大象传媒

Indeed it was fairly obvious from the view of the situation there at North Front and judging by the amount of aircraft and equipment that was by then passing through, that the relief of Malta would come only with the opening of the North African campaigned and the impression prevailing by August was that already it was past the point of no return.
With so much activity going on the time passed very quietly so perhaps to make a note of some of the smaller exploits that took place at North Front would not come amiss before I bring this report to a close. The complete story of, the only fighter aircraft to be operational during the second world war at Gibraltar, the first ever for that matter, and which unfolded during that period has been fully told in the chapter entitled 鈥淭he Third Bomber鈥�.
All the land at North Front being completely given over for use as an airfield and although the signs of some sort of horse racing were evident when we first arrived a horse by now would have looked very much the odd man out as of course without the Use of that piece of land horses wouldn't have been a lot of good on the Rock. Apes maybe, but horses had been made redundant or so we thought. We were to be proved wrong however, as one day to everybody鈥檚 surprise and amusement half a dozen horse riders suddenly appeared in our dispersal area. The riders turned out to be none other than our own Hudson aircrew, who having made the necessary contacts did no more than to borrow the horses for a walk about. As the time had then arrived for Briefing naturally the only thing to do was to go to operations building with the horses and quickly the scene began to resemble a wild west movie as the horses were tied up along the front of operations whilst the riders went inside for their briefing. They must have been the only aircrews ever to arrive at ops room on horseback.
One day a very special plane arrived and the security arrangements while it remained at North Front were such that for several hours it was impossible to have full use of the runway. The plane was a new breed of American D.C 4 in civilian colours, as per attached photograph and when it had landed it taxied to a position slightly to the side of the runway just below our dispersal area. It became obvious from what we could see going on that some very important passenger must have been on board that aircraft but the only people to get out were the crewmembers and they remained at the plane to supervise refuelling.
The Governors car arrived and waited while the Governor spent some time aboard the aircraft and as he left again we paid close attention to try to see whom the important passenger would be but only the Governor got out. The plane was apparently waiting for a certain time to take off and when that time arrived away it went.
A bit of a mystery at the time but when a few days later the news broke about Churchill's visit to Montgomery's H.Q. in The Middle East it convinced us all that it must have been the great man himself that had passed through, North Front aboard that Special plane because of course the only way to get to the Middle East in those days was to take the route as all the other aircraft, had to Use.
The domestic aspect of life at North Front was now greatly improved in comparison to those earlier times and with many mere airmen new available to man the Squadron we were able to look for other things to do apart from working on Hudson's. Nissan hut sleeping accommodation with normal type service beds and bedding had been provided. Hot seawater showers were new to be found which was a big improvement on only cold seawater washing facilities.
A N.A.A.F.I building giving all the usual tea, wads and beer services had greatly added to the social life of the place. Scrambling about for our meals was new a thing of the past as with the installation of proper cook house all that was needed to complete the picture was some decent food. I fought the war from Europe to the Far East and without doubt the worst feeding in all that time was to be found at North Front. Soya bean sausages with that lovely slimy tinned bacon was about one of the most popular meals and was served up for breakfast two or three times week. All the food came out of a can, from margarine to chips, and we were assured that much of it dated, from the First World War. Some of our lads found the food so unpalatable they hardly ever went to the cookhouse and one Ernie Lovell somehow managed to survive without the official food from the day he stepped off the Destroyer.
What made things seem worse than they really were was the fact that a flour or bread ration was still non-existent and the constant diet of hard tack biscuits was enough to put anybody off.
Although there were never any organised social activities at North Front it was surprising the number of things we found to do in any spare time we might get and even if some of our activities seemed a bit negative in outlook we would indulge just the same.
A typical example was the running party that a certain Freddie Howarth from Oswaldtwistle, who had by now arrived amongst us, organised on our behalf. I鈥檓 sure exercise was the last thing any of us needed but he talked enough into running in shorts and singlet two or three evenings a week along the road by the Mediterranean on up past Catlan Bay and out almost to as far as the Governor's residence and back home again.

Our Freddie from Oswardtwistle regularly complained and constantly took us to task about the use of bad language maintaining that it was only out of sheer ignorance that we used so many four letter words and he consistently refused to be drawn into such a wicked way of life, finding it suffice to utter should anything annoy him, "confound the thing" or "confound it".
Swimming was another possible past time the Mediterranean sea being just a few yards away from our Nissan huts although the temperature of the water was not all that attractive and quite often it became thick with Jelly Fish.
During the month of August an Education officer was appointed at N. F. and he soon opened up evening classes on va1rious subjects thus creating another use for any spare time we might have. He proved to be a really excellent teacher and I'm sure many of us spent a lot of useful hours at those evening classes, which always seemed to be well attended.
The Spanish border was opened to two way traffic at the beginning of August 1942 so that it became possible, by acquiring some civilian clothes to pay a visit into Spain either by going directly into La Linea or across the bay to Algerciras. As we got off, the Ferryboat at Algerciras it was then possible to take a close look at the marooned Italian ship "Olterra" which was then tied up alongside the same jetty and no doubt had an expert done so it should have been easily possible to detect any ulterior use to which it was being put.
