Wartime flying in Africa

Pan Am Africa Wartime Flying in Africa

In 1941 Churchill requested Pan Am’s assistance in strengthening the air route from West Africa to Khartoum and Cairo and the North African combat zone(This linked up to Pan American Ferries transatlantic route from Natal Brazil to West Africa) On www.Life.com there are relevant photos by Hart Preston and Bob Landry ..use searchwords like the photographers names or ‘Pan-American passengers Cairo’….’Tunisia Libya’….’Bourke White Tunisia’…’CARIO airport’ (not cairo)…’Ferry pilots Africa’ (the latter one shows some ex US airline DC-3s and DC-2s bought by the British Government )

The SAAF operated Junkers F.13FE, Ju-86Z/K-1 and Ju52/3M aircraft, all ex-South African Airways aircraft impressed into service, several captured Luftwaffe Ju-52’s were also used later in the war. There is no record of any blue on blue incident. Only one Ju-52 was lost to enemy action and that was ZS-AFD which was destroyed during an air attack at Jiggigga, 29th March 1942.
The eleven Ju52’s were allocated to No.51 Flt at Nairobi. They operated a shuttle service between Egypt, East Africa and South Africa. South Africa’s first blow against the enemy involved a Ju-86 which intercepted the German steamer “Watussi” which had made a run from the neutral port of Lourenco Marques heading for Rio de Janeiro.

Bear in mind the ferry route was chosen because it was clear of major combat areas.

Trevor wrote that they changed the standard route for a while because the Nazis were sending long range twin engined fighters out to try to intercept the ferry convoys, so though those Gerry fighters were at the extent of their range when they reached the route, and the likelihood they might actually find a convoy when they got there was slim, the route was still changed till they stopped sending them.

So, there never seemed to be any issues with mistaken identity? My thoughts are that the Ju-52 from a distance even is a distinctive shape that most pilots would associate immediately with being Luftwaffe. I just wonder if there were any blue on blue incidents because of this.

I’m not aware of any – not that that means anything. However numerous captured axis aircraft, particularly useful transports, were used by the Allies in the fighting zone (and vice versa). Photos of e/a in allied markings in N Africa aren’t particularly rare.

Bear in mind the ferry route was chosen because it was clear of major combat areas.

There certainly were Vichy French factions all over Africa it seems, just as there were in the Pacific, trying to undermine the Allied effort. Did you realise that Vichy French members in Thailand were assisting the Japanese in their attacks on Singapore? Crazy but true, apparently. They allowed Japs to operate from their airfields.

Don’t forget the Vichy French regime was the legitimate French government of the time, however unsavoury. Having to make choices (between the legitimate government and rebels/traitors) like most French people had to do at the time is something most of us are lucky not to face.

Also, from a French perspective, the British Empire wasn’t particularly friendly – don’t forget Mers El Kabir, Oran (And note the different outcome at Alexandria, with Admaral Godfroy.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Mers-el-K%C3%A9bir

Yes, and in these cases with all the usual problems, the particular heat of these two days diminished the lift, so they sank like stones once the aircraft were banked into the approach.

Standard hot and high issues, something green pilots wouldn’t be aware of.

The South Africans had Ju52/3ms pre-war as airliners (and used them as military transports in North Africa, IIRC).

They had some pre-war Ju86 airliners that were converted into bombers, too.

The ‘Toucan’ was a postwar French built Ju52/3m – not reliavent here.

James,

I wasn’t referring to the Toucan, rather, those that were built in France before the war ended.

Best wishes
Steve P

Coupla Ju-52/3m points.

The South Africans had Ju52/3ms pre-war as airliners (and used them as military transports in North Africa, IIRC).

So, there never seemed to be any issues with mistaken identity? My thoughts are that the Ju-52 from a distance even is a distinctive shape that most pilots would associate immediately with being Luftwaffe. I just wonder if there were any blue on blue incidents because of this.

Accounts of wartime ‘sabotage’ are widely publicised; while there probably was some sabotage, and it is often difficult to detect, the lack of accidents attributed to poor maintenance and the variety of human error in these circumstances , despite the factors making this inevitable, means sabotage claims should always be regarded sceptically. Much better to believe it was sabotage than poor servicing / pilot error that brought you mate down.

