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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2134.PDF
78 FLIGHT. JULY 28, 1938. WITH THE ANSONS B AD visibility over the North Sea made approach extremely easy for the enemy fleet. Each pilot re turning from reconnaisance had al most the same story to tell—of a glimpse of the sea immediately below the machine, and nowhere else. One spotted three submarines and proceeded to shoot them up with the greatest gusto—until he realised they belonged not to the enemy, nor even to his own side, but to a cer tain friendly foreign power, very real and quite unconcerned with the Exercises. The position as indicated by the map in the local operations room at Bircham Newton at 18.00 hours on July 20, the first day, showed a force of four battleships and seven destroyers to be steering a south-westerly course some 150 miles east of Thornaby, Yorkshire. The last daylight patrol reported this force to be changing course for a more northerly one in order, presumably, to ap proach from a different direction during the night. At two-thirty the next morning we made ourselves ready to take part in the first search of the day. The line to be patrolled was from the Tongue Light, near the North Foreland, to within ten miles of the Belgian coast; then back to the Tongue Light. There seemed to be a little difficulty about the refuelling. The tanks on only one side of our machine were com pletely full, the tanker having run dry while filling the other side. To save time the machine was started up and taxied to another tanker, but was still unlucky, as the pump engine on this one would not start. However, we could wait no longer, as it was already 03.30 hours and zero time over the Tongue Light—our datum point—was 04.15. So our pilot decided to take off and do the patrol, calling in at Manston on the way back for more fuel if necessary. Receiving the O.K. signal from the flare-path party, we made a good take off into a moonlit night sky with just the faintest suspicion of dawn grey appear ing, and set a course of 1600 for the Tongue. It is always a fascinating ex perience to fly into the dawn and watch the birth of a new day. At first the navigation lights stand out like coloured fireflies keeping up with the machine, and the instruments are bathed in an amber glow from their illuminating lights. Later comes the phase when the Over an inhospitable ocean at 06.30 hours : an Anson navigator uses the hand bearing compass. navigation lights become attached to a faint grey outline, almost inseparable from its surroundings; and then the tri colour becomes gradually distinguishable. Inside the machine the luminous instru ments of the prone bombing position, which are not lamp-lit, gradually lose their unearthly luminosity, as though some master hand were operating a rheostat. But to return to the war. The datum point was reached with a few minutes in hand, so we cruised round until zero hour and then set a course of go°. Visi bility was not good, but for the first 35 miles or so ships close to our track could be seen; then everything was blotted out by 10/10 cloud at o feet—in other words, sea fog. Turning at the end of the patrol line, we retraced our path towards the Tongue Light. At 05.30 hours, when within about ten miles of the Tongue, we spotted a cruiser of the Southampton class and two destroyers in line ahead on our port bow. By flying up their Near enough : The Anson at the end of its forced-landing run. Fog and fuel shortage were the causes of the bother. wake we found their course to be 8o° and assessed their speed at 12 knots. We shadowed them for some time be fore they shone the searchlight on us to simulate A.A. fire, and a Walrus came up and chased us away for a while. Shadowing continued for 44 minutes in all and then we pushed off, with fuel considerations in mind. It was decided that we had sufficient to get us back to Bircham Newton, so a course was set for the coast and a correction made after a landfall, as we had wandered about a good deal while shadowing. Our E.T.A. at Bircham was 07.10 hours, and when we were nearly home, and already en joying in anticipation a well-earned breakfast, we found the aerodrome to be covered with ten-tenths very low cloud; the stuff looked to be right down on the ground. Fuel was by now running very low and the idea of playing around in a fog while an engine petered out did not seem a good one; so our pilot turned back some ten or twelve miles and forced- landed in a field near Wellingham. The maximum run was only about 300 yards and there was no wind at all. The boundary hedge was passed over with only 45 knots showing on the A.S.I. We had a few anxious moments while the Anson pitched rather violently across drainage undulations, which had to be taken diagonally, but she slowed up and eventually stopped with some fifteen to twenty yards to spare from the hedge. The weather closed in completely almost as we came to a standstill. A telephone message brought a lorry with fuel to the scene within about two hours. All dispensible load—passengers, para chutes and so forth—was then removed from the Anson and the wires protecting the throttle gate cut so that full bore could be given for take-off. With the pilot solo the machine just cleared the boundary hedge. On arrival at the aerodrome we found the war had been called off until 18.00 hours to allow a new phase to develop; which seemed to be a good time to go home. J. V.
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