Finding The Drop Zone

Heroes Remember

Finding The Drop Zone

Transcript

Interviewer: What was your reaction when you returned to Canada and to your family? Well, I couldn't forget what had happened, and I had trouble sleeping. I went to university and, like I say, it's only, it's only for a year and a half. I couldn't, couldn't concentrate. I had a lot of trouble at the beginning, and it was such a change from, from being on the squadron to civilian life. It's … I had trouble adjusting, until I started working. And when you start working, you're, you're tired, and it seems to help, you know, busy during the day. I was married and had children and, but I always had trouble. Interviewer: Can you tell us what it was that was bothering you? What kind of experiences? Well, you wonder. Like, it was my job to find the DZ, the drop zone. And the drop zone, what they would do is that, the people on the ground would light the flares when they heard us, when we were close. So I had to find it quickly. I had to direct the, the aircraft to come the direction at the bottom of the cross to the top, because that gave us the wind direction. So, you know, you have to go into the wind to be able to drop people. So we had to do it very quickly, we had to find it quickly. The longer you were over enemy territory, the more chance of the Japanese spotting you and shooting you down. So we had to find the DZ very quickly, and get the mission over with and get out of there. So, it was quite a panic for me to find it. And, of course, I wasn't the only one. Our first navigator would do it. Everybody would be looking for it, but the flight crew would not see it. They couldn't see it. It was below them, and so we had to direct them to where, the direction to go. So there was always this panic I had, that. Boy, I gotta find that drop zone awful quick and get it over with, and drop our men, hopefully safely. And, but we never knew, we never knew what had happened. Never did know. Interviewer: Were there times when you had trouble finding the drop zone? Yes, one time, one trip. We, we had to cancel two trips. The first one, we couldn't find the drop zone. There was no flares. We were exactly at the area because we, our drop zones were exactly on the map. We knew exactly how to get there. And we had, we were at the right location. It was south of Kuala Lumpur, and there was no flares. We turned around quickly a second time. I thought maybe they hadn't been prepared, or hadn't done. There was still no flares. So we aborted. We didn't have any men to drop or anything. We just had supplies and ammunition. So we dropped it off in the ocean and came back. We had no problem that time. The second time is when they, the flares came up, but I had the wrong signal, and so I aborted the trip, and that's when they started shooting at us. So they must've taken over and found out how to do it, I guess. And that's the time we had this risky trip.

Description

Mr. Thomarat recalls the difficulty and stress involved in finding the drop zone and carrying the burden of that stress after the war.

Armand E. Thomarat

Armand Thomarat was born on the 19th of February in 1922. His father was a carpenter and a highly decorated first World War Veteran who was awarded, among other medals, the Legion of Honor. Following in the footsteps of his father and four brothers, Mr. Thomarat joined the army in 1941. After serving briefly as a clerk, he transferred to the air force, becoming a bomb aimer and a gunner on the front turret. On long trips, he served as second navigator.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 3:51
Person Interviewed:: Armand E. Thomarat
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Burma
Battle/Campaign:: Burma
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 357 Squadron
Rank:: Flying Officer

Language selection

Finding The Drop Zone

Heroes Remember