I have been writing up the history of Wing Commander Dereck ‘Bill’ Kain, a New Zealander who served with the RAF from 1935-45.
In a taped interview we did with him in the mid 1990’s he related a short tale from the days when he was in the North African desert campaign. I believe this relates to when he was Wing Commander i/c of RAF Idku, a desert base in Egypt from where they mounted ops against several Med targets.
He said one day one of his pilots landed and came to him to report that he’d just seen an aircraft landing on a nearby airstrip. Bill didn’t mention the airstrip’s name or code designation sadly but he said it wasn’t far from base and was it seems under his durisdiction. It was also out of bounds and no-one, for some reason, was allowed to use the strip. Even he was not made aware of why it was not to be used, he said it was a good airstrip.
Anyway, on hearing a plane had landed there he immediately jumped into his Spitfire and flew over and landed there himself to investigate why they were breaking clear orders not to land there. Upon arriving he discovered a B-17 in US markings sitting on the airfield. He made himself known, told them he was in charge and that no aircraft were meant to be on the strip. He demanded to know what they were doing. The crew refused to talk.
There was no damage to the aircraft so it was not an emergency landing. The crew told him to go away. He refused and insisted on soe sort of explanation. After a heated discussion one of teh B-17 crew said he needed to use a phone so they could prove they had clearance to land there, and that no more questions needed to be asked.
Bill sceptically arranged for this chap to use a phone and it turned out he rang a direct line to the Whitehouse in the USA and apparently, or purportedly, spoke with the President, Roosevelt, who told Bill to forget he’d seen the aircraft there.
Bill was a canny man, and wasn’t sure if he was being hoodwinked or not, and he decided to leave it at that in case he ended up embroiled in something.
But isn’t it an interesting little sideline? I wonder if it was indeed proper official business and thus what the secrecy was in aid of. Why had a perfectly good runway been made out of bounds anyway, and why had the B-17 landed there miles from anyhere?
Were they transporting a secret weapon, secret papers, VIP’s, or spies? Or were they perhaps just Catch 22 style black marketeers and the voice on the phone was some clown impersonating Roosevelt?
It seems so unlikely that if they were trying to get out of being caught doing illegal deeds they’d think to impersonate the President himself though, it seems that only Hogans Heroes would try that stunt.
Does anyne know more? Have any secrets of the desert war been revealed that might match up with this scenario?
By: T-21 - 21st August 2008 at 13:09
The Group were based at La Senia,Algeria but moved around Tunis as well. Perhaps they were on a mapping/shopping mission to Egypt or may have been a meeting at high level (Operation Torch ?)
It was probably Elliott meeting his father in Cairo. http://www.info.dfat.gov.au/info/historical/HistDocs.nsf/vVolume/834A9F0BC9913EAFCA256B7E001E3F3B
By: Pete Truman - 21st August 2008 at 10:19
T-21, thanks for the excellent info and suggestion, it must have been one of those B-17’s and they rang Elliott Roosevelt. Either Bill was confused at the time or confused when he told the story. Is there any record of special bases that unit used in North Africa?
Just a suggestion. Perhaps it might be worth contacting Jules Horowitz, our very own Forumite, Medditeranean theatre, B-17 pilot. He may well have heard stories and rumours from other pilots, some of whom may have flown with that particular group.
By: Dave Homewood - 21st August 2008 at 09:32
T-21, thanks for the excellent info and suggestion, it must have been one of those B-17’s and they rang Elliott Roosevelt. Either Bill was confused at the time or confused when he told the story. Is there any record of special bases that unit used in North Africa?
By: Mondariz - 21st August 2008 at 08:07
Lt. Col Elliott Roosevelt was Commanding Officer of the 3rd Photographic Group operating F-4/5 Lightnings and the 15 Photo Mapping Squadron using B-17’s assigned to the 12th Air Force. The Fortresse’s were used from Nov 1942 for one year . I claim that I think this is plausible to the story.
I’ll buy that :p
By: T-21 - 21st August 2008 at 07:25
Lt. Col Elliott Roosevelt was Commanding Officer of the 3rd Photographic Group operating F-4/5 Lightnings and the 15 Photo Mapping Squadron using B-17’s assigned to the 12th Air Force. The Fortresse’s were used from Nov 1942 for one year . I claim that I think this is plausible to the story.
By: wl745 - 21st August 2008 at 06:39
B-17
Obviously they where up to no good!!Possibly smuggling blackmarket goods! I had an aquaintance who was a scriptwriter and he was researching the captains of Fairmile boats that used to do raids across the channel,some of them apparently used to sneak into small french ports and indulge in a bit of wine running!?
By: Mondariz - 21st August 2008 at 06:35
Well at least we can debunk the Roosevelt part of the story (even if we disregard the technical problems). There is no way the president would have time to take personal charge of individual operations. Even the Manhatten project did not have a direct presidental phoneline.
Unless we can get more information on the unused, but perfect airstrip, it will be hard to track anything about this story.
Strange things happened during the war, and its not impossible that something along these lines actually did take place (recalled by the Wing Commander in old age). But for him to be “hoodwinked” into thinking he was talking to Roosevelt, he would have had to be slightly drunk.
By: Dave Homewood - 21st August 2008 at 05:54
John, I am extremely sceptical that the President was actually phoned. Of course he may not have been at the White House, perhaps the call was made to Casablanca when he was there, or something like that.
The reason I posted the story here is because it’s interesting that a) there was a prefectly good airfield that they were told not to use and not told why; and b) Why an American B-17 was breaking regulations and landing there.
Whether their cover story was true may not be known but perhaps my post may at least reveal some extra details such as the name or location of the strip near Idku that was out of bounds.
By the way, Idku was a massive and civilised RAF station, I suspect they went there to do the telephoning as I doubt there was a phone on the abandoned strip.
By: J Boyle - 20th August 2008 at 23:20
I’m sure during WWII the president answered every phone call to the White House on military matters.:rolleyes:
I’m sure any one of a number of people at a regional Air Foirce could have handeled a call from a curious RAF officer.
BTW: I’m a bit skeptical that a phone at a remote strip in North Africa could get a trans Atlantic line quickly…if at all.:rolleyes:
By: Pete Truman - 20th August 2008 at 15:35
Interesting story, perhaps they had just illegally flown in a consignment of Polish sausage and top class burgers from Mildenhall, it would have needed presidential approval if there was any risk of them being contaminated with sand and hence ruined their quality for the generations to come.
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August 20, 2008 at 8:35 am