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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1089.PDF
MAY 21 ST, 1942 FLIGHT 513 WITH THE R.A.F. IN THE MIDDLE EAST Lucky were those squadrons near the coast and a sandy bathing beach. Frequently you read or hear of sand or dust storms. These are various. A Khamsin, or hot sand wind, is particularly prevalent in April and May. Occasionally it shuts dotvn flying over large areas for upwards of 24 to 48 hours. It may extend to a considerable height. That is not the only trouble, for now the whole surface of the desert along the coastal belt from Derna to Alexandria has been cut up by vehicles of all sorts. Any wind over 20 m.p.h., aided by a hot sun, may set the whole surface of loose sand on the move. The result is that a pilot may start off from a perfectly clear airfield at, say, 7 a.m. and return to find it completely blotted out by blowing sand three hours later. Flying conditions in the Middle East are by no means always ideal. " Mid-February, 1941, saw the end of the successful advance, and the commencement of a short-lived effort at consolidation in Cvrenaica, with forward outposts at Agheila. All praise to the XHIth Corps, under Gen. O'Connor for their mag nificent effort. The R.A.F. had been proud to support them; "find how satisfactory for the Commander of No. 202 Group, R.A.F. (A.V-M. Collishaw), to receive a special order of the day from the Commander of the XHIth Corps appreciating the wonderful work of the R.A.F., ' whose determination and fine fighting qualities made the campaign possible.' The Air The Bristol Bombay bomber-transport was in service at the beginning of the war. A number of them were built by Short and Harlands in Ireland. Force was sad when, some weeks later. Gen. O'Connor was taken prisoner. " Back in Cairo, the cries from Greece for more air reinforce ments were loud and frequent. Signals from home required 'n|e to form a Balkan reserve of ten squadrons, tjut where they were to come from was not clear. Squadrons in Cyrenaica which had been hard at it for two _________ months were in urgent need of re-equipping. The most that could be left in Cyrenaica was three squadrons: one army co-operation and two fighers. Farther south, the R.A.F. in Sudan and from Aden, as well as the South African Air Force from Kenya, were fully occupied supporting Gen. Piatt's and Gen. Cunningham's offensives into Eritrea and Abyssinia. We were stretched beyond our capacity. Fresh aircraft were not arriving from home as fast as they were being used up. "No sooner had the R.A.F. reductions and similar Army ones been made in Cyrenaica than ''•'", the German Air Force began to appear on the scene, and by the end of February had assumed j- a leading role in the enemy air effort, which was directed at first against Benghazi. About this time—the end of February, 1941—reconnaissance of Tjfpoli revealed considerable shipping activity, addeil to which German transport aircraft, JU 52s, were observed on enemy airfields. However, there was no particular reason at that time to suppose that enemy reinforcements were for any other purpose than to stop our further advance towards Tripoli. Anyway, nothing much could be done Vickers Valentias of the bomber-transport type were in service in Egypt and Palestine at the outbreak of war. The Valentia is the Pegasus-engined version of the Victoria, which goes back into the late 1920s. about it, for at a conference at Tatoi, outside Athens, on February 22nd, a fresh commitment had been accepted to send immediately Imperial troops and additional squadrons to support Greece in the coming German attack from the Balkans. The conference was attended by the King of Greece, Prime Minister Korysis (successor to Metaxas), General Papagos, Mr. Eden (Foreign Secretary), General Dill (C.I.G.S.), General Wavell, a Naval representative of the C.-in-C. Mediterranean,'and myself. Tobruk Held "I stayed on a week in Greece visiting R.A.F. squadrons, and by the time I returned to Cairo by air on March 3rd it had been pretty well established that German forces had reached Tripoli and that their strength was something over two divisions, one of them armoured. On March 30th, in Libya, our forward troops at Agheila fell back under German pressure and, once started, the withdrawal continued. On Apyl 5th I was at Khartoum discussing with the A.O.C.s Sudan, Aden, and East Africa what squadrons could now be moved to Libya or Greece, following the then almost complete success ful conclusion of the Abyssinian campaign. I arranged for the immediate transfer of those which had a few modern aircraft left serviceable. "Next day, April 6th, my diary records as follows:—'Spent the morning flying the 1,000 miles up to Cairo. Arrived in time for lunch. Things were not too bright. The German Armoured Division was getting along far too fast in Cyrenaica. The Balkan War had started. The Germans had invaded Northern Greece and Jugoslavia—not to mention trouble in Iraq which might lead anywhere. A C.-in-C.s' conference in the afternoon attended by Mr. Eden and General Dill. Decisions made as to what should be held. One of these decisions was to hold Tobruk. - By the end of the month Rommel's force had by-passed Tobruk, and was in possession A short-nosed Blenheim (Bristol Mercurj^fTlI) on an improvised "airfield in Greece. In the Balkan campaignjrfie R.A.F. were opt-ryiwrtJere^ by more thanvwe-to .one.
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