Flight Lieutenant George William ANDREWS 402932

12 Dec 42 - A raid on Mandalay by 113 and 60 Sqn RAF was led by Australian F/L George Bassingthwaite. They bombed the railway station and yards. It was a long way for the Blenhiemss and even longer , or so it seemed, for the escorting Hurricane pilots, as Sgt G. W Andrews recorded in his diary: "Squadron too off at dawn for Imphal. Landed there and half the runway covered by ground mist. Shakey do. Refuelled and then close escort to 21 Blenhiems to Mandalay. Turned south over Shwebo. Flak over Mandalay but not serious. Bombs on railway junction and sidings. Expected strong fighter opposition but not a sausage! Back to Imphal, refuelled and then back to Feni. Trip too long - gave me a sore stern!" 25 Dec 42 - It was back to Magwe for eight of the squadron's Hurricanes, Duckenfield leading. 12 Blenheims from 60 and 113 Sqn RAF were also on the party, with close escort provided by Mohawks. The force had made rendezvous over Chittagong, then headed south-east. Bill Andrews noted in his diary: "Cheesed off. Eight planes gone with Bisleys to bomb and strafe Magwe and I was left out. The C O, S/L Duckenfield, did not return. Disappeared over the target area, same as Eddie [Kostromin, who had been Bill's room-mate]. Shakey do. 12 Jan 43 - Japanese lines of communication were also important targets, anything to try and stop the enemy from bringing forward troops and supplies. 615 Sqn RAF found a train as Bill Andrews descibes: "With F/L McCormack, S/L Holland and F/O Falconer on Rhubarb to Ye-U [north-east of Shwebo] and sweep down the line to Monywa. Round trip of over 520 miles! Struck the line a little below Ye-U and at Tindemyan station found a train and lots of covered-in trucks. Glorious time just squirting away with cannons, firing mostly HEI [High Explosive Incendiary]. Wrecked the whole outfit, blew tremendous holes in everything and only knocked off and returned when out of ammo. No opposition by either EA or flak. The mountains are a magnificent sight but always seem to make my engine sound rough. Whole trip lasted 3 hrs, 5 mins. 17 Jan 43 - The Hurricanes of 615 Sqn RAF were scrambled against bombers attacking Feni, but had only reached 11,000 feet, when the 18 bombers bombed from 15,000 feet. Two Hurricanes got into contact with some of the Oscar escort, and Bill Andrews and Willie Hyde both got bursts at them, each claiming a damaged. (0.0.1) 21 Jan 43 - Squadron ordered to move to Maungdaw, Sgt Andrews recorded: "We are off in a big scale beat-up of Prome tomorrow, landing at Maungdaw - setting foot in Burma for the first time! Have a funny feeling about this do tomorrow." 22 Jan 43 - He continues: " Off we went. F/L McCormack, F/O Verry, P/O Aurisch, F/S Hunt, Sgt Hyde and myself. Struck Pato and followed road down. Pranged a bus load of Jap soldiers, no one got out. Then Mac pranged a lorry load, Wrote them off - even got blood on his windscreen. Straight across aerodrome, nothing on it, and then followed the railway line right to the station at Prome. Pranged signal box, big store shed and trucks. Shambles! Also pranged a big river boat being used as a landing stage. Saw plenty of evidence of the presence of the boys being there about three hours before us. Over the river heard a smart smack-smack-smack-smack down the back of my kite. After last attack on station had to fly through an enormous cloud of hawk bats etc. Stood my hair on end, heard a smack in the vicinity of my radiator and saw a big hole bashed in my wing near starboard outer cannon. Rad temp and oil temp started to soar up and thought I had bought it. Steadied at 115 and 85 degrees respectively and I landed back at Maungdaw like that. Talk about sweat! Found I had about 15 holes in the tail, fuselage and wing, plus a bloody great flying fox in my radiator. 17 Mar 43 - Escorted Blenhiems to Donbaik area. Expected trouble but none at all. Giid bombing, also wizard artillery duel going on on the beach. 01 Apr 43 - The Japanese laid on a major raid with 27 bombers with fighter escort, to hit the more northern air base, heading in over the Bay of Bengal. This time, adequate early warning of the raiders' approach enabled the Hurricane pilots to gain the vital advantage of height so often denied them. The scrambled came at 1.20 pm, 615 Sqn RAF put eleven aircraft into the air, led by the Belgian Flying Officer Ortmans. The pilots grabbed height as fast as they could and were up to 27,000 feet when it seemed that the enemy plot was turning away. They were still some miles to the south and Control was debating whether to order the Hurricanes back to base. What had happened was that a small force of bombers had headed off for Chittagogng. The raid was intercepted south of Feni. Bill Andrews recorded: "Chan Chandler made the first attack, me second with bags of speed, attacked a bomber and broke down under formation and attacked the corresponding bomber on the other side of the formation. As I wascoming in to attack the second one the one I had first attacked was falling away in flames and Chan's was in a vertical dive for the deck." Claimed 1 Sally destroyed and two others damaged. (1.0.3) 05 Apr 43 - 615 Sqn RAF carried out an escort sortie as Bill recorded: "Escorted bombers to bomb Jap-occupied village down south of Buthidaung in the Mayu Valley. Not very accurate. Saw nothing but learnt later the place was alive with Japs - 50+ about! On landing back here, refuelled madly and waited for them but no joy at all. Seems they split up but no one seems to have any idea where they went. " 06 Apr 43 - The Hurricanes of 615 Sqn RAF were pulled out at this time, flying back to India, to be based at Alipore while a number of pilots went off to do the Air Fighting course at Amarda Road. One of these was Bill Andrews, who recorded in his diary: "Took off at dawn and landed at Alipore. Couple of hours hours in town, then took off for Amarda Road. Navigational black, landed at Widnapore strip, surrounded by wogs in 10 seconds. Appears mine is the first plane to land there. Eventually got to the Road. Done a bit of a course, very interesting and so far have learnt a lot. Very funny crowd here, even when sober; God help us if we ever get drunk! We are all equipped with bows and arrows and catapults and the air in the billet and outside is always filled with flying objects. 26 Apr 43 - Destroys one fighter, one bomber and probably destroys one bomber. (2.1.0) 26 Dec 43 - At 11.15 am F/O Andrews and F/S Chatfield were scrambled from Dohazari airfield and were given directions to intercept one enemy aircraft. However, soon after they were airborne, this increased to six, then twenty and then to more than fifty. Andrews and Chatfield were ordered to circle the base and wait for the rest of the squadron. While doing this they saw an enemy formation of 20 bombers with 50 fighters weaving and making large sweeps round the bombers. Andrews and Chatfield, although faced by more than 70 enemy aircraft, immediately gave battle and both made several skillful attacks on the enemy formation. Watchers on the ground saw three bombers and one fighter crash. Soon afterwards, the two pilots landed, the rest of the squadron did not make contact. (4.1.0) Discharged on 14th November 1945.