My mother's brother Tom flew with the 500th Sqdn, 345th Bombardment Group, the "Air Apachees", of the 5th Air Force. According to Lawrence Hickey's book, *Warpath Across the Pacific*, the 345th's B-25 Mitchells were deployed from San Francisco to Hawaii in May of 1943. "No attempt was made to fly in formation and each plane traveled the route separately....the crews were alone with 2400 miles of the vast Pacific ahead....the flights were always begun at night for weather and navigation purposes....if all went well, a plane would make landfall in 13 hours, just after sunrise...strong head winds could cause a plane to run out of fuel...only one plane failed to reach its destination...no trace of it was ever found."
While the Group's deployment was after the implementation of the Hawaiian Adcock DF antennas coupled with Hallicrafters SX-28 receivers, the above illustrates what these pilots were up against. This coupled with, as Maxwell put it, "dozens of green flight teams just out of flight school...anxious to get aboard and proceed to the South Pacific area as soon as possible" and, according to Maxwell's article, reliance on the plane's DF loop had some bad consequences in the beginning. Bear in mind that these were not the experienced commercial flight crews flying Pan Am China Clipper Flying Boats from the Mainland to the Hawaiian Islands. Considering the vagaries of propagation, "green" air crews, the RDF issues, and the enormous distance involved with no landmarks scattered along the way, Maxwell's article certainly has more than just the ring of truth to me, but each is entitled to his opinion. 73, Gil NN4CW _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
