Petrol Shortage? What Petrol Shortage?

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20 years

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I was talking this afternoon with a chap who serviced RNZAF Venturas and Corsairs in the Pacific in 1943-44. He was saying that after almost every flight they had to wash the aircraft down because the coral dust would build up on the paintwork, and he said it had a consistency of goo. I'd always imagined it was simply dry dust, but it must be like the awful sticky soil they have in the tropics. I guess if it is was left to build up on an airframe it would eventually compromise the aerodynamic performance and slow the speed down. Would it also have been corrosive?

Anyway, the method they used to clean the dust off the planes was a high pressure hose from a petrol tanker. They just hosed it off like you would with the garden hose when washing a car. He said one day he asked the tanker driver how much gas he'd used when he had cleaned just one aircraft. The answer - 400 US gallons! Holy cow!

US gallons are not as big as real gallons, but that's a lot of wasted fuel when you consider that at home no-one could get the stuff. Apparently in contrast back in NZ when they cleaned the planes with petrol they were given half a bucket and a scrubbing brush. Much more conservative.

He said often they used more petrol to clean the aircraft than it had used during its flight that caused the mess!

Also it just seeped into the coral. They didn't have any catchment to attempt to recycle it in any way. Quite incredible really. Those old airstrips at Santo and Guadalcanal must be an ecological nightmare.

He said he once saw the ground catch light under a Ventura because of all the fuel soaking away down there. The bomber was being bombed up at the time too and a Sgt got some sort of medal for running back and forth rolling the bombs out of the fire!!

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24 years 2 months

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I used to fly a Yak 52. The radial on this does a fair job of covering the airframe with oil every flight, and as a group owned aircraft you didn't want to leave it dirty for the next guy.

I found that using one of those nice aerosol bottles that gardeners mist their plants with, filled up from the fuel tank drain, was by far the best solution.

Here, of course, we are talking a lot less than 400 gallons.

Moggy

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21 years

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He was saying that after almost every flight they had to wash the aircraft down because the coral dust would build up on the paintwork, and he said it had a consistency of goo. I'd always imagined it was simply dry dust, but it must be like the awful sticky soil they have in the tropics.

Having spent a holiday once on a tiny south pacific coral island I can say that the white coral sand from the beaches stuck to everthing and so can understand why they used avgas to wash it off the aircraft.

It seemed to take forever to get the coral dust off our skin in a shower......... :rolleyes:

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20 years

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Cheers Firebird,

I never knew it was like that. And yet it looks so inviting in the brochures.

Dave

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20 years

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A 100LL bath is just the thing for degreasing an oily airplane. It works well, and completly evaporates, so no water spots. Of course, it's dangerous as hell and not very sensitive to the environment. We've gotten away from doing this.

I find that getting a Cleaning Tuna in the back seat does wonders for getting an airplane neat and tidy.

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20 years 5 months

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I find that getting a Cleaning Tuna in the back seat does wonders for getting an airplane neat and tidy.

What???? :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:
Patty, have you been sniffing the Lagavulin again?

However, Dave,
my dad who's an Eighth Army Veteran tells me everything was washed down in petrol in North Africa because water was always so short and petrol wasn't.
This included clothes, not only did it bleach War Office standard issue uniforms to a much lighter shade but killed any unwanted visitors that lived in the seams! Cooking was also done over petrol fires too. To make a fire you took one large empty 'Bully Beef' tin, filled it with sand and then soaked the sand with several gallons of petrol. Once alight it would last several hours. Once when a young officer was first out from England he said to my Dad 'Jones, get a couple of men to go and gather wood for a fire'. Dad had to tactfully explain that there wasn't a tree for about 150 miles so the likelyhood of firewood was low!
Also to give you some idea what a British soldier on active service in North Africa looked like in WW2, Dad had a pair of German jack boots for a while (his real ones disintegrated--and the German didn't need them anymore--if you know what I mean) a pair of shorts cut down from trousers (plus one pair of trousers left intact--plus a battledress tunic bleached very light by petrol.
He wore a 9mm Beretta on the hip cowboy style (borrowed from an Italian POW)--not much use for killing the enemy but very useful for dispatching rabid dogs at a safe distance. Not exactly parade ground style but practical. The Desert Air Force looked exactly the same too apparently.
Cheers
Andy

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20 years

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Cheers Andy. Yeah, I've spoken with a number of old 2NZEF soldiers who served in North Africa who've told me about using petrol to wash everything with. I wonder if many of them contracted dermatitis or other skin problems from that.

