British Air Transport at War

Immediately prior to the declaration of war on September 3rd 1939, Royal Assent had been obtained to the merging of Imperial Airways Ltd and British Airways Ltd. Civil flying operations ceased on 3 September although limited services were flown to France. The collapse of France in 1940 and the entry of Italy into the war disrupted most British air communications.

Communications, apart from military demand, had to be found and a route established to link Britain with the Middle and Far East and Africa quickly. Flying Boats were used to carry Government-sponsored officials (including aircrew) through Lisbon to West Africa- then linking up with services through the Congo or northwards to Khartoum; the links with the existing flying boat services from the east to South Africa, being made at Cairo. When the route through Malaya and Singapore was cut by the Japanese invasion, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), in conjunction with QANTAS, operated a service linking Ceylon with Perth, Western Australia. Agreement had been reached between Australia and Britain that this was the better route at that time, although it meant that Catalina flying boats had to operate the service. This was done with QANTAS crews and the flight involved a non-stop sector of 3500 miles by an aircraft with a cruising speed of not much over 100mph.

Links with neutral countries remained of the utmost importance, not least that with Sweden, where the return load was mainly high-quality steel ball-bearings, vital for the manufacturing war effort. BOAC, using a variety of unarmed aircraft in civilian markings, flew the 800 miles from Leuchars, in Scotland to Stockholm. Originally with Lockheed aircraft then Whitleys and Dakotas, the route proved too risky and ex-air force Mosquito aircraft, operating nightly, ran the service. Over 1200 flights were made.

An extremely important BOAC operation was the formation of the North Atlantic Return Ferry Organization (AFTERO); this service was formed to return to Canada and the USA pilots and crews of military aircraft being delivered from the manufacturers across the Atlantic to the UK for military operations. The service begun in May 1941 and was taken over by BOAC in September operating a two-way trans-Atlantic service. The experience and accumulated data proved invaluable in the post-war years. The service ended in February 1946 by which the 2000th crossing had been achieved.

The task of keeping communications open proved to be difficult and dangerous for the civilian crews of unarmed aircraft and several times on routes between West Africa, Lisbon and the UK, aircraft went missing without trace. The Lisbon-Whitchurch route proved particularly hazardous and Boeing 314A flying boats were eventually introduced flying from Lagos via Lisbon to Foynes (Eire) and on across the Atlantic.

At the end of the war BOAC had flown more than 57,000,000 miles, uplifted 50,000,000 pounds of cargo and mail and carried over a quarter of a million essential passengers. Its fleet then numbered 160 aircraft with a route network of 54,000 miles.