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THE STORY At about 2230 hours on 7 December 1941 the Indian Brigade manning the coastal defences at Kota Bharu, on the East coast of Malaya, just South of the Thailand border, sent a message to the airfield, (located about a kilometre inland), that ships had been sighted moving towards the beach. There appeared to be signalling by lamp from the beach to the ships. Earlier, reconnaissance patrols by RAF Catalinas and RAAF Hudsons had detected Japanese Navy vessels in the Gulf of Siam to the North, so there was little doubt that this was a Japanese invasion. At this time the UK and the British Empire were not at war with the Japanese. Failing advice from ‘the top’, a local decision was taken. It was decided they had to attack the Japanese vessels after they started shelling the beach early on the 8th. There was a problem. Heavy rain had fallen the day before and, technically, the airstrip was unserviceable. This would not stop the Aussies. Six aircraft were placed on standby, armed with two 250 lb G.P. bombs and two 250 lb S.A.P. bombs. All bombs were fused with 11 sec time delay and distance between bombs on each stick set at six yards. At 0208, on 8 December, the first attack sortie by the RAAF in the South East Asian war took off from the water-logged strip. This aircraft, A29-21 was captained by F/L Johnny Lockwood with crew of F/O Tony Jay and Sergeants Munday and Thompson. It was followed seven minutes later by A16-19, captained by F/L Ramshaw with crew of F/O Dowie and Sergeants Coldrey and White. By 0300,all available,(ten), Hudsons had taken off to attack the Japanese ships. In the meantime, F/L Ramshaw had returned to base, re-armed and was in the air at 0320, again flying A16-19 with the same crew. He attacked a cruiser at extremely low level, dropping his bombs so they bounced across the water towards the ship. Then there was an explosion in the aircraft. Whether it was caused by the accurate Japanese AA or by its own bomb is unknown. Ramshaw managed to pull up over the cruiser but crashed into the sea beyond it. There was only one survivor, F/O Downie. He drifted for some time before eventually being pulled out of the sea by the Japanese and spending the rest of the war as a POW. The taking of the Northern Malayan airstrips was crucial to the Japanese invasion and, although the Australians, Indians and British put up a stout resistance they were overwhelmed and the Kota Bharu airfield was taken by the Japanese in less than three days. My first intention was to model A16-21 but I am unsure of its identity which could have been either US-D or US-E. Also, I had no photos of this machine. However, the second aircraft to take-off is another case. Its codes are known to be US-B and I have a number of photos of it, albeit at an earlier time, but I doubt that it changed much in peacetime. It was also the first RAAF loss in action in the theatre and also probably had the first RAAF member to become a POW of the Japanese. THE KIT Not much choice here. The only kit in 1/48 is the venerable Classic Airframes kit first produced some 25 years ago. I picked up a couple of samples but, generally, after examining them, put them back in the box. I think their main claim to fame was their inaccuracy. Now many years later I have pulled them out again. No RAAF collection is complete without at least one Hudson. Research has helped me identify many of the kit's failings and led to thinking about how I may be able to remedy some of them. More details to come.

I'm hoping someone can confirm or otherwise if Harrier XV778 'Beech Buggy' had the artwork on both sides of the tail fin. All the images I have in various publications show this airframe from the port side, it seems that none in the public domain are taken from the starboard side. I did manage a screen grab from this film on Youtube that suggests it was, but it really is a blink and you'll miss it moment and isn't definitely of XV778. It did however (once again from the starboard side!! ) provide a few other details. If anyone has an image of the starboard side they can share, please do! Mark.