ianwoodward9Below is the route map from the Lufthansa timetable for the summer of 1941.
The thick lines show Lufthansa’s own routes. These have the lower-numbered route or flight numbers (single digit and double-digit for the most part). Some of these were flown by or in conjunction with other airlines, such as ABA of Sweden, DDL of Denmark, Swissair, Ala Littoria, Malert (Hungary), LARES (Romania) and Aeroflot. A few of these appear to be what we might call ‘code sharing’ these days. Also, DLH apparently dropped Amsterdam, for example, from its route network.
The thin lines show routes not flown by Lufthansa itself but by those other airlines. These have four-digit numbers and, simplified a touch, seem to have been allocated as follows:
1200 series: Iberia (Spain)
1300 series: Malert (Hungary)
1600 series: ABA (Sweden) some with DDL (Denmark),Aero O/Y (Finland) or Aeroflot (Russia)
1700 series: DDL (Denmark)
2100 series: LARES (Romania)
A couple of the destinations flown by LARES seem to throw some light on German influence in Romania but that may be covered in a later post; first, the Lisbon route. Pre-war, it was just Route/Flight 22 and Lufthansa’s 1938 route map showed its itinerary as follows:
Berlin > Halle/Leipzig > Stuttgart > Geneva > Marseilles > Barcelona > Madrid > Lisbon
In this 1941 timetable, the itinerary had changed, as indicated in previous posts. Also, the flight number was amended. Uniquely among the route/flight numbers in the 1941 Lufthansa timetable, a letter was added to the route number, now being prefixed by a letter. Route 22 became route K22.
Assuming that the letter was not a random choice, does anyone know what the ‘K’ stands for?
Here’s the route map.
ianwoodward9This is the promised follow-up to Post # 256 and is another extract from Lufthansa’s timetable for the summer of 1941. It shows air services from Lisbon, as in Post #256, but with some additional information, presented in the form of a 10-column tabulation. The first column shows the destination and the tenth column shows the flight number (or service number) to that destination.
Columns 2 to 4 deal with timings:
the second column shows the time the airport bus leaves central Lisbon
the third column shows the departure time at the airport
the fourth column show the arrival time at the destination named in the first column.
The arrival time for all destinations except Madrid was on the following day, necessitating an overnight stay in Madrid (this was shown in the ninth column).
Columns 5 to 8 deal with costs or prices. I haven’t worked out the translations yet but the fifth column seems to show the single fares in Portuguese escudos and the sixth column, the return fares.
This being 1941 (that is, before the opening of Portela Airport), the flights used the airfield at Cintra. The timetable shows that the airfield was called ‘Granja do Marqués’, given as 30 km from Lisbon, quite a long way out from a capital city.
The buses left the city 90 minutes before flight time, which may be an indication of the road system back then. The bus for the Lufthansa service left from the Hotel Avenida Palace (on the Praça de Restauradores) and the Iberia bus from their office on the Avenida de Liberdade.
ianwoodward9I thought it might be an idea to look at the German service to Lisbon during WWII. On-line, I found one wartime timetable issued by Deutsche Lufthansa. It is the “Sommer Flugplan” (Summer Schedule) effective from 8 June 1941.
The two images below are extracts from that timetable, showing:
(1) The Berlin – Lisbon service operated by Lufthansa [Flight No. K 22], and
(2) The Madrid -Lisbon service operated by Iberia [Flight No. 1207]
The return flight from Lisbon by Lufthansa involved an overnight stay in Madrid, as indicated by the dark horizontal bar-line in the right-hand column of Image (1).
I think that the footnote regarding Lyons and Marseille says that Lufthansa did not provide a passenger or freight service between these two cities (in other words, it would not operate as an internal air service within France).
NOTE: you will probably have to click on the images to read them
A further extract from this timetable will follow.
ianwoodward9Thank for the additional information, ericmunk; it certainly explains the suspension of the Hull – Liverpool service. I am sorry that I got Capt. Hondong’s name wrong but the incorrect spelling is the way it appeared in the 1936 article I had consulted.
I noticed that the great air mail covers placed here by Jur both named the particular aircraft to be flown by Capt. Hondong on his pioneering flight to Curaçao. The image below, which also identifies “Snip” (or “Snipe”) by name, comes from a preview report which covers the fitting of different engines, additional fuel tanks (giving a range of 3000 miles) and LW and SW wireless equipment. Apparently, the flight was given assistance by a Dutch Navy submarine (engaged in a ‘scientific world cruise’) that happened to be mid-ocean.
In addition, the route was changed. It was originally intended to go via West Africa, crossing the Atlantic from Dakar to Natal, but Air France had made use of ‘landing grounds’ in the Cape Verde Islands. This route shortened the total distance of the KLM flight by over 1000 miles, though the main ocean-crossing leg, at over 2220 miles, was longer.
The longer-term intention of KLM was to link up with the Pan Am services between North and South America – very much the function that KLM came to perform in WWII with its flights from Whitchurch to Lisbon.
ianwoodward9Thanks, Duggy, for another terrific photograph (is that indeed Croydon, anyone?) and also to ericmunk for the additional newsreel footage. and for confirming it was Fokker F.XII PH-AFV on the first Amsterdam – Hull service in 1934. Slightly to correct one of my earlier posts, the airport at Hull was, in fact, called Hedon (but was pronounced Heddon) and was about five miles east of the city.