That is very true, and proving someone removed a split-pin deliberately rather than someone omitted to fit it, or someone drained fuel rather than someone didn’t top it up properly would be hard to prove indeed. Perhaps a pitot packed with grass is easier to put down to sabotage if the aeroplane gets down in one piece. There certainly were Vichy French factions all over Africa it seems, just as there were in the Pacific, trying to undermine the Allied effort. Did you realise that Vichy French members in Thailand were assisting the Japanese in their attacks on Singapore? Crazy but true, apparently. They allowed Japs to operate from their airfields.

The Lockheed Hudson had large area extending Fowler flaps, and needed to be landed in a manner that most Commonwealth aircrew of the time found different to their training – including a wheeler landing rather than three-point. There were numerous accidents, some very significant such as the loss of some of Australia’s high command at Canberra – but most were down to pilot unfamiliarity with the type’s operating requirement – tough, but pilot error. Engine problems with the flaps extended were also very difficult to survive.

Yes, and in these cases with all the usual problems, the particular heat of these two days diminished the lift, so they sank like stones once the aircraft were banked into the approach.

Aeroplane ran a multi-part feature on the Takadori(sp) Run a few years ago.

I wouldn’t mind having a read of them. I have spoken with two pilots in the past, now both deceased, who flew the route. One of them did it just once as part of his tranist from the UK to Cairo. He flew the first route as a passenger in a C-47 and was so terified by the antics of the junior pilot aboard he got off and asked if he could fly his own plane the rest of the way. So they gave him a Hurricane that had broken down at a remote Takoradi-route strip and they drove up there and fixed it and he flew it the rest of the way. From what he said and from what Trevor Howells says in his book, it must have been a real boy’s own adventure to come from little old new Zealand to suddenly be flying fighters across darkest Africa. What an experience.

The other pilot I talked with also flew as a ferry pilot on the route and said he mostly flew Hudsons so must have been a leadship navigation plane pilot. I never knew till reading this book that they usually had one bomber and five fighters per convoy, and the fighters had large temporary numbers of 1 through to 5 painted on them so they knew their place.

Trevor wrote that a new Spitfire just out of the factory would be worth 5000 Pounds Sterling, and by the time it was transported by ship to Takoradi, assembled, test flown and ferried across the route to Cairo, it was worth 25,000 Pounds Sterling, that is how much the Government had paid to get it there, 20 grand! He notes the fuel prices at most fuel stops and they are none less than a pound per gallon, some more, because to get the fuel to those remote places it had to be transported by camel train in four gallon tins. I think we forget the logistics behind supplying a war sometimes and reading this book has been a bit of an eye-opener to this. Those ferry pilots were certainly unsung heroes.

Coupla Ju-52/3m points.

The South Africans had Ju52/3ms pre-war as airliners (and used them as military transports in North Africa, IIRC).

The ‘Toucan’ was a postwar French built Ju52/3m – not reliavent here.

Also:

Accounts of wartime ‘sabotage’ are widely publicised; while there probably was some sabotage, and it is often difficult to detect, the lack of accidents attributed to poor maintenance and the variety of human error in these circumstances , despite the factors making this inevitable, means sabotage claims should always be regarded sceptically. Much better to believe it was sabotage than poor servicing / pilot error that brought you mate down.

The Lockheed Hudson had large area extending Fowler flaps, and needed to be landed in a manner that most Commonwealth aircrew of the time found different to their training – including a wheeler landing rather than three-point. There were numerous accidents, some very significant such as the loss of some of Australia’s high command at Canberra – but most were down to pilot unfamiliarity with the type’s operating requirement – tough, but pilot error. Engine problems with the flaps extended were also very difficult to survive.

Aeroplane ran a multi-part feature on the Takadori(sp) Run a few years ago.

HTH.

Thanks for that info longshot.

Now that I am further into the book I see the author has mentioned the routes further and the aircraft on them, including a disaster as two BOAC Hudsons crashed at Khartoum just days apart in the same circumstances, put down to the heat and the fowler flaps causing them to drop from the sky while turning in the circuit. Onboard each were nine members of his unit being transported back to Takoradi, so in a matter of less than two weeks they lost 18 of their unit in two accidents. He describes other crashes while ferrying fighters too. It’s amazing to think these guys had perhaps the safest jobs as fighter pilots in the war yet still incurred numerous casualties.

