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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1086.PDF
512 FLIGHT MAY 21 ST, 1942 WITH THE R.A.F. IN THE MIDDLE EAST The Rolls-Royce Merlin-engined Fairey Battle, a few of which took part in the Abyssinian campaign from Kenya. "* Italian sailors, who were glad to be back at their old pro fession of waiters and were most useful in the Officers' Mess. In the same squadron I also met Antonio, much more con cerned for the professional and technical reputation of the Italian diesel lorries and their satisfactory running than with sabotaging the vehicles to prevent their further use by the R.A.F.—an interesting sidelight on the outlook of the ordinary Italian towards that war which he obviously detested. I spent a night at Barce, north of Benghazi, in a com fortable Italian hotel which was still staffed by Italians. I had an excellent service ration dinner at the Italian Officers' Club. The town was undamaged. It was the centre of a large agri cultural district; one must remember that the whole country north of a line joining Derna and Benghazi had been developed agriculturally and well colonised under the late Marshal Balbo's regime. I found at Barce one British squadron comfortably installed in a two-storey building, with its aircraft dispersed round a grass airfield, a welcome change from desert sand and the bare shelter afforded by the side curtains of motor transport vehicles. Agheila Reached •" " At Benina airfield, outside Benghazi, No. 3 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron, now equipped with Hurricanes, were accommodated in what remained of blitzed accommoda tion at a once well-equipped terminal airport, the pride of Marshal Balbo. This Australian squadron had done magnifi cently throughout, and was typical of what a desert-trained squadron should be—hard, seasoned pilots and ground crews, ready to meet and overcome all difficulties cheerfully, and the best improvisors (or should I say ' scroungers ' ?) in the Middle East. The same applied to the R.A.F. squadrons after six months of desert conditions. In spite of limited water supply and lack of vegetables or fruit over long periods during opera':^ tions, the health of officers and men was surprisingly good. Cairo was El Adem. a short way inland from Tobruk. Here the Italians had developed a good airfield, with workshop facilities and freshly constructed barracks and stores. Our repair and salvage section, who had moved there, were glad of some shelter and even the use of some undamaged equip ment. Sheds and barracks had suffered from our attacks, but the remarkable sight around the airfield was the number of Italian aircraft, burnt out or broken up. I saw similar sights as I motored past landing grounds en route to Derna, whilst at Benina, main airdrome at Benghazi, nearly 100 derelict aircraft could be counted. " All this was satisfactory evidence of the effectiveness of our bombing and machine-gun attacks. It also showed what heavy losses in aircraft were likely to be incurred by an air force in rapid retirement, through having to abandon unservice able aircraft, damaged by bombing, or perhaps lacking some spare or small repair. R.A.F. Damage at Tobruk "Tobruk was an astonishing sight. In the harbour a dozen ships lay sunk or beached, among them the Marco Polo, a large passenger ship, and the cruiser San Giorgio, which had been severely damaged in one of the early R.A.F. raids on the port. Within the perimeter defences were derelict vehicles, including some very useful large Fiat lorries, many of which were made serviceable; stocks of food, chianti wine, petrol and ammunition. An R.A.F. squadron occupying the local airfield had borrowed from the prisoners' camp one or two A four-gun Sea Gladiator of the type used by the Fleet Air Arm. At one time four of these constituted the sole defence. of Malta. The bulge underneath carries a dinghy.
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