Category Archives: Non-operational

Wednesday, 29 October 1941

Newmarket to Portreath

Jackson, in Whitley Z9158, takes off for Portreath at 10.30, but has to land at RAF Abingdon to change his Whitley’s W/T transmitter which has become unserviceable. Austin, in Z9159 ‘D’, flies to Portreath direct, taking off at 10.50 and landing at 13.05. Jackson arrives at 13.30. Both aircraft land on the cliff-top airfield in the teeth of a storm. The runways at Portreath are less than half a mile inland from the Atlantic cliffs; the gusts must have made the landings interesting.

Portreath is home to the recently-formed Overseas Air Dispatch Unit (OADU) which prepares crews and aircraft for the long delivery flights to the Middle East. The OADU informs them that heavy icing is forecast over France, and they will be re-routed via Gibraltar. It examines both aircraft and finds that both fall well short of being serviceable. On both aircraft the D/F (direction-finding) loops need swinging, and they are deficient in much of a normal Whitley’s equipment, such as IFF (Identification Friend or Foe); Z9159’s W/T transmitter, too, fails during the flight to Portreath.

It is interesting to note that neither aircraft is equipped with oxygen equipment — hardly surprising, since there is rarely any reason for SD aircraft to fly above 10,000 feet — nor are they fitted with airscrew de-icing.

Jackson’s intercom fails, and at the last moment Austin’s wireless operator discovers that there is no Syko machine (a rudimentary encoding/decoding device) aboard his aircraft; one is supplied by Portreath. OADU subsequently sends a scathing, detailed memo to 44 Group (and from thence to 3 Group) about the poor preparation of these aircraft. The Stradishall Signals Officer’s reply — Newmarket Heath comes under Stradishall for admin and control purposes — gives a good picture of the problems routinely faced by 138 Squadron, which had been warned of the operation only at lunchtime on the 29th.

Sources

TNA AIR14/2527

Logbooks: P/Os JB Austin and AGW Livingstone

Tuesday, 28 October 1941

Newmarket: warning order for operations to the Middle East

F/Lt Jackson and P/O Austin are given orders to fly to Portreath. How much they are initially told one has no way of knowing, but they are to fly from Portreath to Malta across France, for operations into Yugoslavia. It is not clear why they are being routed to Portreath, as the distance to Malta is no shorter, and the Stradishall log shows that Wellingtons are regularly transported to the Middle East from Stradishall via Malta; also, the Whitleys carrying the paratroops for Operation COLOSSUS back in February had flown direct to Malta from Mildenhall.

Correspondence in November from Portreath and Stradishall shows that the warning order is signalled to Newmarket at about midday on the 29th, but the Stradishall log (which is entirely contemporary) shows that its Ops office is informed by Newmarket at 19.15 on the 28th, so the warning order must have been received at Newmarket on the 28th.

Both aircraft have to be quickly equipped with a complete set of six auxiliary 66-gallon/300 litre fuel tanks, two in the bomb-bay, four in the rear fuselage. The aircraft are in the workshops for the conversion, which makes it impossible for the crew to do the necessary equipment checks on other equipment; this has consequences at Portreath. Initially operating on an ‘enhanced Flight’ basis, 138 Squadron is still well below nominal strength in all aspects, including engineering staff. Two ground staff are to accompany the expedition.

Wednesday, 24 September 1941

RAF Hatfield

F/O Hockey’s logbook records a flight to Hatfield for a demonstration to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), Sir John Dill. It’s probably safe to assume many other spectators are present. On the 21st Hockey had flown to Ringway and back in Whitley Z9159, with P/Os Halcro and Livingstone and 4 crew. Now, with P/O Austin as 2nd Pilot, and with P/Os Pulton & Livingstone, and Sgts McAlister & Moy, they fly Z9125 to Hatfield.

Hockey’s 20-minute demonstration flight drops a stick of parachutists and containers over the airfield The paratroops have probably been borrowed from Ringway on Monday; Jack Benham from Ringway is aboard, presumably as Despatcher to ensure a tidy stick-drop. Two days later, on the 26th, Hockey and Austin will repeat the exercise over Hatfield for the benefit of the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal Charles Portal.

Friday, 19 September 1941

HQ No. 3 Group, Exning

The AOC No. 3 Group writes that the move to Tempsford will be delayed due to labour shortages.

RAF Newmarket – Farnborough – Hendon

P/O Austin flies Z6728 for 1hr 30 mins for W/T experiments. He also flies for 1hr 30mins as 2nd pilot to F/O Hockey in Z9159 (though Hockey records it as Z9125) from Base to Farnborough to Hendon. These experiments continue over the following two days. They may be related to either the S-phone or the Rebecca/Eureka systems.

Tuesday, 15 July 1941

RAF Newmarket

In the early afternoon F/Lt Jackson takes off in Whitley Z6727 with three French personnel aboard and an Air Ministry official. The Whitley’s starboard engine fails shortly after take off, and the Whitley crashes ‘near the junction of the London-Cambridge road’. The accident is recorded in the Stradishall log at 1535. In any aircraft, whether it’s a glider or a bomber, the minute or so directly after take-off is most hazardous if something crucial decides to malfunction; the aircraft has insufficient airspeed to do much else but land straight ahead on whatever happens to be below, in this case a telegraph post at the junction. The Whitley is underpowered to start with, and Jackson is unlikely to have had many options. The Stradishall logbook records that all eight crew have been taken to the White Lodge hospital.

F/Lt Jackson doesn’t fly another operational sortie until September. Merrick records that the crash severs telephone communications between London and the North of England. This apparently makes Jackson highly unpopular with the RAF hierarchy. Jackson is unlikely to have minded; anyone surviving an engine-failure shortly after take-off in a Whitley would consider himself fortunate to be alive. Freddie Clark thought it likely that this was an experimental flight with EUREKA/REBECCA. This follows a written request in May by Major Harold Perkins for the Flight to carry out some wireless experiments.