Arctic Airmen: The RAF in Spitsbergen and North Russia, 1942
Ernest Schofield
Language: English
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0750954698
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In 1942 a Catalina crew of 219 Squadron, based in the Shetlands, was selected to carry out a series of top secret operations, including a flight to the North Pole. They were made at the same time as a Norwegian expedition to Spitzbergen to keep the Germans out of the area. The flights were over 24 hours long and reached the limits of human endurance in the extreme cold. Later, the Squadron provided cover for the Russian convoys. Ernest Schofield was the navigator on the crew and retained the logs. These were extraordinary missions, and on 21 September one ended with a Ju88 attack and tragedy.
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Written by Squadron Leader K.C. Maclure of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF,) in which he shortened degrees ‘Greenwich’ to degrees ‘G’ and recommended its use over the whole of the polar basin. We had agreed to adopt this. Directions in degrees ‘G’ could be reconciled with degrees ‘T’ (True) and degrees ‘M’ (Magnetic) by the use of a simple conversion formula.11 But Dicken had not been able to find any polar charts in RAF archives, for apparently the need for them had not arisen previously. We.
111. The Heinkel 111 in the ice hole, photographed by Catalina ‘P for Peter’ at 01.00 hours on 26 May 1942. The two wireless aerials of the Kröte weather station at Hjorthamn in Advent Bay, with the He 111 abandoned in the ice hole, just discernible between them. The solid mass of bay ice extended from the edge of Icefjord all the way into the side fjord but, as soon as we turned into this, it became apparent that the expedition had been there before us. A long and straight channel had been.
Between the Kola Inlet and Lake Lakhta were so poor that it was necessary to make greater use of Grasnaya. This was 400 miles nearer the patrol areas but suffered from the disadvantage of being nearer to enemy-occupied Norway. In fact, Lakhta was used as a rest camp and also as a base for the close escort duties carried out by the Catalinas during the final stages of the passage of convoy PQ18. Nine Catalinas operated from the Russian bases during Operation Orator. Each left Sullom Voe in a.
He was looking forward to a change of duties and to being with his family again. A combination of other factors also contributed to the feeling that things were now different for us. Since ‘P for Peter’ was still unserviceable, Tim had now taken over ‘S for Sugar’. This was a good aircraft, with all the standard fittings for operational flying, but it did not have the special trimmings to which we had become accustomed on ‘P for Peter’. Even more important were the changes in the crew. Ronnie.
Attached to a tractor, with engine running, at the head of the slipway. The Catalina was held steady in the water by the slipway, with the tractor and dinghy pulling in opposite directions. Two more Russians in rubber suits floated out and attached the beaching wheels. Then the dinghy’s hawser was cast off, while the tractor hauled the aircraft up the slipway. Ten minutes after alighting on the water, the Catalina was parked close to the towering cliffs of the Kola Inlet, safe from air attack. It.