Brigand Lineup at Tengah awaiting armourers to load up

Cabin Entry was gained via a drop down portion in the belly, just aft of the wings, in this door are footholds to get up into the rear fuselage, a few small steps bring you to an opening approx 30 ins square, this over the main spar. The reason the entrance into cockpit was restricted was due to the main spar of wings going through to each other, not much left between it and the fuselage roof just behind the canopy. The entrance into crew area was not very big at all but we managed, during our crash whilst hurtling down to earth I dove through there and didnt even touch the sides. The crew compartment is from here to the pilots seat, which folds backwards so he can get into it and then is raised in the upright position. Behind him is the Navigator and then the Radio/Radar operator. There is not a great deal of room to work in but just enough to work the various equipments all located on the side facing to Starboard, the Navigator and I would share a flat bench seat. The seating of Nav and myself was fore and aft, side by side facing starboard. Looking down from above the crew compartment with the front looking North, the pilot would be looking ahead, behind him would be the Navigator sitting sideways and he would be looking East towards the wing tip, I would be rubbing elbows with him sitting side by side facing the same way, turning our head to our left we would be staring at the back of the pilots seat.  Nav. had a small folding table to work on in front of him, my equipment took up a lot of room. All in all it was only just adequate. The Pilot had the job of driving, firing the guns and rockets and releasing the bombs. The Nav would be checking our position in which I helped with. My job, Radio/ Nav, would be maintaining communication  with our operational H.Q. located on Singapore Island at R.A.F. Changi. I would also be getting bearings from VHF/DF. and HF/DF to cross check our position along with using our D/F Loop with which we could home onto a particular beacon.(Especially in bad weather or poor visibility) I also would do the speaking  communicating with the ground forces in the jungle areas. There was always a radio man and quite often no navgator. For our type of work I could always get us home no problem, of course we would have a Nav for crossing long stretches of water or in very difficult circumstances

Peter A. Weston

paweston@trytel.com

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Copyright John Justin 1998-2017