Post by Administrator on Aug 24, 2013 20:30:55 GMT
UNSEEN JOB OF THE MERCHANT AIR SERVICE:
Too Little Is Known of Pilots Who Are Creating and Developing New Air Routes
By D. G. SHEAHAN
THE Merchant Air Service as such has come into prominence only since the outbreak of war, and so much of its work is done secretly - for it operates many secret routes - that few people know anything at all about it. Yet recently one pilot flew the Atlantic twice in 24 hours.
On the windswept waters of a British port, a great 40-ton fiying boat-lies at her moorings. under her great wings, more than 50 yards across from tip to tip, cluster a busy knot of launches, from which passengers embark on the flying boat's broad gangways. Presently her 4 engines roar into life, and she speeds with incredible lightness across the harbour to the point where she is to take off into the air.
Loading an aircraft of the Merchant Navy of the Air. Note the Service flag.!
As she does, so, a spectator will notice a flag flying from a short mast over the flying boat's "bridge," but it is very doubtful if he would know what it is. Everybody knows the Red Ensign of the Merchant Navy, but few people would recognise the Skyblue Ensign of the Merchant Air Service. It is this flag that the spectator can see fluttering from the flying boat's flagstaff. Somebody -may tell him what it is, in which case it is likely that he will ask: "What is the Merchant Air Service, then?"
Much like that of the Merchant Navy, the duty of this new and increasingly important service is to keep open the Empire air communications. Since the man in the street does not travel by air to a very large extent in wartime, most passengers nowadays are distinguished men whose journeys are considered vital to the war effort. Nearly every day the great Empire flying boats and landplanes leave Britain and fly unarmed to distant corners of the world. As a matter of course, they carry Prime Ministers, ambassadors, heads of States, industrial experts, and many other important passengers who travel, sometimes incognito, on urgent Government duties. The planes also carry mails and special freights.
Although the pilots fly unarmed, they think nothing of flying through the danger zones, sometimes taking their passengers and cargoes through regions where the enemy claims to control the air. Today th«y are operating over 40,000 miles of routes. At the end of the year .they will have flown, according to the official estimate, 8,000,000 miles.
It should be explained that the Merchant Air Service is the British Overseas Airways Corporation. This is a Government owned concern, and the whole of its resources are employed in the war effort.
The names of some of the pilots have lately been in the news. There is Capt Kelly Rogers, OBE, who flew the British Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) on his world-famous flight across the Atlantic, travelling 3,365 miles in less than l8 hours, and reaching his destination, ac- cording to schedule, only one minute late.
There is Capt V. E. Flowerday, who in 1936 inaugurated the first British foreign night mail service, the same pilot who was attacked by a Heinkel not long ago when taking an airliner on a delivery flight.
There are Capts S. T. B. Cripps, G. R. Buxton, J. T. Percy, and L. V. Messen- ger, OBE, all of them well known on the prewar European air services, and all of them at present engaged on Atlantic ferrying. All have crossed the Atlantic between 20 and 30 .times. Incidentally, Capt D. C. T. Bennett, who has recently been awarded the DSO, used to be a British Overseas Airways pilot.
That these captains of the Merchant Air Service fly nearly every day, operating regular mail, freight, and passenger services without fuss or publicity, sometimes starting at very short notice on a flight with famous statesmen which may conceivably alter the whole course of the war, is not fully appreciated by the man in the street.
NATURALLY, the war has very much affected the overseas air services. After the fall of France, for example, the captains and crews on the Paris run were bombed from one aerodrome to another. Airliners ferried men and supplies back- wards and forwards during the evacuation from Dunkirk. One was shot down. Another, badly damaged, "made-a crash landing in England. On another occasion 5 unarmed planes faced enemy fighters to aid in the evacuation of Crete.
As already pointed out, many wartime routes are secret for security reasons, but they extend from close to the Arctic Circle down to South Africa, and from the United States to India. There is no need to be mysterious, however, about the Empire route. At one time the longest air route in the world, reaching to Australia, there ' are still services stretching from Durban along the east coast of Africa to Cairo, through Palestine and Iraq, along the shores of the Persian Gulf to Karachi, and across India.
