357 SPECIAL DUTIES SQUADRON RAF
FORCE 136 OPERATIONS

Click Here to read about the Lysanders 'C' Flight

As the phasing out of the operational role of 161 (SD) Squadron at Tempsford in England progressed, three officers, F/Lts G.A. Turner, P.
Arkell and J.E.M. Williams were posted to 357 Squadron in Bengal India to form the nucleus of a Lysander flight for operations in Burma. These three officers arrived at Jessore the base HQ of 357 Squadron on the 18th January 1945.

After much preparatory work organizing the assembly and test flying of ten Lysander aircraft which had been transported by sea from the U.K.
F/Lt Turner assumed command of "C" flight 357 S.D.Squadron which was commanded by Wing Commander Lewis Hodges.
They then commenced training newly arrived officer and Snr Nco pilots, one of whom was a F/O Varanand who was a Prince of the Siamese Royal House and whose presence would be highly valuable in any Lysander activities which might be planned for the Siamese zone.

On April 28/29th the detachment moved to Meiktila under the general operational control of 221 Group Meiktila. Operations were to be laid on exclusively by Force 136 Tactical H.Q. at 221 Group.

The first operational sortie was flown by F/Lt Arkell on the 3rd May.
The D.Z. or dropping zone was one of Force 136 Landing strips at Mewaing on the Bilin River east of Pegu.
Force 136 maintained a number of landing strips mainly in the Toungoo zone.
The zone was split into four areas, each given the code name of an animal
:- Walrus, Otter, Hyena and Mongoose. Various dropping zones were in addition allocated a color ie. Otter Red, to further ease location. The overall operation was known as "Character".

As an operational unit, May to November 1945 "C" Flight made 249 pick-ups and 156 free drop sorties.