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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0434.PDF
434 FLIGHT, 1 April i960 One Man's Starlight LYNEHAM lay quiet, the Comets, Hastings and Britannias gleaming inthe soft radiance of the apron lights; but presently a hundred-plus troops and newspapermen climbed aboard a Britannia of No 99 Sqnwith Fit Lt Cotton as captain. Our flight-plan allowed for a direct run to El Adem in 5hr 18min, at 28,000ft and 350 m.p.h. groundspeed. This istrooping de luxe, and one wonders what Kitchener's soldiers would have thought of this modern magic; for them Africa was a month'sjourney. How casually we now fly over other countries! Before the war it wasa diplomatic victory to get permission for such a flight. Despite our height the cabin becomes overheated. A passenger asks the quartermasterif he will "get the stoker to push the damper in"; but no relief comes until the engines are throttled for the long let-down to El Adem in thecold light of dawn. Watches are put on from 0430 to 0630 and the next day has started. Promptly there is briefing by both the Army and theRAF, and in pouring rain (where is the wonderful African sun? It is colder here than in Britain) we are shown the palletted loads ready fortransport to the airhead at Tmimi by Beverley and from there onward by Pioneer, Twin Pioneer, or Whirlwind. The ammunition boxes arefilled with stones to the appropriate weight. A 90ft bridge, so designed that no single part is too heavy or cumbersome to be carried by aWhirlwind, is being loaded on to a lorry. A quick lunch in the efficient transit mess at El Adem is followed by aclimb up to the boom seats of a Beverley to fly to Tmimi. The airhead, reached after a short flight over almost featureless desert, has had lessrain than El Adem but has profited by the little it had. The strip had become very dusty and developed ten-inch ruts. The body starts to protest against continual travel and lack of sleep;but there is another 60 miles yet to do, huddled up and very cold in a Land-Royer, to the Jebel Akhdar hotel in Derna. The bath has no plug,the tap gives no water; off comes one's jacket to hang on a hook,and the whole row of hooks falls to the ground. Dinner is post-poned so that we can visit the Control HQ on the old Dernaairfield to enjoy the Army's hospitality. It has been rainingagain, and the whole area is a quagmire of red clay with theconsistency of Plasticine. Next morning, back to the mudof Derna for a general briefing on the rules of the battle, then into aLand-Rover for the 60 miles to Tmimi to watch the airhead inaction: the blossoming, one might term it, of a stem which extendsback through £1 Adem to Britain. Beverleys, under the commandof Wg Cdr Rawlins, OC flying at Abingdon, come into the sandy,rutted strip, using only reverse pitch for stopping, wet sand at ElAdem and dust storms at Tmimi having taken toll of brakemechanisms. An atmosphere of purposeful hurry pervades theairfield; frequently one Beverley Hurry, hurry. A Twin Pioneer takes off from the Angel strip as g VfhirlwinJ hovers to unload An AAC Auster leaves Tmimi for Control HQ at Lsrna may be seen rolling out of a self-made sand' )rmimpatient of another still taxying in. Unloaded storV' are parked in carefully organized areas to simplify the, askof selection for lifting to forward battle areas. Vr&i winds queue up literally within a few yards of one an herto pick up their loads. On the Pioneer strip the same sense of terrific ur ncvis apparent. The sight of aircraft taxying at high raeed in opposite directions on the strip would give the av rageairfield control officer sleepless nights for a month. The troops loading and unloading the aircraft are magnificentto watch, so efficient are they. Next day I was generously offered a seat hi a jeep bva group of Esso geologists who were searching for oil in Libya. They dropped me at the HQ of the 8th Inde-pendent Reconnaissance Flight Army Air Corps To attend Starlight, the 8th IRF had travelled from idrisstopping at Sirte, Marble Arch and Benghazi, and leap- frogging with their ground transport. The unit comprisedsix Austers—four Mk 6 and two Mk 7—and one Chip- munk. Two Austers were being used for communicationsand in one of these Capt Williams flew me to the forward airstrip near Tmimi. Here Capt Adams became host and we at once departedby air to see if a new airstrip, "Angel," farther forward was ready for use. Getting an affirmative, we returned tothe original airstrip and Adams instructed the section to move up. Ours was the first aircraft to land at thenew strip, which was 310yd long and had taken the REs a matter of seven hours to make. A quick lunch of tinned salmon spread thickly on"thirty-five holers"-—army biscuits—and we were off on a reconnaissance of the Martuba battle area. But let my notebooktell the story:— Leave Angel as dust kicked up by Pioneer blows away. Whirlwindlands alongside as we take off. Height about 150ft to keep below the hills, out of sight of enemy's eyes and radar. Instructions to get informa-tion on forward positions of the Taffiyans. Below, tiny sparse cornfields which the army mustn't damage in any way; disreputable little Arabhutments; a "blown" bridge with mine-free path shown by tapes. Pilot busy flying Auster, map reading, missing hills, looking for enemy.Brief climbs to 800ft for spotting. Pinpoint two enemy armoured cars and troops in small strength, and radio map reference to HQ. Now air-borne for 50min, so to avoid enemy reaction must return to Angel. Concealed approach, but our dust would have given away position ofairstrip. Because of dust overshoot twice. Auster under camouflage netting within two minutes. * * * This is a wonderful life for anyone who likes low flying. For me itrecalled flying in R.E.8s 43 years ago at the Artillery Observation School at the then new airfield of Almaza, Cairo. The difference? The R.E.8had open cockpits, that's all. I got no flying on my last day with the exercise, but spent most of itwaiting for the Guards to capture Martuba. In the best Hendon RAF Display style the sappers had contrived nearly a hundred "effects" andhad devised a mortar to throw thunderflashes into the air. There was the village complete with date palms and two Hunters ground-strafing;a general arrived by Alouette. All was ready for the set-piece but, unfortunately, the battle was late and I had to make a quick dash tocatch the troopship Dilwara for an overnight passage to Tobruk and thence back to El Adem. Before going aboard the 216 Sqn Comet Orion (captain, Fit LtSomers) for an uneventful flight to London at half the speed of the rotation of the Earth, the last figures that went into my notebook were"12 Beverleys shifted 2,200,0001b of freight; 11 still serviceable."
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