Another area he describes is the sabotage that the Vichy French infiltrators used to do to their aeroplanes. it was common for them to tamper with fuel tanks (draining fuel from the droptanks which don’t have guages so they didn’t make it to the desitnation, and in his case once removing a split-pin so the tank dropped off the back attachment on take off, scraped along the runway and burst spreading fuel all over. It didn’t ignite luckliy.) Also they used to put grass up the ASI pitot so the pilot had no way to see his speed on the tak-off run and more critically the landing. And one unusual piece of sabotage he witnessed was they came out to their aircraft in the morning to find one of them had the end of its propellor missing, and evidential teeth marks to deduce it was bitten off by an adult lion during the night!!

Pics of sabena airliners on
http://www.baha.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/CivilPics/civil_pics_ooaaa_ooczz/sabena_junkers_ju_52.htm

Map of Allies trans Africa route attached (from HMSO Merchant Airmen 1944)….in August 1940 BOAC’s Clyde flew a diplomatic mission to get French Equatorial Africa to abandon Vichy and side with the allies which ‘unblocked’ the route

I’m reading ‘African Experience – Story of an RNZAF Ferry Pilot’ by Trevor Howells, where he was ferrying British aircraft on the route from Takoradi to Cairo. In the bit where he wrote about flying back from Cairo to the west coast of Africa he talks about the airlines operating across the continent that they would use.

These included BOAC flying Empire flying boats, Lockheed Hudsons, DC3’s and Ensigns (whatever they were); The American Transport Corps using DC-3’s, DC-4’s and Liberators; Pan American using DC-3’s; the RAF using Venturas and DC-3’s and lastly Sabena (the Belgain airline) flying Junkers 52’s.

I am wondering if Sabena flying German aircraft (Junkers 52) caused any problems with Allied fighters or AA gunners, etc., spotting them? How were they marked to denote airline status? Does anyone have a photo of a Sabena Junkers 52?

Sorry Dave, I was being a bit sloppy in my use of the term “axis”, Did the Vichy French have any Ju-52s? I know that they were being manufactured in France – did any end up in North Africa during the campaign?

Best wishes
Steve P

The routes would have been fairly far away from the combat zone but logic tells you that at some of the RAF stations and airfields along the way there may well have been a new, green young pilot or gunner who saw one and mistook it for a German paratroop aircraft I guess.

Howells mentions in the book that certain African cities were run by the Vichy French, and they had to avoid them because they’d shoot at the aircraft they were ferrying. It lead me to also wonder about places that had Vichy and Nazi sympathisers or were perhaps neutral, did the Germans or Italians also have supply lines across Africa in the same way as the RAF had the Takoradi to Cairo route? Or did German pilots and soldiers use some of the airlines operating freely in the continent too? If the airlines only carried Allies (being British, US and Belgian airlines mentioned) were they open to attack from the Axis for being part of the Allied supply route?

Just a thought, How close was the ferry route to the combat areas? Would there have been any chance of seeing an axis Ju-52 at any point along the route?

Best wishes
Steve P

AW Ensign Civil flying Africa WWII

Good history of the Ensign from FlightGlobal, written 1957 :)….

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%200201.html

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%200245.html

The Ensigns were built on the UK South Coast at Hamble because Armstrong Whitworth’s Midland factory was busy with Military work….

http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/airfields/ham2.html

The only known colour photo of an Ensign appeared in National geographic in 1946 in an artcle about ‘Bible Lands’ and was reproduced in the Eighties? by Aeroplane monthly.

Attached shot from Russian website of the Ensign captured by the Vichy French in West Africa

The webpage which claims the Wright engines could not be maintained after the war is probably mistaken…. the Ensign was just getting out of date, though Peter Masefield, in a letter to Flight about 1957 said they could have served BEA in the late 40s if fitted with Hercules engines……enjoy!….Longshot

Thanks for that, an interesting type by the look of things.

Ensigns (whatever they were)

Info