Just found this thread so thought an extract of my fathers memoirs edited slightly to remove personal details may be of interest.
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We were to Fly to Stockholm to bring back ball bearings which were made from Swedish Steel not available anywhere else. We used to get the ore via Narvik on the coast of Norway by railway from Sweden. When Norway was occupied our source disappeared. It had been planned to build high-speed ships to sail up the Skaggerack into Gothenburg but they couldn’t be built in time and our industry as well as aircraft themselves were coming to a halt. Myself and the second officer were accommodated in the Ninewells Hotel in Dundee until it became clear that we were too remote from the airfield at Leuchars and we had to find digs in St Andrews, not an easy thing in May or June. We did find them in Watson Avenue, with a Mrs Gourlay, and I believe her motive was to get access to the goodies that could be brought from Stockholm. Each day we were picked up and taken to the airfield for a briefing of the weather, which decided whether the flight was feasible. The War office then would tell us if we would be allowed to proceed. Our Captain didn’t show any eagerness to carry out his assignment and, after weeks of time delays, the Captain was recalled to Whitchurch and a much younger junior captain was appointed, Gilbert Rae by name. A second Whitley was assigned and its captain, another relatively younger and junior captain, named Ian Gollan joined us. Ian’s wife was Barbara Gollan and she became a mannequin, well-known after the war was over. Now we were able to start operating. A couple of years later and after the war was over Ian Gollan died in a crash at Hurn Airport in fog returning from a regular service. All passengers were killed.
We would set off in the late evening so that it would be getting dark as we approached the Skaggerack and reached our maximum altitude of 10,000 ft. We would keep to the middle of the channel and on seeing the Swedish coast would dip the nose and speed into Sweden. Once in Sweden our problems were lessened. The anti aircraft flak from both coasts, the Danish as well as the Norwegian ceased, and now we could see the Swedish towns lit up and navigation became by visual observation. The whole journey on the outward flight took around 5 hours, but the return journey against the wind would take much longer. At 10,000 ft. the Whitley wallowed, the controls became limp and we could become an easy prey for any fighter looking for us. We carried on and completed 3 round trips when our aircraft had to go into the engineering workshops for a check over. Our next flight started off well on a beautiful evening and we were about 2 hours out when there was an awful bang and we lost the power of one engine. Now you knew why these planes were flight-tested. We managed to continue since we were nearer land ahead than behind and fortunately we managed to reach Bromma Airport. There it was found that the failed engine had blown up and we were to be stuck in Stockholm until spares could be shipped out to us. We had to be given a daily allowance for our food but the hotel was taken care of from the BOAC office. There were things to be had in Stockholm that were not available in Wartime Britain and so we ate as cheaply as we could to have as much spending money as possible. I remember I bought a Philips 4 valve radio made in Eindhoven under German Occupation. It was a good set and lasted into the 1950s.
We continued to fly as regularly as weather and the war permitted right into November when the icing conditions became too bad for Whitleys trying to get to 10,000 ft. In August, at a dance in the St Andrews Town Hall, Gilbert Rae introduced me to your mother who was employed as Secretary to Ted Chandler the Chief Engineer for BOAC at Leuchars. Our trips to Stockholm became more and more interesting as we became more familiar with what was available in the shops and what we could reasonably afford. Swedes loved their coffee and it was in very short supply so, if we took a half a pound of beans it was possible to make a good trade. Once on returning from Stockholm we were told that Leuchars was closed because of bad weather. On reaching the Scottish coast we were ordered to fly west for half an hour. This was followed by an instruction to fly east again and as we were approaching Leuchars we were again informed that it was closed and no traffic controllers were on duty and we were ordered to fly east again. There was suddenly a gap in the cloud and we could see the airfield. Regardless of the order we signaled that we were going to land and did so without help. Meanwhile on the ground the whole of the BOAC staff were made aware that we were missing so when we appeared through a gap in the clouds there was great relief because, those in the know, knew that our fuel must be about finished. It was soon decided that conditions were not suitable for the Whitleys in winter, Shortly after that the Whitleys were replaced by De Havilland Mosquitoes, 6 in all and pilots were trained to fly them. They could and did carry one passenger in the nose or bomb aimer’s compartment and should anything go amiss the passenger would be ejected. We had carried passengers in the Whitleys. Malcolm Sargent the Music Conductor of great renown was often a passenger. On the return trip we sometimes carried airmen who had either escaped from Germany or had managed to land damaged aircraft in Sweden.