KLM re-commenced the Amsterdam – Hull – Liverpool service in 1935. KLM’s Croydon-based boss flew up to Liverpool by Railway Air Services for the first arrival on 1 May 1935 then he returned to Croydon via Amsterdam. The service didn’t run for the whole summer, though. On 26 July 1935, KLM suspended it and wrote to the Chairman of the Hull Development Committee to advise of the suspension. If a reason were given, it does not appear to have been reported at the time. However, it was apparently because of a shortage of pilots and aircraft following some crashes. KLM said it felt sure that the airline could rely on the support of Hull when the service resumed but, when the service did resume the following year, Hull was not used.
The intermediate stop changed to Doncaster “… because it serves a great industrial district and … has outstanding facilities as a railway centre”. Also, the airport was just “five minutes by car” from the town centre. This Liverpool-Doncaster-Amsterdam service was a joint venture between KLM and British Continental Airways (on a 50:50 basis). BCA handled the flights at Speke, KLM at Doncaster. On 30 June 1936, a KLM Fokker XVIII, piloted by Capt. Hongdong, flew up to Doncaster from Croydon to commence the service at 11.40 am on 1 July. A DH.86A of BCA had arrived from Croydon earlier that morning, made a number of flights over the area during the day and then returned to Croydon a later in the day.
Here’s a contemporary image taken at Doncaster on the opening day:
ianwoodward9At the Museum of Army Flying later this year:
2 November – Lecture:
RAF Dakota KN630
Colonel Paul Edwards will talk briefly about the iconic Dakota DC3 and how it has been operated across the world before moving on to the tragic story of RAF Dakota KN630.
The aircraft crashed in the high jungle of northern Malaya in 1950 on operations against terrorists during the “Emergency”.
All 12 on board perished in the crash in an area considered to be “inaccessible” by virtue of the terrain, its occupation by terrorists and the high density of booby traps laid to prevent security forces entering the area.
This is his very personal account of how the aircraft was located after nearly 60 years and the remains of those servicemen carried out of the jungle for appropriate burial with full military honours.
The talk will include a short documentary made at the time by the RAF media team
ianwoodward9It depends when the portrait photo was taken but I tend to agree with you, Jur.
ianwoodward9A “nice shot” indeed, Duggy.
And Ivan/Iwan Smirnov certainly led an eventful, not to say colourful, life, ericmunk. The FLIGHT photo below, taken on 31 May 1934, shows Alderman Benno Pearlman, Chairman of the Aerodrome Committee in Hull, emerging from the KLM Fokker XII; ahead of him is his wife. The three people in the foreground are not identified but perhaps the one on right of the trio is Capt. Smirnov. Do you know if this correct, ericmunk?
ianwoodward9The first KLM service to Hull actually arrived on 31 May 1934 (at 3.20 pm), then flying on to Liverpool where it stayed overnight before the return flight. This slightly amends the report in Post # 239.
During the previous week, a number of dignitaries had flown out from Croydon to Amsterdam, in order to be aboard the inaugural flight to Hull.
The KLM Fokker was piloted by Capt. Smirnoff, who took some of those welcoming its arrival on sightseeing flights over the city. There were connecting services and one of these arrived soon after the Fokker in the form of an Airspeed Courier. Earlier, there had been an aerobatic display by 57 (Bomber) Squadron from Upper Heyford, in their Hawker Harts. Also, 26 (Army Co-operation) Squadron came down from Catterick in their Hawker Audaxes.
Quite a day.
ianwoodward9“Landing op verzoek” = “Landing by request” (what I called “a request stop” in Post #239).
ianwoodward9Here’s an extract from a 1939 KLM timetable. The exact dates are shown but extend beyond the declaration of war. I do not know if the service continued. Perhaps our Dutch contributors can advise.
ianwoodward9Getting back to KLM now.
This is another still from the Pathe Newsreel in Post # 148, the one about KLM air hostesses . This still is taken from the first few seconds and shows a signpost with the routes flown from Schiphol. In this case, it shows the direct flights to LONDON and also the service to LIVERPOOL, via DONCASTER.
Earlier, Dr Plesman, the head of KLM, had attempted to ‘woo’ the Lord Mayor of Manchester by offering an Amsterdam- Manchester service via Hull. In the end, on 1 June 1934, KLM launched a service from Amsterdam to Liverpool via Hull (Heddon), using Fokker XIIs, I believe. This service came with rights to carry passengers on the Liverpool to Hull sector (that is, a UK internal passenger flight) and to carry GPO mail from Hull to Amsterdam (including mail destined for other parts of northern Europe). It was a weekday service.
Sometime in 1936, the intermediate stop became Doncaster, not Hull, and it is this service that is shown on the signpost in that bit of newsreel footage. Does anyone know the date of this change?
From 27 June 1938, Manchester was added to the route. In 1939, Doncaster was a ‘request stop’ on flights in both directions and Rotterdam a request stop on the return flight. This latter change may have happened on the inauguration of the Manchester service or it may have been a later amendment – I don’t know which.
ianwoodward9Re previous post – does that look like ‘G-ADSX’ on the fuselage to you?
ianwoodward9Moving to the British end of the Lisbon route and to the beginning of WWII rather than the later years, this image shows an Ensign, probably at Whitchurch. Its identity is far from clear but it looks like it could be G-ADSX. If so, it is interesting to note that, while it is no longer in a bare metal finish, it does yet wear the rudder ‘stripes’ etc required by the French authorities of British aircraft operating in France in support of troops there. Instead, it has a darkish, dull and ill-defined finish, as though hastily camouflaged.
Perhaps this is a well-known photograph and somebody can provide additional information.
ianwoodward9Thanks, longshot, for the additional info on CS-TDA and the possible/probable connection to the photo in Post # 205. I don’t know if Jenny Gradidge identified any other DC-3s impounded by the Portuguese around this time but, if not, it would seem that they must be one and the same.
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