大象传媒

Our own aircrews were magnificent and if ever there was a time when the right men were in the right place when the need was greatest then December 1941 at North front Gibraltar was it.

The endeavours they made and the performance they put up under what must have been by any standards the worst flying conditions ever to confront any aircrews, had by the end of the month given us a very necessary victory, with a convoy of ships which seemed to be virtually doomed, at the beginning arriving at their home port with only small losses and the initiative firmly back with the British navy. It had been a masterstroke for the British High Command.
Admiral Sir W.M. James writes of the convoy in his book "The British navies in the second world war" but since he writes with a very strong naval bias he is unable to bring himself to admit to the presence of this formidable anti "U鈥� boat Coastal Command unit operating from Gibraltar. Strange really since it was at the insistence of the navy that it was there anyway.
He then adds insult to injury by making the rather ridiculous claim that Swordfish aircraft operating from Gibraltar were able to prevent early "U" boat attack but does then concede to the arrival of Coastal Command Liberators operating at extreme range from Ulster by about the 23rd. In fact the air umbrella set up by Coastal Command especially for that convoy had been complete and was the main reason for the success.
By the time the Admiral had written his reference book the panic days of December 1941 were long past and other events had subsequently made it necessary for the affair of the Gibraltar convoy and 233 Squadron net to be given any recognition in the hope that it would be forgotten altogether.

As can well be imagined such an intensive flying program as had just been carried out under the conditions that had prevailed could not be maintained indefinitely and in fact as we came to the end of that first month of the first ever operational flying from North Front we had practically ground ourselves to a halt. Things had now got into such a state that flying was limited to about one or two patrols only per day. Heavy landings had taken their toll and two planes were in need of major under carriage repairs another required a new engine. All aircraft were by then in need of maintenance schedule inspections as of course flying times over and above normal inspection times had been greatly extended to cope with the number of patrols demanded.
It seemed a bit of an anti climax really as so much had been achieved in that first month and yet suddenly, it seemed there was now little to show for it but a broken squadron. One thing all of us were certain of, in our own hearts we knew that this small band of airmen had stood between the enemy and defeat at Gibraltar and that every demand that had been made upon us had been met in full and as is inevitable with all such flying operations some of our aircrews had made the final sacrifice to do what had to be done.
Our commanding officer at North Front, Squadron Leader Deavey, informed Coastal Command chief Joubert of the position and it was agreed that to continue under such circumstances would not help anyone and the order came through to pack up and head for home. Modern aeroplanes and North Front just did not mix and since at that moment the ground tradesmen were feeling a bit the worse for wear the thought of going home made the task of preparing to leave that much easier. Extra fuel tanks had to be fitted to all aircraft that would be flying back and what small equipment we had was packed up ready for moving.

