WWII Flights To Lisbon

Re codes JP(JB?)-BJ-LB for Whitchurch to Portela, the flights would stop at RAF Chivenor and/or Oporto for refueling…I don’t recognize any of these codes , what system are they?

 A bit ‘late’ answer on Ian’s “15 October 1942. The caption also said that G-AGBD was the first plane to come into the new Portela Airport“

As previous mentioned, my uncle Dirk de Koning flew as Captain Pilot with KLM on the Whitchurch-Cintra/Portela line. On Ian’s remark, my uncle’s Pilot Flying Log Book has the following entries on 14 & 15 October 1942:  

1. Oct 14: Douglas DC3 AGBD, 1st Pilot Tepas (2nd Pilot Dirk de Koning), Remarks written: “JP-BJ-LB” (meaning flight from Whitchurch (=JB), stopover at ? (=BJ) on to Lisbon.
2. Oct 15: Douglas DC3 AGBD, 1st Pilot Tepas (2nd Pilot Dirk de Koning), Remarks written: “Cintra-Portela-Cintra + rondvl. 15’+25’+25′ (opening Portela)” (rondlv. = sightseeing flight).

oto uit boek London of Berlijn? Deel 2: 1942-1954 door Jan Hagens

Following photo I’ve found in the book “London of Berlijn? Deel 2: 1942-1954 door Jan Hagens” (Part two of KLM history with the title London or Berlin) shows the opening day of Portela airport with G-AGBD on the platform. Not sure where I’ve read it, but G-AGBD was the first official plane to land on the new Portela airfield. I believe this photo has been posted earlier in this thread…. 

Roel Ovinge

Returning to ‘WWII Flights to Lisbon’, this photograph shows the Portuguese Minister for public works (and his wife, presumably) at the new Portela Airport. They stand in front of G-AGBD. operating the BOAC service from Whitchurch. G-AGBD shows its KLM ‘origins’ quite clearly in this photograph. The caption didn’t identify the man coming out of the aircraft but gave the date as 15 October 1942. The caption also said that G-AGBD was the first plane to come into the new Portela Airport.

[ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:”Click image for larger version Name:tBOAC_DC-3_G-AGBD_first plane at Portela 15 Oct 1942.JPG Views:t0 Size:t89.9 KB ID:t3867805″,”data-align”:”none”,”data-attachmentid”:”3867805″,”data-size”:”full”}[/ATTACH]

On reflection, I based my assertion that Harriman and Churchill had travelled together to Moscow on this photograph, which is more indicative than definitive.

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I just came across an article in a British Sunday newspaper dated in mid-March 1941 in which the following paragraph appeared:

“Mr Averall Harriman, whose business will be to expedite the provision of material help to the British Empire, arrived at Britol Airport yesterday from Lisbon”.

His arrival date would have been on 15 March 1941 but what is more relevant to Post 438 is the fact that Bristol is mentioned as his point of entry by name in a British newspaper rather than the “somewhere in the west country” phrase. Harriman was a banker and a businessman, a politician and a diplomat, and he accompanied Churchill to Moscow in August 1942 on the flight in the Liberator “Commando”.

[1] Many thanks for your comments, longshot. In a 1942 article, an American journalist en route to London noted several airlines with offices at Sintra. Swissair was not among them, though Ala Littoria was. Just prior to WWII, Ala Littoria did have a route to Lisbon but it ran via North Africa rather than direct across Spain. I wonder what the route would have been in June 1941?

[2] Incidentally, the first name of the actress in question appears to have been rendered with a double-L in American newspapers – hence Lillian Harvey in the article I posted before. Lilian appears to be the original/correct spelling and this form was adopted in all the British newspapers I’ve seen so far.

[3] The day after that first newspaper article was published, it was reported that Lilian Harvey had broken her foot while walking in Switzerland and that she intended to leave Lisbon on 5 June. It transpired that she stayed on there for a week longer than that. She left Lisbon at dawn on 13 June aboard Atlantic Clipper, which was then held for 24 hours at Horta because of “inclement weather” before continuing the journey.. It was due into La Guardia Field at 2.45 p.m. on 15 June 1941.

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair …This suggests Swissair were only operating services to Germany which (discounting Lufthansa) leaves the Italian or Spanish airline services to Lisbon, my guess train to Italy then Ala Littoria to Sintra

The newspaper cutting below concerns an actress called Lilian Harvey (correct spelling of her first name). The name didn’t ring any bells with me but a quick look at Halliwell’s WHO’S WHO IN THE MOVIES intrigued me enough to resort to Wiki, – and then IMDB. It all makes quite an interesting read.

An actress and singer and dancer, she was born in London of an English mother and a German father and she became a very big star of German cinema in the 1930s, though she also made films in Hollywood and London. She fell foul of the German authorities, escaped first to France, where her last film was made in 1940, and then to the USA, where she was a volunteer nurse in WWII.

The clipping shows that she arrived at ‘Sintra Airdrome from Switzerland’ on 2 June 1941. There are no details of which airline or whether it was direct flight or not. Thoughts, anyone?

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Further to the previous post, Mr Wilkie was delayed by 24 Hours in Bolama. Apparently, he was on the ‘proving’ flight for the winter route – the southern transatlantic route – and there were Pan Am and CAB representatives on board. The reporter believed that they wished to check radio services and other terminal facilities at Bolama. It may also have been that the second leg of the journey, to Port of Spain in Trinidad, would become the longest non-stop commercial airline flight in the world at 3120 miles – expected to take about 19 hours of flying. From there, it would be about 4½ hours to San Juan, P.R. and a further 10 hours to New York or Baltimore.

