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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1533.PDF
JULY 23RD, 1942 FLIGHT 89 " Flight " photographs. Four scenes in the eastern terminal control building. (Top left) O.K. for take-off. An R.A.F. sergeant in the control tower gives a Liberator the " green." (Bottom left) The controller plots a bearing in the operations room. (Top right) The operations room telephone exchange is " manned " by girls of the W.A.A.F. (Bottom right) After coding—which is done by W.A.A.F. girls of commissioned rank—messages are sent by teleprinter. Despite gloomy forecasts by pessimists as to the impos sibility of running the ferry service during the North Atlantic winter, it did, in fact, continue at an accelerated pace through a winter which gave the "met." people the worst figures for over 30 years. By May, 1941, it was found t4ifcessary to institute a return air service to Newfoundland in order to save aircrews' time from being wasted by returning in surface ships. Ferry Command Born It will be remembered that up to June, 1941, there was still a pretence of neutrality on the part of Americi. Machines were delivered to a border airport ai d dragged across into Canada by horses. It was at this period that President Roosevelt offered Mr. Churchill more help*by making available U.S. Army Air Corps personnel to fly aircraft from the constructors' airfields to our main base at Montreal. Here the machines were either crated for shipment or prepared for transatlantic flight. It was in these circumstances, "in July, 1941, that Atfero became the R.A.F. Ferry Com mand under Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill, G.B.E., K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., who had such extensive experience of ocean l- A wireless operator monitoring for signals from machines on their way over the Atlantic. flying from his previous appointment in charge of Coastal Command. He brought with him a number of serving officers, but the organisation continued to be made up very largely of British and Canadian civilians. On the flying side there are still a few Service officers at the controls, " Flight " photograph.
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