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This story is being submitted to the People's War website by Liz Goddard on behalf of Don Johnson and he fully understands the site's terms and conditions

My tattered log book tells me the year was 1945 the month august. I had just been posted to 224 communication squadron with some pals from training days in South Africa and India . We were to pick up some Stinson L5’s flying jeeps which would eventually join with the forces to capture Malaya. I was appointed leader of the flight of seven of these ambulance aircraft and we had to get them down to trincomalee, Ceylon as fast as possible. Suffice to say that at ateh time some of us did not appreciate the down grading from hurricanes etc!

After fuel consumption tests we headed south from armada road on auguedst 15th 1945. in a fairly tidy manner and the end of the day saw us at Gannavram after seven hours flying in not quite so neat a formation! Next day eight and a half hours in the seat brought us to China Bay, total 12,000 miles in fifteen and a half hours (average 79 miles per hour)

The first stint down to Gannavram took place on VJ day the A bombs had been dropped and the Japanese had given up. This obviously slowed down the invasion plans (operation zipper) somewhat and saved many lives, probably including ours! We then checked out some Auster 3’s and V’s at
Vavuniva which were then loaded onto the aircraft carrier HMS Trumpeter (a converted merchantman) in China Bay harbour. We were a motley crew with pilots as varied as the aircraft we were flying — Auster 3’s and V’s, Stinson L5’s, Sea Otter Amphibs and included some army spotter guys again in Austers. The trip down the straits of Sumatra makes another good story with us being well looked after by the navy and we eventually got airborne. My friend ‘Shag’ Webster and I loaded Auster S;/N 522 up to the gunwales with two props tyres spares etc, all of which made us earnestly wish that they had had angled decks in those days. Safely airborne at 1400 hours with a climb rate we didn’t talk about we touched down two hours later on the runway at Kuala Lumpur in good form. The date was September 24th 1945. Kualur Lumpur was in a shambles with Japanese POWs being shuffled around by the army guys and we were soon busy charging around the countryside. Looking back much of my flying seemed to involved chauffeuring a General Hone around and looking for commie and Japanese camps in the jungle. The general was I think the guy who had the bright idea to hold an open weekend to assure the Malays that we were the good guys and that the Japanese had all been subdued. Leaflets were hurriedly printed and a few of us were delegated to drop them over the KL area. Imagine the potential fun legal low flying for hours and hours. So here is the scene Auster 3 S/N 843 is fully loaded with leaflets I’m going to be driving and my pal Tom Meddick squeezes in as he is going to be shovelling them out. The windows were clamped up to the wings and we were both formally dressed with no shirts, khaki shorts, pumps (no trainers in those days) and peaked caps to add some authority to the exercise. We had about one and a half hours beating up the surrounding villages with Tom shouting his head off and behaving like a demented school boy whilst hurling out leaflets. We did one drop into the mess swimming pool and set out to ‘bomb’ Kuala Lumpur itself. Our final run was down the main street below the roofs of the buildings and Tom’s over enthusiasm sent my hat out of the window with yet another bundle of leaflets! This was my pride and joy! It had been with me all the way from South Africa through North ‘Africa India etc. this hat was special it had been filled many items with beer and other things the wire rim had been removed and replaced with .38 cartridges. It drooped magnificently around my ears — it was definitely a get your knees brown version of which one could be proud. And now it was gone forever! Tom and I did not talk much on the way back to the field — not that you could talk much anyway in an old Auster with no radio headsets or doors. Then came the shock! The stick would not come back on finals and was as stiff as hell! I needed al the help that both Tom and the engine could give me to get down and we finally kangarooed to a standstill. When we finally alighted with much relief we found the problem — ‘parasite drag’ our tail plane and struts were loaded with the damn leaflets! There was also a lovely trail of the bloody things where we had bounced down the runway!

The Sequel

I just had to put a notice on the Daily orders board. ‘officers hat of great sentimental value lost in Kuala Lumpur High Street — proud owner Don Johnson would be grateful to have it back. Two hours later Jack Walker one of our best mechanics presented it to me! He had been walking down the High Street with his new Chinese girlfriend when this hat appeared from the heavens and with a little persuasion had extricated it from a local who thought it was his lucky day! Tom and I were now able to speak again and his flying ban had been lifted. We were all friends again 58 years ago !

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