413 Squadron

DESCRIPTION: "Four One Three, we're bound to be On a page of history... We're on Hirohito's trail now... Four One Three above the sea, Up defending liberty, Think of what it means to be Part of squadron Four One Three." The Japanese are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: war warning technology
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 39, "413 Squadron" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29404
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South of Columbo" (subject of the 413 squadron)
cf. "California, Here I Come" (tune)
NOTES [859 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear explains that 413 squadron was a squadron of PBY Catalina amphibious planes which served in the Shetlands in 1941, then was hurried to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in March 1942 as the Japanese were attacking both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Hopkins implies that the Japanese attacked Sri Lanka with the attempt to take it, but everything I've ever heard indicates that the Japanese never intended to invade anywhere beyond Singapore. The British expected a Japanese assault, but the goal of the Japanese raid "was a defensive one, to disperse the British Eastern Fleet, and cover Japanese troop reinforcements en route to Rangoon" (Wheal/Pope, p. 89).
The primary British naval bases in the Indian Ocean were at Colombo and Trincomalee in what was then Ceylon, so any British attack on the Japanese empire would have to be based from there (Morison, pp. 381-382). The Japanese decided to put the bases out of commission, which they did successfully, also sinking the ancient British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire, and some lesser ships. The British still controlled Ceylon, but they were forced to base their fleets even further to the west (Morison, pp. 383-384). At least the Catalinas helped warn the British battleships in the area, all of which survived (Morison, p. 382).
In any case, the Catalinas were not themselves going to do much to defeat the Japanese; although they had some weapons-carrying capability, they were primarily scout planes, in service because they had very great range and, being amphibious, could be based anywhere that had a fuel supply. That's not in any way intended to denigrate the Catalina pilots. It took real guts to fly a large, slow plane with limited defensive weaponry fifteen hundred miles away from base into territory controlled by the enemy!
For more on the Catalina (called the "Canso" when built in Canada), see the notes on "No. 5. Squadron Song."
Creed, p. 255, gives this background on the squadron in this song: "No. 413 Squadron flew Cansos its entire service life. The squadron began existence in 1941 at Stranraer, Scotland, coincidentally on Canada's Dominion Day, 1 July. After three months of training, the unit transferred to Sullom Voe and for five months flew northwest Atlantic convoy and submarine patrols.
"When Japan entered the war and the British Empire crumbled in the Far East, No. 413 was sent to India to shore up its defenses. On 2 April 1942 operations began out of Koggala with a reconnaissance mission flown over the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, the first of several searches for a Japanese fleet believed to be preparing a strike on the island. Two days later, Squadron Leader L. J. Birchall found what they had been looking for. Radio operators at Koggala heard the Canso's radio operator tap out the position, course, and speed of a large enemy force, then in mid-transmission the signal stopped.
"Birchall was hailed as 'the Savior of Ceylon.' Thanks to his warning, the defenses were ready and the Japanese attack was beaten off. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, it was thought posthumously," but he and his crew would eventually be discovered to have survived in a Japanese prison camp.
"Four days after Birchall's disappearance, Flight Lieutenant R. Thomas, holder of a Distinguished Flying Cross awarded for action with the RAF, reported a Japanese naval force heading for Colombo on Ceylon. Like Birchall, his radio message ended in mid-sentence, but he and his crew were never heard from again. Nonetheless his warning came in time, and the enemy attack on the naval base at Trincomalee the following day was thwarted."
This is a little exaggerated. But the heroism of the 413 squadron pilots is undeniable.
It was the highlight of their war. Creed, pp. 256-257, says "From that time on life for No. 413 settled into a routine of convoy escorts and antisubmarine patrols, broken only by a 2,000-mile bombing and reconnaissance mission to investigate Japanese activities in northern Sumatra. Freight service was begun between Ceylon and Australia" -- flights that took roughly a whole day. "As the war progressed, the squadron became fragmented, with detachments at Addu Atoll five hundred miles south of Ceylon, Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles off the African coast, Aden, the Persian Gulf, Kenya, Natal, and South Africa. Some crews were five thousand miles from home base in Koggala, and the squadron boasted that it was the most widely dispersed unit in the world.
"In 1944, its third year in Ceylon, No. 413 received its official badge from King George VI. It was an elephant's head on a maple leaf background and from it came the nickname, "Tusker Squadron.' Patrols and rescue work continued until December of that year, when the squadron was paced on nonoperational status, and its Cansos and some of its crews transferred to RAF squadrons."
"California, Here I Come" (by Joseph Meyer, Al Jolson, and Bud DeSylva) was a hit in 1924. It became a standard, but it's still interesting that it was used for a parody fifteen-odd years later. - RBW
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