Trafford

Attended Wadham House School and Altrincham Grammar School.   Member of the
145 ATC Altrincham.    Employed in the family business - John Tuffnell &
Co. Manchester.

Two other brothers serving also.    Mother informed of his death 3 days
after VJ - Day.

No.358 Squadron was formed at Kolar, in India, on 8 November 1944, mainly
from personnel of No.1673 Heavy Conversion Unit which had recently
disbanded. Sixteen Liberators arrived during the month and crew training
began. After moving to Digri in January 1945, the squadron flew its first
bombing mission on 13 January, when eight aircraft bombed Mandalay. This
however, proved to be the only bombing operation flown, as the squadron was
then allotted to Special Duties. These consisted of dropping agents and
supplies into enemy occupied territory, in the course of which long flights
were undertaken. The fact that the first SD operation on 22 January lost
three out of eleven aircraft illustrates the hazards of this type of
mission when apart from the distances and weather problems involved, low
altitude flights over enemy territory had to be made to locate dropping
zones. Such flights continued until the end of the war. After the Japanese
surrender, supplies were dropped to prisoner-of-war camps in Malaya,
Sumatra and Java, until an airlift could be arranged to bring the occupants
out to Allied bases. On 19 November 1945, the squadron was sent off for
disbandment which took place officially two days later. 

RAF Memoirs of SE Asia
358 Squadron
Arrival in India
by William A. Pugh 

  On arrival in Bombay, India on July 28, 1944 and, after a short stay at
WORLI outside that city, I was posted to the R.A.F. Station in Poona where
I was assigned to a crew being assembled for dispatch to 356 Squadron.
However, I was hospitalized with dysentery and missed joining them. After
discharge from the Military Hospital in Poona I was in limbo but would be
assigned to various interior flights until I was reassigned to a new
Squadron of 'Liberators' being formed at Kola, Mysore State. I became a
member of F/O H. V. Smith's crew in November 1944 and subsequently learned
that F/O Smith was a Canadian from Winnipeg and we, the crew, would come to
know him as 'Smithy'. 

Our Squadron No. 358 initially operated from Digri for three weeks, then we
moved to an advance base (90 miles east of Calcutta) named Jessore. We then
operated from there as a Special Duty (SD) Squadron. Our flights were made
to transport men and supplies for the Underground Movement and took place
during moon periods: that is to say 5 days before the moon reached its full
and 5 days after. For the first two months we operated like this. It may
not seem much, but the worst part of it from our point of view was that we
were out practically all the time during those 10 nights. Long trips - 14
to 18 hours - (on one occasion 23 Hrs. 40 Min.) intermingled with short 8
to 10 hour ones to give us a breather! 

When the British 14th Army really got moving and were sweeping everything
before them by March of 1945, our Squadron was ordered to speed up
operations with the result that daylight drops came into being. 

Our Squadron strength at the outset of operations should have been 25
aircraft. We only received 18 'Liberators' and, as we were losing an
average of 5 planes during each moon period of 10 days, our ability to
perform the tasks assigned to us was being tested to the utmost as
replacement crews and planes were slow in arriving. 

We had been losing a lot of aircraft and good crews, and our position was
pretty desperate. We learned from Admiral Mountbatten our C-in-C, S.E.A.C.
that replacements were slow in coming forward (aircraft as well as men),
because of the war in Europe being at its height but, as soon as that was
over and finished we would swamp the Japanese with everything we had. I
don't know how many aircraft we had lost up to the time of our fateful
trip, but on the inaugural operation of our Squadron we lost 6 out of 10
aircraft which was a very heavy blow in more ways than one, when one takes
into consideration that at least 10 crew were on board each plane. 

All crews were finishing their tours of duty very quickly but they kept
flying until replacements arrived. I knew one crew very well who had done
over 300 hours, being out every time possible and had long since completed
their tour of duty. Before going on R & R the crew were ordered to fly to
Calcutta to pick up their relief crew but tragically crashed into another
plane on their landing circuit and all on board were killed. That's what
you call Bad Luck. Regrettably there were many such stories one would learn
about, especially when hostilities ceased in S. E. Asia. Many aircraft were
lost with their crews and P.O.W. passengers being air-lifted to Burma and
India. It was really tragic.