Indian Days and Burmese Nights: Flying Beaufighters in Southeast Asia with 177 RAF Squadron

This narrative is part of a longer one of personal reminiscences of my experiences in the RCAF during the Second World War and only concerns my operational tour flying Beaufighters with 177 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in Southeast Asia from early March 1944 until the end of the year. Preceding the operational tour I had spent two years training and waiting in Canada and the United Kingdom. During operational training at East Fortune near Edinburgh flying Beaufighter lis, I was crewed with Flight Sergeant A.J. Aldham, a reserved, slim, blonde Englishman as Observer (i.e. Navigator-wireless operator-gunner). Alf quickly established his capability as a navigator and good companion in the as yet poorly understood game of war. Following a second stage of operational training of Beaufighter Is and Vis at Catfoss near Hull, Yorkshire, we picked up a new Beaufighter X from the factory at Filton, tested it, and then flew it to India on a reinforcement flight. We were surprised on arrival at Karachi on 1 September 1943 to find we were separated from the aircraft. We were then left to languish in an aircrew pool until December when we were assigned to the Southeast Asia Air Command Communications Squadron. Here we put in three months flying lesser VIPs about India until we were posted to 177 at the beginning of March

Victory in Burma: The Role of Canada and the Air Force

In Victoria, BC this August 2005, the 60th anniversary of the end of the War against Japan (VJ Day) was celebrated at a number of events. Included were a march to the Cenotaph by Veterans, Service Units and Air Cadets on Sunday, August l4th; a reception sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs at Government House on the actual day, August 15; a service the next day at Arakan Park in the forest on the Cowichan River followed by one at the Cenotaph in Duncan both arranged by the Burma Star Organization and, finally, a luncheon by the Vancouver Island Branch of the AirCrew Association at the Gun Room at Work Point Barracks. At all these events except the last, the role of the Commonwealth Air Forces in the victory over the Japanese Army in Burma was scarcely mentioned although some interesting brochures and talks were presented. From my own experience and research I believe the Air Force’s role was decisive

Forgotten Squared: Canadian Aircrews in Southeast Asia, 1942–1945

The battles of World War II in Southeast Asia started with a saga of repeated defeats and retreats by the Allies. Then in 1944, after they re-grouped during a stalemate in 1942–43, the Allies decisively defeated the Imperial Forces of Japan in the jungles of the Chin Hills, leading to a victorious advance down the plains to Rangoon. These campaigns included the greatest land battles and the soundest defeat of the Japanese armies during the war. They were engineered by the combination of sound Allied tactics and resolute jungle fighting that was facilitated by a most intensive and innovative use of airpower. In spite of Winston Churchill’s statement that the attack against Ceylon (Sri Lanka) by a Japanese naval task force in 1942 represented the most dangerous moment of the war, these campaigns have been slighted in subsequent general histories of the World War, as they were by the media of the time. During the campaigns most of the Allied troops felt that their efforts and sacrifices were unrecognized and largely forgotten in the panorama of the war. They believed that they were poorly supported—they knew they were assigned inferior equipment in deficient quantity—and they suspected they were short-changed by remote leadership and inadequate strategic planning. Those feelings arose in 1941–42 during the defeats and retreats from Malaya, Singapore, the East Indies and Burma, and they hardened during the stalemate after the monsoon of 1942 when the 14th Army dubbed itself the “Forgotten Army.

Static tests of excess ground attenuation at Wallops Flight Center

An extensive experimental measurement program which evaluated the attenuation of sound for close to horizontal propagation over the ground was designed to replicate, under static conditions, results of the flight measurements carried out earlier by NASA at the same site (Wallops Flight Center). The program consisted of a total of 41 measurement runs of attenuation, in excess of spreading and air absorption losses, for one third octave bands over a frequency range of 50 to 4000 Hz. Each run consisted of measurements at 10 locations up to 675 m, from a source located at nominal elevations of 2.5, or 10 m over either a grassy surface or an adjacent asphalt concrete runway surface. The tests provided a total of over 8100 measurements of attenuation under conditions of low wind speed averaging about 1 m/s and, for most of the tests, a slightly positive temperature gradient, averaging about 0.3 C/m from 1.2 to 7 m. The results of the measurements are expected to provide useful experimental background for the further development of prediction models of near grazing incidence sound propagation losses

