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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 1673.PDF
October jth, 1948 431 Avn Yorks and a Bristol Wayfarer pause briefly at Catow. with the aid of an autobahn mixer and paver, this is being completed with amazing dispatch, several hundreds of yards having been completed in the past few days. ., Some relief from the dust and noise of the airfield was afforded by the austere but efficient Malcolm Club can- teen—part of a hangar—where British, American, South African, Australian, and French crews may be seen queue- ing for a hasty mug of tea and a '' wad '' before taking off for the next load. Here we met Captain E. Caesar- Gordon, who readily agreed to give us a lift to Wunstorf in a short-nosed Viking IA of Trans-World Air Charter, which he had just brought in, on his first lift, with 7,000 lb of sugar. Enthroned on the only available seat—that in the •steward's pantry—we looked forward through the empty shell of the Viking's fuselage, void of all furnishings, but with planks arranged on the floor to take the concen- trated load. A Hythe flying boat sailed across our bows as we left Gatow on a trip, which, with its nauseating Silver City Wayfarers and Flight Refuelling Lancastrians at Wunstarf. bumps and general discomfort, seemed to last every minute of its hour. The geodetic wings were visibly flex- ing, and the Viking wagged her tail till we fervently wished we had paid no heed to Captain Caesar-Gordon's well-meant advice to fill up with doughnuts before taking off. We were glad, indeed, to see the two B.E.A. liaison offi- cers at Wunstorf—Messrs. Jack Lukin and Robin Atkin- son—who, in the few minutes available, told us what we needed to know of air lift activity at their end. From Wunstorf, all the civil charter aircraft—with the excep- tion of the Dakotas—are supplying Berlin. To see the Haltons and Lancastrians really getting down to an over- time job was to realize that, whatever may be said in . discredit of British '' interim '' aircraft, we may be pro- foundly thankful that these old warhorses were available when the call came from Germany. Bristol 170s at present in service are ex-passenger-carrying Wayfarers, but R.A.S.C. Air Despatch Units, who are responsible for all loading (and a really wonderful job they are making of it), look forward to the arrival of "pukka" Freighters, for which cargoes can be prepared on trays to permit rapid nose loading. There was no time to study the work of the R.A.F. at Wunstorf (Station Commander G/C. Whitley; Wing Commander Flying, W/C. Hanks), but the sight of dozens of Yorks operating en masse was a revelation. Having missed a Flight Refuelling Lancastrian tanker for our return trip to Gatow, we were grateful to Captain C. Treen, of Bond's Air Services, for arranging a passage in one of his company's Haltons, flown by Captain R. M. Jones. Captain Treen has done over 50 lifts himself (men- tion has already been made of one of his best efforts), and swears by the ex-B.O.A.C. Haltons, with their underslung panniers, as freighters for the carriage of concentrated loads. It was he who proved the type on the Civil Air Lift, and he hopes to have three or more similar machines in the near future. A few days previously Captain Jones had seen nine Russian fighters approaching from his starboard beam. He pushed down his Halton's nose, and they passed close above. To the accompaniment of Music While You Work on the R/T, we set course for Gatow with a cargo of flour, at 170 knots indicated, height 1,500ft. The weather was fair, and the windscreen rapidly became obscured by flies which, observed Captain Jones, sometimes accumulated to such a density that vision is really seriously impaired. We passed the airfield at Dedelsdorf (though apparently un- used by aircraft, this is the site of a beacon) and, before entering a rainstorm, which served to wash the blood from the windscreen, noticed a York "pouring on the coals " to starboard. Emerging from the shower we clearly saw the barges at Wittenberge, waiting to lift the blockade. ****** * Rubble from Berlin is used for the new hard-standing at Gatow.
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