We had just about completed the job and were hanging about waiting to move off when Squadron/Leader Deavey appeared on the scene looking very pleased with himself to inform us of a signal he had now received from the Admiralty. The gist of it was that it seemed that the naval high ups were cock a hoop with the Success of the convoy and were now satisfied that such a force as this 233 Squadron must remain a permanent feature at Gibraltar and accordingly ordered that we were to stay put at North Front with the promise that everything that was required for properly maintaining and operating our Hudson's would be forthcoming as soon as possible including the lengthening and making up a proper runway.
So it came to be that not only was 233 Squadron the first Royal Air Force Squadron ever to operate from Gibraltar but could also claim to be, surely the first ever modern twin-engine bomber anywhere in the world to have the runway built after they had landed.
How the runway would be lengthened was difficult to foresee, at one end was the Mediterranean Sea thus making it impossible to lengthen in that direction which only left the Algerciras Bay end and this would require such a tremendous amount of filling in material as to make even that seem to be an impossible task to us. Where such a huge amount of material could be taken from was again very hard to guess at bearing in mind that the only possible source of supply was the Rock itself.
However the impossible takes a little longer and later on after I have dealt with the intervening months I will explain just how it was accomplished.
During January 1942 we slowly started to sort ourselves out and to get organised, operations continued with the setting up of some regular patrols, strike aircraft were prepared and we began to get a few of the very necessary smaller pieces of equipment such as an external starting battery trolley, lifting jacks, and some trestles to work on.
Gradually then the pattern of operating began to take shape. 233 Squadron would from now on work in two flights, one the front line active flight would be at North Front and would eventually consist of from fifteen to twenty aircraft. The other flight, consisting of all personnel and machines left remaining at St Eval and now settling in to become 233 Attachment R.A.F. Gosport, Hants would in future be solely used as a maintenance unit.
This maintenance flight at Gosport would be responsible for all major overhauls etc. supplying Hudson aircraft to North Front as and when needed so that when say an aircraft was lost Gosport would supply a replacement and when a plane at Gibraltar was due for an engine change or any other major overhaul it would fly back to Gosport for the work to be carried out. In this way of course aircrews at least were able to get a much-needed spell of leave at home and later on when the runway was greatly improved some of the ground personnel became passengers for the same purpose.
Obviously the Gibraltar flight could not go on indefinitely with only thirty or so ground staff and over the next few months the number was supplemented by shipping out a lot of the maintenance personnel from Gosport.
The group photograph that Squadron/Leader Deavey was very keen to have taken sometime towards the end of January does actually include about half a dozen airmen who had only just arrived at North Front. The idea of taking the picture was to place on record Squadron/Leader Deavey's proud appreciation for the job that this small group of airmen had done. Squadron/Leader Deavey is seen middle front row.
It would seem to me at this point worth while recording the fact that for some weeks after our Hudson's had started flying from North Front our aircrews repeatedly reported on landing that they had just flown over the sinking hulk of the Ark Royal. When exactly she finally disappeared altogether is not known but it wasn't quite the glorious ending as described in the book. Apparently a launch had brought Admiral Somerville out from Gibraltar to watch the death of the Ark and after taking on board the doomed ships captain they had then stood on the bridge of the launch to watch the final plunge and I quote 鈥渟o she disappeared, and glided down through deeper and darker shades of light to the bottom of the sea鈥� it was not one of the navy's prouder moments.
By the end of January some fire fighting equipment was at last brought into use. A fire fighting vehicle from the dock area was now to be on hand at North Front for all take off's and landings.
We began to receive a number of spare parts and other stores and two army bell tents were erected along the side of the take off 1 area to be used to keep what stores we had in. It wasn't long before something funny happened to one of those tents when it was unfortunately burnt down due to a mishap while I was making a slight alteration to an oil filter. One of our Hudson's was unserviceable for the lack of a new oil filter, which was expected to arrive with the next replacement aircraft from Gosport. The aircraft duly arrived and sure enough a filter was on board but on checking was found to be a slightly different type. It was an all metal brass gauze filter which incorporated a relief valve and further investigation revealed that it would be possible to make one useable filter out of the old one and the new by unsoldering the two tops and then to re-solder the old top on to the new filter.
The only source of heat to hand was to light some petrol in a tin can. Everything worked well and as the job was completed my hand touched on something hot and the lighted petrol went flying which in turn quickly caught alight the very dry grass spreading quickly to envelope one army bell tent full of stores which was soon razed to the ground. Not much notice was taken at the loss of the tent however, the more important issue was that we now had one useable oil filter which was soon fitted to make one more Hudson serviceable for flying.
These then, were the sort of daily struggles we made to keep our few Hudson's serviceable at North Front in January 1942 not really the way to run a modern air force.
Weather wise here at Gibraltar it was now midwinter the temperature was such as to allow the wearing of full air force blue with comfort. Greatcoats were never needed even though North Front was an exposed position and the weather did tend to be a bit spasmodic with strong winds that would whip the sand across the place, some heavy rain at times which would flood the landing until something was done to improve the drainage and snow did actually fall for a short spell during this month. No heating was provided or seemed to be necessary and after about another month we were issued with khaki drill shorts and shirts, which were then worn most of the time. On the whole it was a quite amicable climate.
The refuelling problem was still with us although with a more rational flying programme and the small increase in our numbers it became possible to have a bit of time off which enabled visits to be made into Gibraltar town proper.