Evaluation of outdoor-to-indoor response to minimized sonic booms

Various studies were conducted by NASA and others on the practical limitations of sonic boom signature shaping/minimization for the High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) and on the effects of these shaped boom signatures on perceived loudness. This current effort is a further part of this research with emphasis on examining shaped boom signatures which are representative of the most recent investigations of practical limitations on sonic boom minimization, and on examining and comparing the expected response to these signatures when experienced indoors and outdoors

Carrying capacity models should not use fixed prey density thresholds: a plea for using more tools of behavioural ecology

Earlier studies have developed models of carrying capacity to predict the number of animals a certain area can support. These models assume that resources are not renewed after consumption (‘standing stock’ models), and that the initial number of prey and the rate of prey consumption determine the time a population of foragers can live in an area. Within such areas, foragers give up feeding at a sub-site or patch when intake rates no longer cover energy expenditure. To improve the success rate of the models’ predictions, we here change the existing rate-maximising models into fitness-maximising models, and include dynamics in the availability of patches. These new (conceptual) models show that the approaches used so far may over- as well as underestimate carrying capacity. We review empirical studies that have aimed to estimate carrying capacity, and discuss how concepts have been confused. We make explicit suggestions on how to proceed in predicting carrying capacities in future studies.

Great Mining Camps of Canada 3. The History and Geology of the Cariboo Goldfield, Barkerville and Wells, BC

