ortunately, there was no fire, although the aircraft had just been fully fuelled. My two Camera Repairmen, who were both in the cockpit running the preflight, frantically climbed out of the aircraft and ran to the tip of the wings and then leaped to the ground - both suffering broken ankles, wrists, etc, and needless to say having the s--- scared out of them.' The reason for the accident was never fully established, but was thought to be stray voltage across the flare firing pins due to a nearby thunderstorm. The Invader was eventually patched up sufficiently for a one-time, gear-down flight to the depot at Tan Son Nhut, where it was given further work and then flown to Clark Field for refurbishing. It was subsequently returned to service, but only after very extensive repairs.
The other loss was a B 26B shot down in the Mekong Delta on an outpost air support mission during the night of 4 5 November. The night sorties formed an important part of the Farm Gate mission in South Vietnam. The VNAF had no night time strike capability at this point, and consequently the Farm Gate B 26s and T 28s were the only aircraft available for air support between sunset and dawn.
Most of the night sorties flown were in support of outposts, and this was a very demanding type of mission. Flares were dropped over the target by Farm Gate C 47s, or by VNAF C 47s with American co pilots (a total of thirty USAF C 47 pilots, known as the 'Dirty Thirty,' were on loan to the VNAF), and the B 26 worked under the flares, placing ordnance under the direction of a ground controller inside the outpost. Sometimes the B 26 had direct radio contact with the ground forces, and sometimes the instructions had to be relayed by the C 47. In some cases there was no radio contact at all, and the drops were made by observing the flashes from the ground fire, or in the direction the outpost's 'flaming arrow' was pointing: most outposts were equipped with one of these arrows, consisting of flare pots or electric lights on a large platform which could be rotated to show the direction of the enemy. A simpler alternative consisted of straw or reeds laid out in an arrow shape and set on fire. In most cases, however, the Viet Cong broke off the attack as soon as the air support arrived.
Invariably the tactic was to drop some napalm first. This gave the pilot a better ground reference and rockets, bombs and guns could then be used as required. Working at night, under flares and using suction gyros, with poorly lit cockpits and either bad weather or light reflecting off water filled rice paddies, was guaranteed to give the pilot a severe case of vertigo, and only extensive training made such missions possible. But they were still seen as the most rewarding missions, since they challenged the skill of the crews and also because the results were immediately obvious. The provision for a navigator in the B 26 was a decided advantage at night. The antiquated cockpit lighting system of the Invader often made it necessary for the navigator to use a flashlight, however, in order to find the armament switches. The obsolete instrumentation also provided some additional hazards, as a report observed: 'The navigator assists at night by giving the pilot a friendly tap on the shoulder when approaching minimum altitudes.'
'Ops Duty officer tonight,' Roy Dalton wrote in his diary for the night of 4 5 November 1962. 'Things quiet until about 2015. One C 47 and B 26 were scrambled to the Delta...Got them off OK. Then at 2300 scrambled another 26. Bennett and Tully took this one. First 26 got back about 2400. At 0130 got word that the flareship had lost contact with the 26 and saw fire on the ground. Called Lt Col Doyle [the Farm Gate commander] and scrambled another 47 and 26. At sun up JOC [Joint Operations Center] sent two VNAF AD 6s and we sent another 47 to act as radio relay. Had been up for 24 hours so went to tent to sleep. Doyle went to area in L 28. Got up about 0900 and heard that one of the ADs was also down and that the 26 had been located. Went to the line about noon. The AD pi