Helicopters are quite common today, used for all sorts of roles from sightseeing, to life-saving,
to firefighting, to all sorts of military roles. But helicopters are relatively new technology,
only really coming into their own in the maybe 1950s, but many people don't realize
that helicopters were used operationally in the Second World War. The world's first combat
rescue using a helicopter in April of 1944, is history that deserves to be remembered.
There are various kinds of rotary aircraft, or rotorcraft, including what are called autogyros,
which use an unpowered rotor in free auto rotation to develop lift. Autogyros were flying in the
1920s, and saw various service in the Second World War. For example, the German Navy used the Fa 330,
an unpowered autogyro that was towed behind a surfaced submarine on a tether like a kite,
and was thus sometimes called an auto kite. The spinning rotors would lift the craft some 130
yards up where they could scout for targets. The Fa 330 was not terribly practical to set
up and use, and put the submarine at risk of detection itself. But the little craft
called the Bachstelze, or Wagtail, was used to identify and sink at least one freighter,
somewhere off the island of Madagascar, in 1943. The British experimented with the
roto kite design with the Hafner Rotoshoot and the even more bizarre Hafner Rotabuggy,
both with the idea of using a roto kite designed to airdrop men in vehicles which would be towed
behind an airplane, and then land using the free auto rotation of the rotor to land. Neither got
past the experimental stage, as combat gliders offered a superior alternative. But there was a
theoretical plan to attempt the same idea with a Valentine tank. A more practical version of
the autogyro uses a fairly typical airplane fuselage and engine, but uses the gyros for
lift. The British Royal Air Force used the Avro 671 Rota to help calibrate coastal radar stations,
where its ability to fly at relatively slow speeds was useful. Similar general-purpose autogyros
were used by multiple militaries for things like artillery observation, and anti-submarine roles.
But the use of autogyro and auto kites always had limited potential for military applications
because they really don't offer a lot of advantages over fixed-wing aircraft. But a
true helicopter, a type of rotary aircraft where the blades are powered, providing both lift and
thrust, is a different story altogether, and had much greater potential. The ability to take off
and land vertically, to hover for long periods of time, and to maneuver at slow speeds, meant that
those kinds of vehicles might have capabilities that fixed-wing aircraft simply did not.
Frenchman Louis Breguet developed an innovative helicopter using two contra-rotating coaxial
rotors in the 1930s. But it never went into mass production, and the development stopped
with the outbreak of the war. At roughly the same time, the German aviation pioneer Heinrich Falk
developed a twin rotor helicopter called the FW 61, that broke the record set by Breguet’s design,
and which many consider to be the first practical functional helicopter. That
design was developed into the twin rotor Fa 223 Drache, or Dragon, the first helicopter
to make production status. While it saw limited use during the Second World War, Allied bombing
of the factories hampered production, and only 20 were built. And they saw little service,
spending most of their time trying to avoid capture by the Allies. The Luftwaffe also produced
the smaller Fl 282 Kolibri, or Hummingbird, with a captured version shown here in US insignia.
The small helicopter was used by the Navy to ferry supplies, and the army for artillery
observation. B ecause of Allied bombing of the factories however, only 24 were built.
Meanwhile, helicopter development in the United States was going on under the direction of
legendary aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky. Born in Kiev in the Russian Empire in 1889,
Sikorsky designed bomber aircraft for the Russian army during World War 1, but abandoned the country
after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. He eventually emigrated to the United States,
and started an airplane manufacturing company that specialized in flying boats,
including the Sikorsky S 42, one of the original models used for the Pan American Airways Clippers.
But he was fascinated with vertical flight, and sought patents for several designs,
culminating in the VS-300 which was the first practical helicopter to use a vertical plane
tail rotor for anti-torque. The most common design today. Fitted with floats attached, it also became
the first practical amphibious helicopter. More importantly, it became the basis for the United
States first mass-produced helicopter, the twin seat Sikorsky R-4. With the production model R-4B,
and used by the British Royal Air Force under the name Hover Fly, 131 of these helicopters
were produced between 1942 and 1944. 33 foot 8 inches long, with a rotor diameter of 38 feet,
the Sikorsky had a cruising speed of 65 miles per hour, a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour,
a range of 150 miles and a service ceiling of 8,000 feet; it had no built-in weapons. The
R-4B was operated by both the Navy and the Coast Guard under the designation HNS-1. The helicopter
saw the first known use of a helicopter in a life-saving role on January 10th of 1944,
when the Gleaves-class destroyer USS Turner suffered internal explosions in her weapons bay
off of New York City, and a Coast Guard HNS-1 flew two cases of blood plasma to the hospital in Sandy
Hook New Jersey, where the survivors were being treated. In the South Pacific, R-4Bs were assigned
to ships carrying aviation repair supplies, where the helicopters could be used to ferry parts to
airfields where they were needed. Because the R-4B could mount a stretcher, they were also
occasionally used for medical evacuation. But three Sikorsky R-4B's were assigned to a unique
unit, the United States 1st Air Commando Group, or 1 ACG operating in the largely ignored China,
Burma, India theater. Originally called Project Nine, the 1st Air Commando Group
was created by General HAP Arnold, Chief of the US Army Air Forces, to provide fighter cover,
bomb striking power, and air transport services for the jungle long-range penetration units of the
British Indian army, under the command of General Orde Wingate. Commonly known as the Chindits.