According to details of overseas air mail services, given elsewhere, the Dixie Clipper was due at La Guardia at 8 a.m. local time on 9 February 1941. This was confirmed on 10 February when the previous day’s air mail services were reported: “Arrived – Dixie Clipper left Lisbon Feb 5, arrived Bolama 6 and left 7, arrived Trinidad 8 and left 8, arrived San Juan 8 and left 8, arrived New York 9″. It was also reported that the Dixie Clipper was due to leave again on the 12^th , to arrive later that day at Bermuda, then to fly on to Horta and Lisbon the next day.

To return to the Dixie Clipper’s proving flight on the southern route, as well as Mr Wiikie and his party, Juan Trippe, Pan Am’s president, was on board. He said that the new route had been ‘entirely successful’. Captain Gray, who commanded the flight, commented that the harbours used were ‘very satisfactory’ and did not suffer the swells experienced at Horta in the Azores. Dixie Clipper had flown 7459 miles (2110, 3120, 619 and 1610 miles, leg by leg) and the total flying time was 52 hours and 34 minutes. This apparently included circling Dakar ‘several times’ as the local Governor invited them to land but; in the end, the offer was declined in order to maintain the schedule. There was, however, no reference to the subsequent 24-hour wait at Bolama.

The assistant chief of the air carrier inspection section of the CAB, who was accompanied by two CAB inspectors, described the flight as ‘very successful’. Clearly, Pan American expected speedy approval of the route because it was not only said that it would become the route for all westbound services but that these would start with Yankee Clipper, due to leave Lisbon that very day.

Trippe also commented on some other matters. He praised the new Lisbon airport that was under construction and said landplanes were being developed for Pan Am to take over from the Clippers. He added, however, that Pan Am had ordered six more Clippers, three of which would be turned over to the British Government.

I was checking some contemporary newspaper reports recently and came across a couple of American articles about the end of Wendell Wilkie’s visit to Britain in early 1941. Both mentioned his place of departure. One stated, “Wilkie left Bristol by plane yesterday for Lisbon“, I was a bit surprised to see Bristol named, given the care that the British authorities took to keep it out of press but the USA had not yet entered the war, of course. It was a contrast to the report of an American journalist flying in the opposite direction almost a year later, in early 1942: “‘Where am I?’, I asked. A pleasant English voice named a town I cannot mention (for military reasons)”.

Wilkie had flown into Sintra and his onward journey was due to be aboard the Dixie Clipper via Boloma, Port of Spain and San Juan in Puerto Rico, due to arrive in New York on 8 February 1941.

They say timing is everything and it was fortunate for Mr Wilkie. Just over a week later, on 16 February 1941, a hurricane hit Lisbon (and many other places, too). The reports vary in content. One said, “The airfield at Sintra was destroyed, wrecking 10 Portuguese military planes“. and that “The big British flying boat Clyde …. broke away from her moorings and sank at the Cabo Ruivo clipper base” killing “one of the three Portuguese guards on board“. Another reported 125 mph winds and said “airport hangars were demolished” and “eight planes were destroyed and a Spanish airways Douglas Transport badly damaged“.

There’s a Lufthansa He-111 airliner behind the Salazar-led procession at Cintra [ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:”Click image for larger version Name:tLUFTH-He111-Cintra-Salazar.jpg Views:t0 Size:t100.4 KB ID:t3865620″,”data-align”:”none”,”data-attachmentid”:”3865620″,”data-size”:”full”}[/ATTACH]

Hi All,

Here’s a piece of film shot at Granja do Marqués [Sintra] in 1937.

http://www.cinemateca.pt/cinemateca-digital/Ficha.aspx?obraid=3148&type=Video

The movie description reads –

“Aerodromo da Granja do Marquês, Sintra. Fourths: Junkers JU 52 / 3M, Potez 25, Focke Wulf Wheie, Wickers Val Paraizo 3, Avro Gadet and Avro 626. Presence of the Chairman of the Board, António de Oliveira Salazar. | The arrival of 10 war plans to Granja do Marquês’ airfield in Sintra.”

Regards,

Simon

Many thanks, Longshot.

BTW, the second link throws up a 404.

I don’t think the Red Cross operated any aircraft in WWII? There were examples of combatants ambulance aircraft wearing the red cross on white surround in addition to the regular markings e.g. in the Western Desert 1942
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/war-in-the-western-desert/5QGcF4_BDj6VyA
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/war-in-the-western-desert/7AGFWlDOAw1Dv

Hi All,

Did the Red Cross operate any DC-3s during 1940/1941?

Many thanks.

Simon

Wreckage of Yankee Clipper being salvaged in Lisbon
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RcOccdZtl2U/UR_NMe-aRoI/AAAAAAAAKm0/t8Dzg9JvQMY/s1600/11-05-047.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cvPaq4b8sfM/UR_NOPmZgqI/AAAAAAAAKm8/4mBj-F7vSDU/s1600/11-05-048.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-STVSzGeXytE/UR_NRrgyXDI/AAAAAAAAKnE/-AHfWqznM_s/s1600/11-05-049.jpg

Just found this in a piece on Whitchurch Airport.

“Paved taxiways and the east-west runway, 3048 feet long, were completed by the end of 1941.”

Thanks, Longshot,

I’ll have to wangle that particular detail.

ericmunk Are there any photos in the Jan Hagens books of the KLM operations at Sintra or Oporto during the orange painted period (direct Amsterdam-Portugal April 1940) or during the camouflaged period (Whitchurch-Sintra 1940-1942)?

+(edit)…simonwood…I think Whitchurch got a paved runway in 1941 but I don’t know which month

Thank you, Eric,

You are all very generous with information.

One final [hopefully] question.

In May 1941 was Whitchurch grass or asphalt.

Regards,

Simon