Few people realise that a regular Transatlantic service now operates. The British Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) after signing the Atlantic Charter, flew home in one of the Boeings. These 3 giant fiying boats, purchased for the Merchant Air Service from the United States, have been flying for some time past rather like enormous buses between Baltimore and Foynes, via Bermuda.
Although the RAF Ferry Command is responsible for flying new American bombers to Great Britain, there is a 2 way Transatlantic service known as "Re- turn Ferry," and this is operated by British Overseas Airways. Passengers, including the crews which bring over the bombers, are taken across to Canada. On the return journey to Great Britain it is the job of the Return Ferry pilots to bring over Government passengers and special cargoes.
Of the routes which can be mentioned here, the most important is undoubtedly the Trans-African route. This became a main supply line, because the fall of France meant the ' closing of the first stages of the Empire route which led over France and Italy to Egypt. Some- thing had to be done. As a solution to the problem, a new flying boat route, nearly 5,000 miles long, was established almost at a moment's notice to West Africa via Lisbon. This new service linked up with the Trans-African route between the Atlantic seaboard and Khartoum, first established by Imperial Airways in 1936. It suddenly became a principal artery of the Empire air communications, linking the United Kingdom to Egypt and India.
In the autumn of 1941 the British Government granted to Pan-American Air- ways special operating rights in Africa. The prewar attitude of friendly competition was forgotten in the vital need for Anglo-American co-operation. This former branch line is, today, the most important supply line of the Allies, ( an essential part of the great scheme between Britain and the United States for the delivery of war materials in the Middle East and beyond. '
So that is what the Merchant Air Service has done in Africa. It is a pioneering story of struggle and hardship and eventual triumph, which began as long ago as 1936.; Although too little has been heard about. The men who have created and developed these new air routes, and comparatively ( little about the exploits of even the most . outstanding pilots, the story of the Trans- African air route is one of the greatest 1 stories of the war.
I will need to double check all, taken from digital text - in the main tells the tale - but will ensure all is corrected ASAP.
LINK
Too Little Is Known of Pilots Who Are Creating and Developing New Air Routes
By D. G. SHEAHAN
THE Merchant Air Service as such has come into prominence only since the outbreak of war, and so much of its work is done secretly - for it operates many secret routes - that few people know anything at all about it. Yet recently one pilot flew the Atlantic twice in 24 hours.
On the windswept waters of a British port, a great 40-ton fiying boat-lies at her moorings. under her great wings, more than 50 yards across from tip to tip, cluster a busy knot of launches, from which passengers embark on the flying boat's broad gangways. Presently her 4 engines roar into life, and she speeds with incredible lightness across the harbour to the point where she is to take off into the air.
Loading an aircraft of the Merchant Navy of the Air. Note the Service flag.!
As she does, so, a spectator will notice a flag flying from a short mast over the flying boat's "bridge," but it is very doubtful if he would know what it is. Everybody knows the Red Ensign of the Merchant Navy, but few people would recognise the Skyblue Ensign of the Merchant Air Service. It is this flag that the spectator can see fluttering from the flying boat's flagstaff. Somebody -may tell him what it is, in which case it is likely that he will ask: "What is the Merchant Air Service, then?"
Much like that of the Merchant Navy, the duty of this new and increasingly important service is to keep open the Empire air communications. Since the man in the street does not travel by air to a very large extent in wartime, most passengers nowadays are distinguished men whose journeys are considered vital to the war effort. Nearly every day the great Empire flying boats and landplanes leave Britain and fly unarmed to distant corners of the world. As a matter of course, they carry Prime Ministers, ambassadors, heads of States, industrial experts, and many other important passengers who travel, sometimes incognito, on urgent Government duties. The planes also carry mails and special freights.
Although the pilots fly unarmed, they think nothing of flying through the danger zones, sometimes taking their passengers and cargoes through regions where the enemy claims to control the air. Today th«y are operating over 40,000 miles of routes. At the end of the year .they will have flown, according to the official estimate, 8,000,000 miles.
