大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Robin. D. Bailey on behalf of author Philip Morgan. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

I am writing this account of an extraordinary operation carried out in 1942 by the RAF; not so much in terms of my personal reminiscences (which I will keep to a minimum), but because of my profound admiration for the planning which occurred at the time. I have never read any account of this and feel that it should be recorded.

This flying operation took place from Portreath in Cornwall.

Following my basic training in U.K; and navigational training in South Africa, I returned to an Operational Training Unit (OTU) at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire in early 1942.

During 1942, the RAF in Egypt needed more combat aircraft of all sorts, as most of the bomber aircraft at the time were of the older types. Things were not going well, we had lost Tobruk, and had been forced back to the El Alemein battle line, the first battle having taken place on June 26th. The RAF in Egypt were in great need of Wellington Bombers, however, these did not have the range to fly from England to Egypt direct. Also, the Luftwaffe had control of the Eastern Mediterranean, and we were sending convoys to Malta, so an alternative route had to be found.

Having completed OTU, we fully expected to be sent to one of the bomber squadrons based in England. However, to our surprise we were told that we were to take delivery of sixteen brand new Wellingtons straight from the factory and ferry these to Cairo.

The planning of the route, which had to be done in stages (legs) was worked out in fine detail. We had to take an overload petrol tank on board, otherwise we wouldn't have the range of flight between landing places, with each leg expected to be around 800 miles. It is hard to envisage this now, but the Wellingtons had a speed of 120 mph, so an 800 mile journey took a long while!

Because of restricted facilities at landing places en route, we could only take off with 3 or 4 planes a day (providing the weather conditions were favourable), and so that there would be adequate handling and servicing facilities from the RAF ground crews at the various legs of the journey.

Eventually, it was our turn and we flew down to Portreath in Cornwall in August 1942. My part was that of Navigator.

The first leg of the journey took us to Gibraltar where we had to await the "all clear" to land at the next place, which was at that time called British Gambia. The distances were vast, the facilities minimal, the ground crew had no aerodrome, so had to ensure that an airstrip was cut out between the trees in the jungle. The personnel suffered constantly from fevers and malaria.

We attempted the next leg to Lagos, but couldn't get there because of engine trouble, so landed in Robertsfield, Liberia. Following engine repairs, we continued with our journey and finally made it to Lagos in Nigeria. Here we waited for clearance before flying to an airfield in the Southern Sahara Desert near to Lake Chad.

The next stage was to El Fasher in the middle of the Sudan Desert, before flying to Khartoum and meeting temperatures of 140 degrees fahrenheit. Here we had an unexpected treat - there was no room at the camp, so we had to spend the night at the five star Luxor Hotel! Finally, after flying nine gruelling stages over three weeks and six thousand miles, we flew up the Nile and landed in Cairo.

I would like to pay tribute to the way in which the above operation was organised, and to the RAF ground crews who serviced the aircraft upon their long journey, particularly as they did their tour in West Africa in very grim conditions. Two of the sixteen aircraft did not make it, so this is also a tribute to those flying crews.

On a strictly personal note, I do have a memory of Cornwall which I would like to record. Whilst in Portreath, were we waited
for a few days before beginning our journey, I walked back to camp along the cliff path by the light of the full moon. For a hundred yards, the gorse bushes were lit up by hundreds of fireflies or glowworms. I have never seen such a sight before or since.

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