I’ve just finished reading “The Last Princess”, Matthew Dennison’s biography of Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter who died on 26th October 1944.
My interest was aroused by the following passage which refers to the journey in October 1944 of Princess Beatrice’s daughter Ena, then living in Switzerland, to the UK.
“….and, on 25th October [1944], summoned by telegram, Ena left Geneva to return for the last time to her mother’s side. She travelled by converted bomber sent by the British government, but still arrived only just in time. At ten past five on the morning of 26th October, in a house deep in the English countryside belonging to a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, the last princess died peacefully in her sleep….”
Queen Ena of Spain (Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg) was Beatrice’s daughter and married to King Alfonso XIII of Spain. Ena was estranged from the King and lived separately in Geneva for the duration of the war.
“Converted Bomber” would seem to allude to the Mosquitoes used by BOAC during the war for journeys into neutral Sweden (the ‘ball bearing’ run), but this is the first time I’ve heard of them being used for flights into Switzerland.
Given that for most, if not all of 1944, Switzerland was surrounded by German occupied territory, what sort of route would BOAC’s Mosquitoes have to fly to get safely into and out of Switzerland?
Were these flights mainly done at night?
High, Low or Medium level?
I’m intrigued and would welcome the expert’s views.
By: thawes - 13th March 2011 at 23:58
Thanks for the replies.
As Bager1968’s map makes clear in post #2 the October 1944 flight wouldn’t have been too difficult after all.
By: vingtor - 12th March 2011 at 10:23
I’m quite certain that Mosquitos were not used on this flight. Most probably one of the four-engined types mentioned.
Nils
By: wieesso - 12th March 2011 at 07:21
Have also first thought of BOACs Liberators
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-sQvDS7Bx04J:www.rafb24.com/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26view%3Darticle%26id%3D4588:liberator-ii-for-the-raflb-30%26catid%3D29:the-b-24%26Itemid%3D41+BOAC+Liberator&cd=9&hl=de&ct=clnk&gl=de&client=opera&source=www.google.de
By: Bager1968 - 11th March 2011 at 23:24
“Converted Bomber” would seem to allude to the Mosquitoes used by BOAC during the war for journeys into neutral Sweden (the ‘ball bearing’ run), but this is the first time I’ve heard of them being used for flights into Switzerland.
Given her status (and the near-certainty of aids/staff/servants accompanying her), and the cramped & uncomfortable accommodations of the Mossie conversions, I would expect something along the lines of one of the many 4-engined converted bomber transports.
Examples would be the Liberator transports (LB-30/C.IX) or one of the Halifax transports (C.III/C.VI/C.VII, all converted bomber variants or the purpose-built C.VIII).
Specifically, BOAC received Liberator IIs (re-designated LB-30) from 1942 on, and operated them past the end of the war.
By: steve_p - 11th March 2011 at 22:54
I would have thought that Liberator, York, Lodestar or Warwick would have been more likely than a Mosquito.
By: Bager1968 - 11th March 2011 at 22:22
By September 1944, the Allied forces had taken all of southern and western France, to a line running from the Swiss border ~125 north of Geneva up through Verdun west to just east of Reims then up into Belgium.
Thus, there was a clear straight-line flight-path through Allied-controlled airspace between southern England and Geneva.
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March 11, 2011 at 9:29 pm