First Combat Helicopter Rescue - 1st Air Commando Group
by Col. Mike Haas
USAF Special Operations School
Printed with permission of "Night FlYer",
First Quarter 1994 issue.
The effectiveness with which World War II's
Air Commandos turned unconventional ideas into battlefield success
has been held forth, rightfully so, as a classic example of what can
be accomplished with imagination, common sense and a "can do"
attitude.
By aggressively attacking enemy
fortifications, transport, lines of communications, and in general
making a nuisance of themselves to the Japanese command, the 1st Air
Commando Group's fighters, bombers and transports made possible
British and American long range penetrations behind enemy
lines.
In 1944 the Air Commandos went a step
further with a gamble on something really strange, even by their
standards. At the time it was called simply, "Project 9."
When implemented in Burma the project went on to become another first
in a series of Air Commando successes: The first ever combat
employment of the helicopter.
Designated the YR-4B, the Sikorsky
helicopter was short on speed, range, payload, and altitude and
reliability, not to mention looks. The pilot and single passenger sat
in front of a 180 horsepower engine and transmission supported by a
fabric covered, skeleton type airframe. On a "good day" its
wooden main rotor would lift it to a maximum ceiling of approximately
4,000 feet density altitude.
While the Pentagon
resisted the temptation to schedule the Army Air Corps Band for the
YR-4B's official rollout, it did do something much more important. It
sent the helicopter to . . . you guessed it . . . the Air
Commandos.
To fly the YR-4B, the designer of the
aircraft. Igor Sikorsky sent his nephew to handpick eight pilot
candidates for training from a group of Army Air Corps volunteers.
The remaining four pilot graduates, with four YR-4Bs and four
mechanics, were sent to the Burma-India Theater for their baptism of
fire.
The four helicopters and crews arrived in
Lalaghat, India, near the Burma-India border in April, 1944, for
their big moment. Within 30 days only one remained operational due to
a series of crashes and mechanical failures.
The
remaining pilot, Lt. Carter Harman, flew solo 600 miles to a secret
base in central Burma. Secret to the Japanese commander at least, who
didn't know the commando base was operating 30 miles behind his front
lines. Harman's next flight took him still further into
Japanese-controlled territory and into the history books as
well.
The mission that had brought Harman so far
was the rescue of a downed American pilot and the three wounded
British soldiers he had been flying back to friendly lines when his
L-l aircraft had gone down. With no airstrip or friendly troops near
the rescue site, the Air Commando leader Col. Phil Cochran gambled on
the unproven helicopter. There were however, some very good arguments
to be made against his decision.
Burma's
excessive heat and humidity so limited the YR-4B that Harman could
barely hover with only himself on board. When tasked to rescue the
isolated group, the easy part was figuring that four separate flights
were needed. But how to get a survivor on board even if he got to the
site?
Harman used a technique
familiar to many of today's helicopter pilots who have survived
similar situations. By jerking the vertical lift controls he could
get the helicopter to pop momentarily into the air. By quickly but
gently nosing the aircraft forward from the top of this "pop-up,"
he stood a fair chance of getting sufficient forward speed and
airlift to flyaway. If he didn't hit the ground and explode first.
Fortunately for a lot of people, Harman's "field expedient"
take-off was successful.
With a useful payload
of only 500 lbs after the auxiliary fuel tank had been mounted,
Harman took two days to complete the four rescue missions. The downed
L-l pilot later reported that seeing the YR-4B drop down from the sky
was "like seeing an angel" coming to his rescue.
Colonel
Cochran had witnessed the rescue, observing later "We want
people to know it's not just a stunt. It really works. Just imagine
what we could do with a couple hundred of them."
In
the ensuing weeks, other helicopters went on to save 18 additional
lives.
The Air Commando willingness to try
something different, Harman's flying skills and courage, and the
required dose of good luck all combined to underscore again, 50 years
later, what can be done when "accomplishing the mission" is
the paramount consideration.
The 1st Air
Commando Group, the first helicopter combat mission, the first combat
helicopter mission, the first helicopter combat rescue.
|
Lt. Carter Harmon (standing at left) made the first AAF helicopter rescue, in Burma, behind Japanese lines on April 25-26, 1944. 1st Air Commando sergeant pilot Ed "Murphy" Hladovcak had crash landed his L-1 light plane with 3 wounded British solders on board. Taxing his YR-4 helicopter to its performance limits, Harmon made four flights to the site, making the final hasty liftoff just as shouting soldiers burst from the jungle. He learned later the soldiers were not Japanese, but an Allied land rescue party.
For more on the beginning of the 1st Air Commando Group, click here.