The discovery of placer gold deposits in the Cariboo in 1860, and the immediate realization of their importance, were directly responsible for the establishment of the Province of British Columbia, allowing Canada to expand from ‘Sea to Shining Sea.’ Later, in the early 1930s, the new lode gold mines helped rescue the province from bankruptcy during the Great Depression. The Cariboo Goldfield is one of the longest continuously productive mining camps in Canada (nearly 150 years). The Cariboo Goldfield, like the California Goldfield, manifests two styles of mineralization: 1) primary lode gold deposits, and 2) secondary placer deposits. In plan, the zone of lode deposits trends linearly about 6 km in a northwest–southeast direction, within an inverted boot-shaped cluster of placer deposits having a surface area of about 250 km2. Three zones of rich placer creeks also trend northwest– southeast within the goldfield, the most northeasterly of which envelopes the known lode trend. The Cariboo Goldfield encompasses two dominant rock domains–an upper or hanging-wall domain of late Paleozoic ophiolitic rocks, part of Slide Mountain Terrane, and a more widespread, lower or foot-wall domain of late Proterozoic to Paleozoic continental margin meta-sedimentary rocks, part of the Barkerville Terrane. In cross-section, the lode deposits are located in a sub-horizontal, terrane-bounding fault (suture or high-strain zone), which separates the hanging-wall and footwall domains. The vertical extent of the mineralized zone below this suture is half a kilo-metre or less. Gold occurs in both pyritic quartz veins and pyritic replacement deposits; the mineralogy of the ore is simple: gold-bearing (auriferous) pyrite and minor amounts of other sulfide minerals. Three lode mines in the goldfield are from southeast to northwest, the Cariboo Gold Quartz, Island Mountain and Mosquito Creek mines. Combined production from these mines between 1933 and 1987 is about 38.3 million grams (g) (1.23 million troy ounces) of gold and 3.16 million g (101 439 troy ounces) of silver, which would be worth more than one billion dollars at current prices (~US$900 gold). Major placer deposits are located largely along creeks in the Goldfield mostly lying in gutters on bedrock overlain by Late Tertiary gravels but gold is also redistributed within overlying glacial sediments. Gold nuggets exhibit diverse shapes, from irregular and drusy to rounded and hammered, indicative of varied histories of transport. Average fineness ranges from 830 to 950 [gold to gold+silver, pure gold = 1000]. Since 1860, placer mines probably produced more than 118.2 million g (3.8 million troy ounces) worth about 3.4 billion dollars at current prices. Adventuresome placer miners reached the south end of the Goldfield in the winter of 1860 and the major producing creeks were all discovered during the following year. Initial mining took place in shallow deposits along creeks but within a year some mining was underway in water saturated gravels to depths of 20 m. Production peaked in 1863 but has continued at diminished rates until today. As placer production tailed off, great efforts went into the search for lode deposits. Many mineralized, pyritic quartz veins were found with very fine-grained gold contained within pyrite, but quartz veins containing nugget gold typical of that found in the placers remained elusive. In spite of provincial government assistance by providing milling and roasting facilities to process the lode deposits, the technology of the day was inadequate to make the deposits economic. The lodes were not viable until cyanide treatment became available and the price of gold rose. The Cariboo Gold Quartz mine opened in January 1933 and Island Mountain in November 1934. The Cariboo Gold Quartz purchased the Island Mountain mine in 1959 and both mines continued producing until 1967 when they closed because of unfavourable economics. Higher gold prices resulted in the Mosquito Creek mine coming into production in 1980 and continuing until 1987, after prices had receded. Recent high gold prices have again stimulated significant exploration. Like all gold rushes, the Cariboo has had a cast of strong and interesting characters. Four of the most memorable include: Billy Barker, an early placer miner; Bill Hong, a later Chinese placer miner; Amos Bowman, the first geologist; and Fred Wells, a prospector and mining entrepreneur during the heyday of lode mining. The village of Barkerville, named after Billy Barker, is now the site of a provincial park and museum dedicated to the gold rush, and the nearby town of Wells, named after Fred Wells, now functions mainly as a base for seasonal tourism, some exploration, and minor placer mining. RÉSUMÉ La découverte des gisements aurifères dans la région de Cariboo en 1860, et la prise de conscience immédiate de leur importance, sont les causes directes de la création de la province de Colombie-Britannique, ce qui a permis au Canada de s’étendre « d’un océan à l’autre ». Puis, au début des années 1930, de nouvelles mines d’or filonien ont permis de sauver la province de la faillite durant la Grande crise. Le champ aurifère de Cariboo est l’un des camps miniers ayant été en production continue le plus longtemps au Canada (presque 150 ans). Le champ aurifère de Cariboo, comme le champ aurifère de Californie, comporte deux styles de minéralisation : 1) des gisements primaires d’or filoniens, et 2) des gisements secondaires placériens. En plan, la zone de gisements filoniens s’étire sur 6 km du nord-ouest vers le sud-est, au sein d’un essain de gisements placériens formant