Page 24 - July 2019
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A "shoot" of artillery "was straightforward and We were under the command of the RAF and we were
generally very accurate." The guns, over the radio, supplied by the army for the job."
reported, "Shot one". Says Ashfield: "You counted,
"We got great, great support from the RCAF people in our
less the time of flying, went up and made a diving squadron," he added. "They looked after them (the
turn -- and immediately gave the correction." The gun
Austers) just like they were babies and they were very, very
would fire again and another correction made. "It just
seldom unserviceable too long."
happens: bing, bing, bing, bing and you're on the
target." Ashfield's estimation is that "we really arrived too late to
do much good." The book Squadrons of the RCAF says 665
As the Auster evolved, the amount of clear Perspex
Squadron flew its first operations on April 27, 1945, and the
around the cockpit increased. By the arrival of the final one on May 7.
Mark 5, "the whole top of the aircraft was a big
Perspex blister," Ashfield said. 664 Squadron logged only one month more of flying and
666 did not fly operations at all.
But this is not to say the work was not dangerous.
Ashfield recalls an armistice under which hostile aircraft
could not fly. He interpreted that to exclude the unarmed
Auster, so he and his "batman" (assistant), a recycled
infantry sergeant, got into the Auster and headed for one
of the Netherlands' cities.
Ashfield knew that Dutch civilians protesting the continued
occupation by the Germans had been fired upon, "and a
great number of them were killed", so he determined to
land and talk to some of the locals. His landing site turned
out to be an irrigated field.
"A pilot, if he wanted to see something, could bank They might have been stuck there had not the sergeant the
the aircraft and look out through the roof." Similarly, presence of mind to jump from the slowly rolling Auster
time and experience moved the gas tank from a point and lift the starboard wing, allowing it to pick up speed
forward of the pilot to the wings. The RT (radio- before jumping back in for the take-off. A good thing, too.
telephone) was "rather primitive", while the initial Ashfield could see Dutch civilians running toward them,
British-built Major engine was "very fine". plus "people in grey uniforms". "When we got back, there
It was replaced in some models by an American were some holes in the aircraft, but fortunately not in us."
Lycoming four-cylinder horizontally opposed engine.
"They were adequate, but nothing wonderful,"
Ashfield said.
"They were given to us because the maintenance was
handled like a Volkswagen: kinda 'you run it and then
throw it away'."
The landing gear legs came straight up into the
fuselage and were held in place by a rubber shock
cord.
The mix of personnel in 665 Squadron mirrored the
early disputes over army co-operation work.
