BOAC Mosquitoes
 

Ladies and gentlemen.

I seek information about the BOAC operations to Sweden using Mosquitoes.

My father, now long dead, was assigned to the rather innocuous Pay Corps as a Private, when he joined up in 1939. He finished up doing some rather odd things, in some rather odd Units, as the war progressed. He had a fund of very tall stories about happenings in Northern Europe towards the end of the war. I confess that during his life I treated his tales with a measure of scepticism. He claimed, for instance, that he had seen a V1 missile fitted with a cockpit; clearly nonsense, until I read that such things existed, and found a photograph of such a machine in his possessions after he died. He also claimed to have been strafed by a jet aircraft; also clearly nonsense, until I read that a few Me 262s had been equipped for ground attack.

Finally – and this is the point of my message – he claimed to have flown in the bomb-bay of a Mosquito, carrying a box containing something precious. Again, clearly nonsense, until one reads of the Leuchars – Stockholm service; so he may have been telling the truth. His description of the flight experience, complete with oxygen mask, certainly rings true. However, to the best of my knowledge, he was never stationed in Scotland, and operated from 1944 to early 1946 in Belgium, Holland, and Northern Germany.

Could he have made such a flight? Once the Allied invasion had become established, was a Mosquito service established across the Baltic from Northern Germany?

Thanks,
Yarnsplicer

Hello yarnsplicer.

A book by Gann mentions a number of pilots.

He mentions BOAC Captain John Henry White who in January of 44 flew from Stockholm to Scotland, then back to Stockholm and again back to Scotland for a total of 9 hours, 36 minutes flying time with only 45 minutes on the ground, making three crossings through enemy skies, all at night and all by hand flying on instruments.

He also details a flight by F/O Gilbert Rae in a Mark VI who with his Radio Op named Payne, was flying a passenger in the bomb bay. They were jumped by FW 190s and he is able to outrun them and escape to Scotland. There is comment about the lack of exhaust shrouds gives him extra MPH that probably saved him.

Try here:

www.abebooks.com

LM

The Mosquitoes were operated by BOAC on the "Ball-bearing run" from Stockholm and Satenas in Sweden to Leuchars in Scotland. The ball-bearings, vital to the war effort were carried directly over enemy territory as the Mossie could outrun the German fighters.

Thirteen Mosquitoes were operated by BOAC, of which five crashed (not due to enemy action). They were HJ898, HJ985 and LR524 (not given civilian registrations, as well as G-AGFV, G-AGGC, G-AGGD, G-AGGE, G-AGGF, G-AGGG, G-AGGH, G-AGKO, G-AGKP and G-AGKR.

GD, GF, GG and KP crashed on landing or approach. KR went missing over the North Sea in August 1944.

Dave

The Ernest Gann book is Ernest K Ganns Flying Circus 1976 Isbn 0340206934 which has a chapter entitiled The Ball Bearing Airline. Also worth looking for is "Merchant Airmen" the offical WW2 civil aviation history 1946 which has a chapter on these operations including the picture of the accommodation shown here...........


http://i637.photobucket.com/albums/u...0/boacmosq.jpg

The atomic physicist Niels Bohr was extracted from neutral Sweden, after escaping from occupied Denmark, via this method in 1943. The story goes (from Wikipedia):

I thought that the Mossies had to fly with civvie registrations and be identified as BOAC rather than RAF flights due to Sweden's strict neutrality during WW2. I think they were unarmed for the same reason. How did they get away with the RAF serials on those three or did they fly somewhere other than Sweden?

Panop

Those three were Mosquito T Mk 111's, the training version, with dual controls. They did not fly on operations but were only used for training.

Dave

PS. HJ985 was used Nov 1943 to Jan 1944, LR524 was used Feb 1944 to Dec 1944 and HJ898 was used April 1945 to May 1945.

Another reference says that the Mosquito service was terminated on November 30 1944 as it was considered safe to use DC-3s during the extended winter nights.