Gibraltar was a small but very busy place as although most of the local population had by 1941 been evacuated leaving behind only the male members of a family to look after their shop and office businesses the numbers of the garrison force had been greatly increased to fill the place, it seemed, to bursting point.

The signs of being at war were hard to discern and to me the nightly scene in Main Street seemed to give off the atmosphere of a fair ground.
Blackout regulations were not necessary anywhere on the 鈥淩ock鈥� so that lights were blazing everywhere, music blaring from the open fronts of the wine bars and the place crowded with blokes out to enjoy themselves, as best they could mostly by drinking, eating and listening to the music of the band in the Trocadera. Drink was cheap as were cigarettes and in the shop, which seemed to always be open, it was possible to buy almost anything in any quantity without coupons. It seemed amazing to us having only recently left England, to be able to buy as much chocolate and sweets as we wanted or anything else for that matter. The only thing lacking from the scene was of course the total lack of females and the only woman we ever saw in Main street at night was the drummer in the band at the Trocadera and she was pregnant, it seemed, for the whole of the eighteen months I was on the 鈥淩ock鈥�. A strange sight to be sure a pregnant woman playing the drums in a band.
This rather bizarre scene of Main Street seemed to contrast sharply with the brave endeavours being made at North Front and yet they were only about fifteen minutes walking distance apart. The reason for such a vast difference was that for centuries the piece of ground between the rock face and Spain had been considered to be neutral ground and only quite recently had a border fence been erected.
February arrived and so far still only small changes had become apparent although by now a lot of interest was being shown over improving the surface of the landing space and to the provision of better drainage also an electric flare path system began to be set up.

As we moved on into February so we moved nearer to the time when the piper would have to be paid as on the night of the 11th the three German battleships slipped out of Brest and started on their successful run up the English Channel and completely undetected for the first three to four hours exactly the vital amount of time the Germans knew they needed.
At Gibraltar we merely received the news that the worst had happened and were not surprised in the least, indeed, I am bound to say that it was felt by us to be inevitable as far too much had been left to chance but the price was small in view of the immense success of the North Front venture which had added a new dimension to the battle of the Atlantic. Any further news at the time would have been purposely kept from us so as to prevent our involvement in the argument that went on back home in the aftermath of what had happened and was to eventually bring about the sacking of the chief of coastal Command.
Everybody that had been involved in the Brest patrols knew what practical and technical difficulties such patrols entailed and had fully realized the almost impossible task that had been suddenly thrust at 224 Squadron when they were sent to St Eval to replace 233 Squadron who had by the time of the change over been patrolling at Brest for nearly nine months. All seemed of the opinion anyway that it would be better to have the battleships at the Eastern end of the Channel.
Just consider for a few moments the difficulties of such detection. Everything relied on the radar screen that back in 1941-42 wasn鈥檛 even known as Radar it was called the A.S.V. equipment and was still in its infancy as far as aircraft was concerned.
A small screen six inches square was all they had to work on and it then took considerable experience on the part of aircrews to interpret correctly whatever showed up on this small screen.
Many aircrews had only just started using this equipment and also to be taken into account wag the problem of having enough trained technicians on the ground to service what was still at that time secret equipment. 233 Squadron had been one of the first to get this A.S.V equipment and by the time the ships left Brest would have been using it for something like twelve months so that all things considered there was' very little doubt that had 233 Squadron have been allowed to remain at St Eval the immediate movement of the German Battleships would have been detected.
But events demanded that changes be made quickly and with all the will in the world with only a little over two months in which to reach 100% performance level, which is all the time a new squadron would have had at St Eval, it would not have been anything like enough time to deal with all the sophisticated preparations that the Germans had by then laid on for the escape. Bear in mind also that the escape had seemed imminent at almost any time during the previous three months.

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