Douglas A-20 Havoc

[vikingBerserker]

I never knew a lot about the A-20, but I have to say the more I learn the more I like the plane.

 

[renrich]

I have always been a fan of the A20 also. It seems to be a bit of an underappreciated AC. Seems to me that one handicap it might have had as a night fighter is that it had no room for a radar operator near the pilot, like the Beaufighter and P61 had.

 

[kration]

I have always been a fan of the A20 also. It seems to be a bit of an underappreciated AC. Seems to me that one handicap it might have had as a night fighter is that it had no room for a radar operator near the pilot, like the Beaufighter and P61 had.

In the Beaufighter I think the pilot and radar operator were remote from each other separated by a fuel tank.

 

[jamierd]

the radar operator in the beaufighter was half way between the pilot and the tail
with a large bulkhead door between them too

 

[BOATTRASH1]

New on here as of today. Really enjoyed reading this thread.
I was always told the A-20 was the best plane in the air. But that was probably a biased opinion
My father was a pilot in the 89 Attack Squadron. He was in Savannah Ga. on Dec. 7, '41 and shipped out in early Jan of '42. He didn't talk a lot about his experiences and when he did I should have listened more. I did meet some of his squadron mates at a reunion in Galveston TX in '96.
From what I remember when they first got to Australia they were camped at Ascot race track in Brisbane. I have a photo of my dad at that location. Then they went up to Charter's Towers where I believe they had to help build their own strip. They didn't have any aircraft yet and when they heard about some B-25's in Brisbane they went down and stole them (from the Dutch Air Force I believe). I asked at the reunion if my dad was involved in this and they indicated he had been. This allowed them to get ready to start hitting back at the Japanese. Pappy Gunn was involved in getting these ac ready to go to work.
Not sure of the time line when they finally got the A-20's but it wasn't long after the aircraft theft.
In New Guinea I believe he was based at Three Mile Drome ast Port Moresby.
Things I do remember were him telling me that they had no charts in the beginning and flew with maps torn from National Geographic magazine which may have had the max height of the Owen Stanley Range incorrect. Weather was often pretty bad crossing the range to strike the Japanese on the North Shore. I know he was involved in the first use of parafrags (Gen. Kinney's idea) which occurred at Lae. I have an old black and white aerial photo of Lae with some grease pencil markings on it and some notations on the back regarding time for B-25's to strafe and A-20's to come in and drop the parafrags. I remember him telling me he missed out on the Bismark Sea fun as he was in Australia in a hospital w/ Dengue Fever.
I have a good book by Gen. Kinney which is basically a day by day diary from when he got tapped by McAurthur to replace the then head of the 5th AF. (Gen. Royce ?)
Anyway, glad I found this place and will post more as time allows and I find more stuff.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Excellent, and welcome to the forum. When you get ready to post more of this info you might want to start your own thread. This will keep the Mods happy and you can go back at any time and ad more to it without have other things posted in and around. And I along with everyone else probably, am eagerly awaiting the next installment in this history lesson and thank you for posting.

 

[Airframes]

Great info, and welcome to the forum.

 

[Sydhuey]

Great to have you on BOATTRASH1, love the A-20 my favorite a/c , as the others said open your own thread looking fwd to it , the 89th and 22sqn RAAF were the only A-20 units in the dark days thru late 42 and 43 till the mass inputs of A-20G's from the US in early 44, Your Father was at the forefront of the time period of holding the Japanese at bay then the turning from defensive to offensive operations in the Pacific.