Panop,
There were apparently some RAF Mosquito courier flights previous to the BOAC ones.
"Mosquito" by Sharp and Bowyer mentions DK292 in August 1942.All markings were removed and they crew wore civvies.

There are several accounts around of the "ball-bearing" Mosquito runs from Leuchars. They took cash eastbound (only this was acceptable, presume US dollars) and brought the bearings westbound from the factory. This achieved two things. Firstly it made them available to UK manufacturers. Secondly, and probably more important, it deprived the Nazis of getting them for their own production.

I wonder why they had to take a passenger with them ? Could the aircrew not hand over the cash and do the paperwork ? Does this cash handling fit with what the Pay Corps did ? Concerned the crew would abandon the aircraft and make off with the money in neutral territory ?

BOAC used almost every type in their fleet on this route,Lockheed 14,Hudson,Whitley,CW-20,Dakota,York and Liberator.
It is almost tragic that a complete history of BOAC wartime operations was never written.

Thank you all. It's tragic that this little episode of the war has not been properly recognised. For me. it's even more of a regret, because it seems that no-one knows if there was an operation over the Baltic from Germany in 1945. A special thank you to One11 for the picture; this fits exactly with what my father described - I can FEEL the trapped little space. It was the only flight he ever made, in all his life. He said that, in turbulence, the movement of the aeroplane was such that he could see the water below, as the bomb bay doors flexed. Lost memories.

yarnsplicer - thanks for bringing this subject up. I hope someone's memory is eventually jogged about Germany as it certainly seems very possible that your father was telling it exactly how it was. You are not alone in leaving it too late to find out more about the stories that were handed down to you - there are so many (less exciting but still interesting to me) things I wish I had asked my father more about and we will be in good company there, I'm sure.

On a technical note - does anyone know roughly what quantity of ball bearings they were able to carry in a Mossie? I know they're small things individually but I would have imagined the British war effort would have needed some fairly serious amounts of them. Where/how did the Americans get theirs?

If the Americans had their own domestic supply, which presumably would have also been available to the UK, then it was definitely an issue of depriving the Germans of having them rather than British need as such.

In the (almost unthinkable) event of a repeat performance in this modern globalised world of ours this sort of issue would probably bring most countries to their knees quicker than actual hostilities as so much essential production and know how is now centralised in isolated specialist centres in much the way as the Swedes had the near monopoly on European ball bearings back then.

Assuming this did not mean a return flight it begs the question of how your father got back and maybe supports the idea that the flight was from other than Leuchars.

Panop
Thank you for your kind and human remarks. Regrets when the previous generation passes away before we, young and superior, have deigned to listen to them.....affects us all, I guess.

One11
I suppose my account was less than rigorous. I never challenged him about a round trip, but the "feel" was always that it was a trip across the Baltic and back. He said that he carried a box of money, by the way.

There are some substantial bearing manufacturers in the USA, of course, of which the Timken Corp from Ohio was probably the market leader at the time. Likewise in Britain, and presumably Germany. The point about SKF in Sweden is that they were one of the largest manufacturers but with a very limited home market, so unlike the others they worked mostly for export. Thus they had a substantial capacity which the sudden wartime demands formed a ready market for.

BOAC Mosquitos
 

They flew from UK to Sweden, in camo with civil registrations and the odd 'speedbird' on the tail - now and again, when required they flew couriers and agents on the outward track and returned with ball bearings and any other small cargo needed, or agents. This is not personal knowledge but arises from an interest in this odd little operation that has been with me for over fifty years, the reference to exhaust stubbs is correct, in the later years they removed the exhaust stub baffles that hid the flames and gained another 16mph, which allowed them still to have the edge over the nightfighters. - This is a shot of one of the early ones (Rescued from a BOAC unit clear out! - in with a load of Imperial Airways junk!!).

Now - of course - as a totally new member, I find that I do not know how to attach the photo - would someone please be kind enough to tell me the method. Many Thanks.

Hmm as an ex-pat now living in Stockholm I feel the urge to go root around in the various archives here to see what I can find on these flights. BTW, wasn't one of the Ball Bearing Bombers actually on show at Hendon for a while?

