Hazards of Dropping

*Hazards of Dropping

Lt. H. G. Hanson, 10th Combat Cargo pilot, experienced the following:

“On 20 January 1945, I was dropping on target #773, Southeast of Namhkam.  The kickers shoved out a parapack containing ammunition.  No sooner had the bundle left the plane, when I felt a jar and found that most of my elevator control was gone, and that I couldn’t pull up my plane.

“I was in a valley between mountains, which required a climb of 3,000 feet.  I crash landed my plane in a rice paddy in Jap territory.  I found that my left stabilizer and elevator had been torn off, caused, I believe, by the collision of the parapack when the parachute opened prematurely.

“Luckily, and advanced patrol of the Mars Task Force was able to reach and lead us back to safe territory.”

Lt. W. I. Gore, 10th Combat Cargo pilot, had an unusual experience with a bag of rice:

“One morning in November, 1944, I was making a pass over the target while the kickers were shoving out bags of rice on a free drop.  They must have stacked the bags too high because one struck the leading edge of the left horizontal stabilizer.  The air pressure held the bag against this leading edge causing a partial stall of the control surface.

“I did practically everything but slow roll that airplane in an attempt to dislodge the bag, but I had no luck.  There was a terrific vibration but I found I could control the plane.  We dropped our remaining load on the target, and found that made the plane easier to handle.

“On the way back to base, the vibration was giving us a very bad shaking up.  I got out my .45 and shot seven holes in the bag.  The bullets hit the bag but didn’t go all the way through it, and the pressure kept the rice from falling out.

“When I came in to make a landing at Dinjan and my plane had slowed down to 50 mph, the bag of rice fell off and landed in the middle of the runway.  The field had to be closed until the bag was removed.  Some of my fellow pilots who had to circle the field until it was cleared were very annoyed wit me when they finally landed.”**

 

*Headquarters Tenth Air Force, Office of the Historical Officer, Air Dropping in Northern Burma.

**From Interviews with Lts. Hanson and Gore at Dinjan, 16 Feb 1945.

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