une botte inversée d’une superficie de 250 km2. Trois zones de ruisseaux de riches gisements d’or placériens s’étirent aussi du nordouest au sud-est au sein de la région aurifère, la plus au nord-est envelop-pant la zone de gisements filoniens. Le champ aurifère de Cariboo comprend deux domaines principaux de roches – à l’éponte supérieure, un domaine de roches ophiolitiques paléozoïques faisant partie du terrane de Slide Mountain, et à l’éponte inférieure, un domaine plus étendu de roches métasédimentaires de marge continentale de la fin du Protérozoïque et du Paléozoïque faisant partie du terrane de Barkerville. En coupe, on peut voir que les gisements filoniens sont situés dans la zone d’une faille subhorizontale (de suture ou de déformation intense) séparant les domaines des deux épontes. Verticalement, l’épaisseur de la zone minéralisée sous cette suture ne dépasse pas un demi kilomètre. L’or se présente tantôt dans des veines de quartz pyritiques et tantôt dans des gisements de remplacement pyritique; la minéralogie du minerai est simple : il s’agit de pyrite aurifère et de quantités mineures d’autres minéraux sulfurés. Dans le champ minier, du sudest vers le nord-ouest on trouve trois mines d’or filonien, soit les mines Cariboo Gold Quartz, Island Mountain et Mosquito Creek. La production combinée de ces trois mines entre 1933 et 1987 totalise environ 38,3 millions de grammes (1,23 onces troy) d’or et 3,16 millions de grammes (101 439 onces troy) d’argent, ce qui vaudrait plus d’un milliard de dollars au prix actuels (~900$ US l’once d’or). Les gisements placériens les plus importants sont situés surtout le long de ruisseaux du champ minier formant gouttière sur le substratum recouverts de graviers de la fin du Tertiaire, mais on trouve aussi de l’or remobilisé au sein des dépôts glaciaires sus-jacents. Les pépites d’or se présentent sous des formes diverses, allant d’irrégulières et drusiques à arrondies et martelées, selon l’historique de leur transport. En moyenne la pureté (titre) varie de 830 à 950 (or à or + argent, or pure=1000). Depuis 1860, les mines placériennes ont donné plus de 118,2 millions de grammes (3,8 millions d’onces troy), ce qui vaut environ 3,4 milliards de dollars aux prix actuels. Les chercheurs d’or les plus aventureux ont atteint la limite sud du champ minier à l’hiver de 1860, et les principaux ruisseaux producteurs ont tous été découverts durant l’année suivante. Au début, l’extraction s’est faite à partir des gisements peu pro-fonds le long des ruisseaux, mais en moins d’une année on a travaillé à partir de gisements de graviers saturés d’eau à des profondeurs de 20 m. La meilleur année de production a été 1863, mais la production s’est poursuivie jusqu’à maintenant à des rythmes moindres. Au fur et à mesure que la production placérienne baissait, on a investit de plus en plus d’efforts d’exploration en quête de gisements filoniens. On a trouvé de nombreux gisements filoniens de quarts minéralisés de pyrite renfermant des grains d’or très fins, sans que l’on puisse trouver des gisements filoniens de quartz renfermant des pépites d’or comme celles des gisements d’or placériens. En dépit de l’aide gouvernemental provinciale qui a fourni des installations de concassage et de grillage du minerai filonien, la technologie d’alors n’en permettait pas une exploitation profitable. L’exploitation des gisements filoniens sont demeurés non rentables jusqu’à l’avènement du traitement par cyanure et la hausse du prix. La mine Cariboo Gold Quartz a été inaugurée en janvier 1933 et la mine Island Mountain en novembre 1934. La mine Cariboo Gold Quartz a acheté la mine Island Mountain en 1959 et les deux exploitations ont continué leurs opérations jusqu’à leur fermeture en 1967 à cause d’un contexte économique défavorable. De meilleurs prix pour l’or ont permis l’ouverture de la mine Mosquito Creek en 1980, opérations qui ont continuées jusqu’en 1987, jusqu’à une baisse insoutenable du prix de l’or. La remontée récente des prix a encore une fois stimulé des investissements significatifs en exploration. Comme toutes les ruées vers l’or, celle de la région de Cariboo a eu ses personnages intéressants. En voici quatre parmi les plus illustres : Billy Parker, un des premiers mineurs; Bill Hong, un mineur placérien arrivé plus tard; Amos Bowman, le premier géologue; et Fred Wells, un prospecteur et entrepreneur minier de l’âge d’or de l’exploitation minière filonienne. Le village de Bakerville, du nom de Billy Barker, est maintenant le site d’un parc provincial et d’un musée dédié à la ruée vers l’or, et non loin de là, la petite ville de Wells, du nom de Fred Wells, doit son existence surtout au tourisme saisonnier, à l’exploration minérale et à quelques activités mineures d’extraction de placers

Sonic boom (human response and atmospheric effects) outdoor-to-indoor response to minimized sonic booms

The preferred descriptor to define the spectral content of sonic booms is the Sound Exposure Spectrum Level, LE(f). This descriptor represents the spectral content of the basic noise descriptors used for describing any single event--the Sound Exposure Level, LE. The latter is equal to ten times the logarithms, to the base ten, of the integral, over the duration of the event, of the square of the instantaneous acoustic pressure, divided by the square of the reference pressure, 20 micro-Pa. When applied to the evaluation of community response to sonic booms, it is customary to use the so-called C-Weighted Sound Exposure Level, LCE, for which the frequency content of the instantaneous acoustic pressure is modified by the C-Weighting curve