The RNZAF guys in the Pacific used homemade petrol tin cookers too, I guess because the wood was too wet rather than too scarce. Here's a photo of some of the guys with No 3 (GR) Sqn RNZAF (who flew Hudsons) with such a cooker. This is how the RNZAF groundcrews normally dressed in the Pacific forward area by the way. Photo is copyright of Norm Todd, who's 2nd from left. The stove is partly buried and has a high chimney to take the smoke out through the trees.

I wonder what the men on the ships that transported the aviation fuel across the highly dangerous Pacific would have thought if they'd known that it was being used to wash planes. I mean, yes, it did have to be done, but I'll bet those merchant seamen thought it was going to a 'higher' purpose.

Attachments

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20 years 5 months

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Cheers Andy. Yeah, I've spoken with a number of old 2NZEF soldiers who served in North Africa who've told me about using petrol to wash everything with. I wonder if many of them contracted dermatitis or other skin problems from that.

Hi Dave
Yes, he said it itched like hell for a while afterwards.
Especially under the arms (and no doubt in other sensitive places!).

But considering they were often malnourished, unshaven, carrying a few desert sores (like a large boil) often with dysentry and generally unwashed I imagine it was just another small inconvenience to be endured.
Also many men lost their hair. I imagine this was a consequence of bad diet but Dad always says it was the heat under a tin helmet for long periods. Whatever the cause Dad tells a story about a young soldier in his unit who used to cry himself to sleep at night because he'd lost his lovely head of blond curly hair.
Attractive business war--don't you think?

Cheers
Andy

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20 years

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Cheers Andy. Yes, I agree that it was probably the helmet that caused premature hair loss. Wearing a hat all the time is not good, and of course they had no shampoo and little soap, etc, so that can't have helped the folacles.

I read in one of my RNZAF books of how the Pacific men got used to shaving their hair off or cropping it really short for comfort. This was a problem only if they were sent home to NZ without much notice to grow it back, because in society then a close shaven head was a social no-no, as it meant you've probably just got out of prison. I guess that stigma began to wear off as the war progressed and people realised they were returned servicemen, but it was apparently quite an awkward embarrassment for the airmen at one stage.

Also they went bright yellow-orange all over in hue due to the anti-malaria tablets. A lady I know told me her husband stayed that colour for years after the war, and she hated it because the colour seaped out of the skin's pores onto bedsheets and white shirts. Most of them ended up contracting Malaria in the end too, it didn't really help. Did they have to take such tablets in the desert or Med area?

Yep, war is hell.

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 2,778

Cheers Andy. Yes, I agree that it was probably the helmet that caused premature hair loss. Wearing a hat all the time is not good, and of course they had no shampoo and little soap, etc, so that can't have helped the folacles.

Also they went bright yellow-orange all over in hue due to the anti-malaria tablets. A lady I know told me her husband stayed that colour for years after the war, and she hated it because the colour seaped out of the skin's pores onto bedsheets and white shirts. Most of them ended up contracting Malaria in the end too, it didn't really help. Did they have to take such tablets in the desert or Med area?

They did have anti-malaria tablets I think. My Dad picked up Malaria pretty bad in The Po Valley in Northern Italy in 1945. He was hospitalised with it for a while.
He suffered with it for several years after he got home too. I have a vague recolection of him having it but my elder sister remembers it vividly. Mum used to have every blanket in the house chucked over him to try and stop him shivering.
It didn't do him any permanent harm though--he still about aged 82, still driving, very fast.
He worked until he was 79--he likes meeting people. I wonder if our generstion will be as durable.
Cheers
Andy