The Air Commandos operated independently of the rest of the military chain of command,
and they were mavericks who were helping to wage an unconventional war against the Japanese,
often operating behind enemy lines, and using innovative tactics. In January of 1944,
the 1-ACG managed with the aid of FDR's Chief Adviser Harry Hopkins,
to acquire three of the new Sikorsky R-4 helicopters, then popularly called Egg Beaters,
which were broken down and transported to India on C-46 transports. But almost immediately tragedy
struck, as on its first flight in India on March 21st of 1944, one of the helicopters
crashed killing the pilot. He became the first man to die in a US helicopter in a combat zone.
Then another of the pilots was wounded in action while flying a conventional airplane.
When, on April 21st, Colonel Phillip Cochran,
Commander of the 1st ACG radioed that one of the Egg Beaters needed to be sent to the airfield
at Tahan in Northern Burma immediately, there was only one pilot still available
Second Lieutenant Carter Harman had been a music critic, writing for the New York
Times before the war, but he had also been a small plane pilot and so when the war started,
enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He had volunteered to fly the new R-4s because
the training camp was in Connecticut close to his home. Little did he know that that would lead to
an assignment in the jungles of India, about as far away from New York City as you can be.
Another pilot of the 1 ACG had crashed his L1 Vigilant light aircraft in northern Burma,
along with three wounded British soldiers. The Vigilant had lost its landing gear so
could not take off again. Now the three men were being pursued by the Japanese,
in mountainous territory where even small aircraft couldn't land. Lieutenant Carter
was being asked to perform the world's first combat rescue by helicopter.
Just getting to Tahan was going to be difficult, Tahan was 600 miles away from the base in India,
the normal range for the R-4 was 150 miles. They filled the copilot seat with jerry cans of fuel
and he took off. Flying in mountainous territory, he pushed a helicopter to its theoretical ceiling,
stopping at 1 ACG bases along the way for fuel. He arrived at Tahan on April 25th. Once there he had
to fly an additional 125 miles to a hidden base, well inside Japanese territory, where the 1 ACG
operated light planes for medical evacuation. The 1 ACG sergeant and three British soldiers
were in dire straits. The soldiers' wounds were festering, and they were being pursued by the
Japanese. Harmon would have to fly in and pick the men up, one at a time, and ferry them to a place
where small aircraft could land, and fly them to safety. This was uncharted territory for the small
craft whose engine was having difficulties in the heat. As Harman noted, “The helicopter also didn't
like Japanese soldiers.” The small, largely canvas covered craft, offered no protection from enemy
fire. The heat and altitude pushed the helicopter to its limits. Harman managed to extract two of
the wounded, but as he got to the evac point on the second trip the helicopter's engine seized,
overheated. The sergeant and the last wounded soldier would have to hold out through the night,
and see if the helicopter would start again in the morning. It did, and Harman rescued the last
wounded soldier. But when he went back to get the 1 ACG pilot, the clearing was being swarmed by
soldiers. Harman barely got to the ground ahead of the soldiers, and the sergeant jumped on! As they
went to lift, the engine nearly seized again and the helicopter sank! But Harman managed to get it
to full power, and they dashed away! The first known helicopter combat rescue was a success!
Only when they got back to base did they find out that the soldiers that were coming into
the clearing were not Japanese soldiers. They were actually some of Orde Wingate
Chindits who were coming to the rescue. While there were Japanese soldiers in the area,
Harman never saw them.
R-4s conducted other rescue operations, and even their first combat mission in
May. Colonel Cochrane noted of the action, “Today the Egg Beater went into action, and
the damn thing acted like it had good sense.” It was an auspicious start for helicopters, and the
1st Air Commando Group, which continues on today as, the US Air Force 1st Special Operations Wing.
2nd Lieutenant Carter Harmon was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his
service. He survived the Second World War, and had a long career in music. He was a
music critic for more than 20 years writing for publications like the New York Times,
and Time magazine. He also composed music, was the executive vice president of the music
label CRI records, and wrote three books. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 88.
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