It should be explained that the Merchant Air Service is the British Overseas Airways Corporation. This is a Government owned concern, and the whole of its resources are employed in the war effort.
The names of some of the pilots have lately been in the news. There is Capt Kelly Rogers, OBE, who flew the British Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) on his world-famous flight across the Atlantic, travelling 3,365 miles in less than l8 hours, and reaching his destination, ac- cording to schedule, only one minute late.
There is Capt V. E. Flowerday, who in 1936 inaugurated the first British foreign night mail service, the same pilot who was attacked by a Heinkel not long ago when taking an airliner on a delivery flight.
There are Capts S. T. B. Cripps, G. R. Buxton, J. T. Percy, and L. V. Messen- ger, OBE, all of them well known on the prewar European air services, and all of them at present engaged on Atlantic ferrying. All have crossed the Atlantic between 20 and 30 .times. Incidentally, Capt D. C. T. Bennett, who has recently been awarded the DSO, used to be a British Overseas Airways pilot.
That these captains of the Merchant Air Service fly nearly every day, operating regular mail, freight, and passenger services without fuss or publicity, sometimes starting at very short notice on a flight with famous statesmen which may conceivably alter the whole course of the war, is not fully appreciated by the man in the street.
NATURALLY, the war has very much affected the overseas air services. After the fall of France, for example, the captains and crews on the Paris run were bombed from one aerodrome to another. Airliners ferried men and supplies back- wards and forwards during the evacuation from Dunkirk. One was shot down. Another, badly damaged, "made-a crash landing in England. On another occasion 5 unarmed planes faced enemy fighters to aid in the evacuation of Crete.
As already pointed out, many wartime routes are secret for security reasons, but they extend from close to the Arctic Circle down to South Africa, and from the United States to India. There is no need to be mysterious, however, about the Empire route. At one time the longest air route in the world, reaching to Australia, there ' are still services stretching from Durban along the east coast of Africa to Cairo, through Palestine and Iraq, along the shores of the Persian Gulf to Karachi, and across India.
Few people realise that a regular Transatlantic service now operates. The British Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) after signing the Atlantic Charter, flew home in one of the Boeings. These 3 giant fiying boats, purchased for the Merchant Air Service from the United States, have been flying for some time past rather like enormous buses between Baltimore and Foynes, via Bermuda.
Although the RAF Ferry Command is responsible for flying new American bombers to Great Britain, there is a 2 way Transatlantic service known as "Re- turn Ferry," and this is operated by British Overseas Airways. Passengers, including the crews which bring over the bombers, are taken across to Canada. On the return journey to Great Britain it is the job of the Return Ferry pilots to bring over Government passengers and special cargoes.
Of the routes which can be mentioned here, the most important is undoubtedly the Trans-African route. This became a main supply line, because the fall of France meant the ' closing of the first stages of the Empire route which led over France and Italy to Egypt. Some- thing had to be done. As a solution to the problem, a new flying boat route, nearly 5,000 miles long, was established almost at a moment's notice to West Africa via Lisbon. This new service linked up with the Trans-African route between the Atlantic seaboard and Khartoum, first established by Imperial Airways in 1936. It suddenly became a principal artery of the Empire air communications, linking the United Kingdom to Egypt and India.
In the autumn of 1941 the British Government granted to Pan-American Air- ways special operating rights in Africa. The prewar attitude of friendly competition was forgotten in the vital need for Anglo-American co-operation. This former branch line is, today, the most important supply line of the Allies, ( an essential part of the great scheme between Britain and the United States for the delivery of war materials in the Middle East and beyond. '
So that is what the Merchant Air Service has done in Africa. It is a pioneering story of struggle and hardship and eventual triumph, which began as long ago as 1936.; Although too little has been heard about. The men who have created and developed these new air routes, and comparatively ( little about the exploits of even the most . outstanding pilots, the story of the Trans- African air route is one of the greatest 1 stories of the war.
I will need to double check all, taken from digital text - in the main tells the tale - but will ensure all is corrected ASAP.
LINK