W/OFF HOWARD McLAREN, 418005, NAV(B)

This stalwart of the Odd Bods was 91 on 19 May 2004. Tim Coyle of the ACT, working on his PhD thesis "History of Navigation in the RAAF 1921-1975", interviewed our Odd Bod in July, and this story is an edited version of Tim Coyle's paper.

Howard McLaren joined the RAAF Reserve in 1941. While waiting for call-up he undertook the '21 Lessons' that were offered to aircrew enlistees to bring their education in mathematics and physics up to the standard required for aircrew training. There was also a requirement to study morse code, which was done at his local post office on Sunday mornings.

After being a conscript for three months in the army, he was called up in April 1942, and was sent on No.27 Course Initial Training School at Victor Harbour, SA. He spent four months there and then went to Mount Gambier SA for four months navigational training. He was posted to Sale for four weeks bombing and air gunnery and one month of astro-navigation at ANS Nhill. On graduation he received his Observer's half-wing.

On 6 March 1943 Howard left Australia by ship, and travelled via San Francisco, Boston, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and joined the troopship Louis Pasteur for the voyage to the United Kingdom.

He joined an Advanced Flying Unit in May 1943, then to an OTU where he 'crewed up' and was sent to 196 Squadron, Bomber Command to operate Short Stirlings. His pilot was Charles King, RAAF, and the rest of the crew was RAF. At this stage 196 Sqn was engaged in normal bombing operations but shortly after Howard's crew joined the squadron it was directed to undertake special operations in No. 38 Group. Howard volunteered to be a bomb-aimer as there was a shortage of this category. His observer skills included bombing, so he required no further training to carry out this role.

The Stirling bomber, a very strongly built aircraft, was effective for low level operations, glider towing and dropping paratroops. It was not as successful in high level bombing operations as the wing span was too short to allow it to climb above 15,000 feet, which meant the Stirling was vulnerable to flak and fighters. The move of 196 squadron to special operations came partly as a result of the planning for the invasion of Europe.

Howard carried out two or three normal Main Force bombing operations before transfer of the squadron to special operations, and subsequently he operated a further 21 trips in the latter role.
While training with the paratroops and gliders, the squadron also flew supply missions for resistance groups in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. They were instructed to fly at 500 feet (or below) to avoid radar and these operations took place in moonlight - in the cycle "half moon to half moon". As a bomb-aimer on special operations, Howard sat next to the pilot en-route to the drop zone and map-read, giving the pilot and navigator pinpoints. The navigator maintained the DR (direct-reckoning) plot and advised course changes. When the aircraft came up to the target zone, Howard would move to the bomb-aimer's position in the nose and drop the supply load on receipt of the correct signal. This was a two-letter morse code flashed by torch. If the message was not received, or flashed incorrectly, the aircraft would immediately leave the area and return as this probably meant that the drop had been compromised. This only happened once in Howard's 21 trips.

The map reading was not conducted from the bomb-aimer's position in the nose because this did not give sufficient visibility of the horizon. By occupying the co-pilot's position (the Stirling was dual-controlled) Howard could more readily see the ground features and advise the pilot and navigator accordingly. There was a later modification to the aircraft which extended the nose to allow better vision but Howard considered this was not as good as the co-pilot's position.

The supply drops comprised 24 cannisters the size of 500 lb bombs normally loaded in the bomb-bay. The approach to the drop zone required the bomb doors open and 1/3 flap selected. Speed was reduced to around 140 knots - just above stalling speed of about 110 knots. The normal bomb-sight was not used as the flight was too low for it to be effective. The navigation for these operations was all DR with pinpoints. Astro was not used as it was more accurate to map-read to update the DR plot at that low altitude.

The supply drops to resistance groups were secondary to the main task of dropping SAS and SOE operatives. Again these were dropped from 500 feet by parachute with static lines. Approximately half the operations were supply drops and the other half were personnel. Paradrops were done into all the occupied countries including Norway. The crews could not discuss their operations off the squadron due to security requirements. Part of Howard's duties on these operations was to control the exit of the personnel from the aircraft by illuminating the warning and jump lights.

The low level operations provided some security against ground fire and fighters. Howard's aircraft was hit only once by three shells that put some 90 holes in the aircraft. One shell entered the bomb-aimer's compartment and spun around before becoming expended.

Normal procedure was to fly at 500 feet over the sea (or lower) then climb to 7,000 feet over the enemy coast, descending to 500 feet again for the run-in to the target zone. Aircraft operated singly on these trips. Howard considered they ought to have flown the whole distance to and from the target at low level. His tour took 18 months, from November 1943 to 12 June 1945. He arrived back in Australia in August 1945. With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945 he operated several missions taking occupation troops to Gardermoen, Norway (10, 11 and 12 May). These airborne troops did not parachute - the aircraft landing and discharging them before returning to base. The load was around 22 troops. There were 30 aircraft in 196 Squadron and for most operations they operated singly. For the Norway operations most of the squadron was deployed to land the occupation troops.

On the evening of D-Day, 6 June 1944, Howard flew a paratroop operation, dropping on the outskirts of Caen. He has in his possession a naval chart of the area on which is marked his aircraft's track for the mission. The day before the invasion all the bomb-aimers were called to a briefing to familiarise them with the route to the target area. Howard's aircraft dropped 18 paratroops behind the German lines.

A further chart in Howard's possession shows a glider-towing mission to land troops (paratroops) across the Rhine river on 24 March 1945. This operation involved the whole squadron and was escorted by Mustang and Spitfire fighters. Crews were told to release the gliders near Wesel on the right bank of the Rhine. Departing at 0900 they arrived in the area around 1100 but had difficulty in identifying Wesel as it had been subjected to an attack by Bomber Command which practically obliterated the town. The gliders were released from 1500 - 2000 feet. The whole operation was to land the complete parachute division of around 10,000 troops (other squadrons also participated).

196 Squadron operated a number of Stirling models, culminating in the Stirling IV from February 1944. This model only retained the rear turret. The squadron was based at Leicester East when Howard joined, then moved to Tarrant Rushton from where he did his first operations. Then they moved to Keevil in Wiltshire at the time of the D-Day invasion. After the troops moved across Europe the squadron moved to Wethersfield for three months, and from there to Shepherd's Grove from January 1945.

On resurrecting his log book, Howard states that he found 329 entries totalling 652.40 flying hours with 71 pilots (that had me stunned! Ed.) Aircraft types included Avro Anson, Fairey Battle, Vickers Wellington Ic, Airspeed Oxford, Short Stirling I, II and IV. "Lucky me!" says Howard. ("I dips me lid," says the Editor)