 Wing, RAF in India and Burma, 1943-1944: conversion to Douglas Dakota; training for air invasion of Burma; formation of No 177 Wing, RAF; support for British Fourteenth Army, 2/1944 including air supply duties in Arakan; story of crash landing after aircraft hit by Japanese anti-aircraft fire over Arakan. REEL 2 Continues: flying conditions over Burma; incident of flying Lockheed Hudson through storm over Chin Hills. Recollections of operations as wireless operator with 194 Sqdn, No 177 Wing, RAF during Second Chindit Expedition Operation Thursday in Burma, 2/1944-6/1944: decision to transfer from Broadway to Piccadilly Landing Zones; aircraft load; landing at Broadway Landing Zone; amount of supplies and troops flown in four days; disposal of mule corpse in aircraft; opinion of Chindits; conditions at Tezpur Airfield and RAF Agartala in India; fighter defence for operations; supplying Imphal during siege, 3/1944; meeting with Major General Orde Wingate at Broadway Landing Zone, 3/1944; supplying Aberdeen Landing Zone, 3/1944-4/1944. REEL 3 Continues: problems of landing and take off at Aberdeen Landing Zone, 4/1944; evacuation of Hawker Hurricane squadron from Imphal India, 4/1944; loss of his Douglas Dakota; air-supply drop sortie to Imphal, India, 6/1944. Aspects of service with Royal Air Force in India, 1942-1944: anti-British sentiment, 1942; manifestations of Quit India Movement; witnessing conditions during Bengal Famine, 1943.