As time moved steadily on towards the impending North African invasion so the tempo at North Front seemed to quicken and as the 8th November 42 dawned it brought with it what proved to be a fairly exciting day for the resident Squadron. By noon of the day preceding invasion we knew that it was about to happen and once again 233 Squadron became directly involved when Eisenhower ordered that a leaflet raid be carried out at Oran. It seemed that there was some uncertainty as to the reception the landing parties might be given from such places as Oram and in order to try to clarify the situation the attached leaflets were dropped. Our c/o felt that the Squadron was then involved in an historical event so duly laid on a briefing for everybody to put over that message and to explain as much as possible just what 233 Squadron had to do to help make the invasion the success that was so vitally necessary at that time.
The leaflet drop was laid on so that our Hudson's would arrive over Oran at about dusk as that was considered to be the best moment for the low level flying necessary in order to be able to see the right place for the drop to be made and yet afford some cover for escape should there be any retaliation from the French which seemed at that time an uncertain element. The raid went off without a hitch with all planes arriving back at North Front safely and by midnight of that day on looking around dispersal, a very formidable force at twenty or so Hudson鈥檚 could be seen silhouetted against the night sky ready and waiting for any demands likely to be made in the coming weeks.
The Spitfires that had been assembled and parked all around the place also on that November evening quietly began their passage into history as part of the invading forces. As dusk fell so each Spitfire received the emblem of the American fighting forces a white star stencilled on each side of the fuselage and it therefore had to follow that an American Spitfire would need an American pilot thus making what seemed to us at the time a very unique occasion. Those American pilots duly arrived during the following morning the opening day of the invasion, November 9th. 1942, being flown in by their own transport aircraft, and very little time was wasted in getting the Spits airborne and away to the battle.
Something like forty to fifty Spitfires were treated in this manner and it can only be hoped that they proved as useful in that battle as they had been in others.
As can be imagined, with the commencement of the North African invasion the asset of having a: squadron such as 233 available with so much detailed knowledge of the area that had been collected during the past year proved to be a major factor in the initial weeks of the onslaught. The squadron having struggled up from the days of the 1941 convoy was now in a position to perform better than ever and although several of it's very best captains had been lost during the year the knowledge and, expertise had remained inherent making us unbeatable plus the fact, of course, that 233 Squadron was still the only operational flying unit within a thousand mile radius.
Flying hours for the period up to Christmas 1942 seemed to be almost unlimited with the first eight or nine away by first light and the last patrols of the day arriving back at any time up to midnight. ZS Hudson's were the only aircraft to attempt night landings at North Front a performance that proved to be fairly exciting just to stand and watch making one realize how much truth there was in the saying that "it was only C s!!! And Bats that flew at night鈥�. On account of so many other lights that were visible from the air at night the only possible way to make a, landing was to approach from the Mediterranean end where from experience our Pilots were then able to pick out the flare path lights and then, relying entirely on visual judgement and the headlights of the plane, a touch down would be made with much squealing of tyres and brakes. It say's much for the quality of those ZS Pilots that for all the night landings that were made no accidents occurred although there was the occasion one night which caused a bit of a flap when as the crews of the returning aircraft began to report picking out in their headlights as they landed a body on the runway.
It was one of those nights when landings were to be made in close succession with only minutes between each touch down and at North Front night landings were made on the basis that once an approach had begun the only thing to stop touch down would be something like an earthquake so all that could be done until the last landing had been made was to take a look from the side of the runway but in the darkness nothing could be seen. Eight Hudson's in all made their usual spectacular night landings with all pilots as they arrived in dispersal insisting that there was a body on the runway, somewhere about the middle.
By the time the last Hudson had landed an ambulance was ready to go on to the runway to investigate, expecting by then to find the worst but it just goes to show how lucky some people can be and yet the person concerned probably never knew how close he had come to being another mess on the runway. The body turned out to be a very much alive airman, who having partaken of a drop too much while celebrating Xmas in the N.A.A.F. I., had then decided on a stroll to cool off a bit and by the time he had made the middle of the runway had just passed out completely. All is well that ends well.
Outside of the regular known patrols many other emergencies were constantly being dealt with and ground staff maintained a schedule that kept all aircraft of 233 Squadron while waiting in dispersal pre-flight tested every four hours right round the clock.
One big snag that never did get taken care of was the provision of hangar accommodation to give cover while major repair work was carried out as with all the sand and dust flying about the risk of contamination when things were being taken apart was very great. A proposed hangar did actually get built and while everybody looked forward to the days when major repairs could be done under cover the end result was a bit disappointing a small blister type building hardly big enough to get a Spitfire inside let alone a Hudson.
As 1943 begun and with the North African campaign now almost a complete success a more relaxed atmosphere seemed to descend on North Front. A phase had ended and for 213 Squadron the next step would have to be a full commitment to what was still the most important battle, The Atlantic. Other bases from which to operate those anti-U-boat Hudson's would shortly become available and so in order to investigate such possibilities, with the object also of making the allied presence clear to all concerned, a small detachment was at the end of January made ready to fly down to Agadir in French North west Africa. Six ZS Hudson's in all flew to Agadir which was a pre-war French Air Force base and as such was equipped with proper runways etc would be available, the necessary ground maintenance staff were able to fly with the aircraft. It was like a breath of fresh air to be leaving behind, if only for a short spell, the squalor and confined working space at Gibraltar and we were happy to go.
Flying westwards out of Gibraltar at around twelve thousand feet and following the North African coastline we Suddenly got a sharp reminder that there was a war on as ack ack shells began bursting on our port side and quite near, near enough in fact to make us all feel a bit relieved as our pilot quickly decided the best thing to do was to move further away from that particular piece of coast line.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.