Try this for size. Probing further, I now see that the old man was stationed in Antwerp for a short time, and we all know what they do rather well in Antwerp.

Did the UK sometimes pay the Swedes for ball bearings with diamonds?

As I also do not know how to paste photos onto the site I will just post this web site, which has a picture of BOAC Mossie G-AGFV

Image: BOAC Mosquito. MAP

Entaxei & Brit312,

Just leaving work now, but will try to PM you both this evening re. image posting.

LM

An uncle of mine, now long gone, went to Sweden in the bomb bay of a Mossie. Never knew what for but all I know is he was deinitely a radio operator and had his set with him.

You should consult the BA Museum & Archives. They have some information on these BOAC operations and I know they have done some research for others on this topic. I suggest you start by e-mailing a query to [email protected]. They should be able to gather some material together which may assist.

Brit312: Look towards the top of the forum page, there is a sticky titled "Image Posting On Pprune".

Lightning, and Henry, thanks for your advice and I will try next time

The book "BOAC An Illustrated History" by Charles Woodley (Tempus Publishing, 2004, and well worthwhile getting if this area is of generally interest to you) has a page on the Mosquito ops to Stockholm, obliquely termed "Courier runs" ! Key points :

First trial run with an RAF aircraft (105 Sqn) 5 August 1942.
First BOAC Mosquito G-AGFV delivered 15 December 1942.
First BOAC run 4 February 1943.
Six Mosquitos delivered to BOAC April/May 1943. Others came later to replace losses.
Bomb bay lined with felt, fitted with reading lamp, air controls, oxygen supply, intercom, flask of coffee (doubtless a wartime luxury), reading material. No mention of sandwiches !
Outward trip took air mail, UK newspapers and magazines (to counter German ones).
Leuchars-Stockholm 800 miles, took typically 3 hours.
Originally daylight flights, switched to night after attacks.
Conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent was once a passenger, so were other VIPs.
Last operation 30 November 1944.

Losses on service :

G-AGGF lost Leuchars 17 Aug 43
G-AGGG lost Leuchars 25 Oct 43
G-AGGD lost Sweden 3 Jan 44
G-AGKR missing 11 Apr 44
G-AGFV lost Sweden 4 Jul 44
G-AGKP missing 9 Aug 44

And people today complain about seat pitch and service on Low Cost Carriers!:)

Interesting. My father made the Leuchars to Stockholm flight and he was a wireless operator, the Mosquito that took him crashed into the sea a week or so later. He was kitted out with a blanket for warms and some food for the journey. I have read that on one flight the bomb doors started opening and the passenger arrived very cold and stiff as his blanket had been sucked out and he had spent the flight wedging himself into the compartment.
I did not notice mention of the fact that although flying into a nominally neutral country a lot of the passengers were connected to the war effort as part of the Norwegian Resistance.

Several thousand Norwegian Refugees were flown out of Sweden to the UK in 1944 in the civilian registered Liberators of Bernt Balchen's Operation Sonnie to train for the liberation of Norway and later these flights brought out American aircrews interned in Sweden....these flights used a longer route than the Mosquitoes over Northern Sweden , Norway and the North Sea rather than the risky Skagerrak route

According to "Mosquito" by Sharp and Bowyer, after the Schweinfurt raids two passengers carried in BOAC Mosquitos were responsible for successfully negotiating the purchase of the entire output of Swedish ball-bearings.

Just found this thread so thought an extract of my fathers memoirs edited slightly to remove personal details may be of interest.
------------------------------------
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.

Just found this thread so thought an extract of my fathers memoirs edited slightly to remove personal details may be of interest.

It certainly is of interest, Pathfinder, and adds a wealth of fascinating detail on this intriguing subject. More would be very welcome, and you may in turn be interested in having a look at http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...evet-ww11.html since it will give you a further insight into just how interested so many members are in such wonderful reminiscences.

I should add that I was particularly interested in your mention of the Goalen family (not Gollan) since I used to go out with a much younger but very good-looking member of the family.:ok:

Jack

I asked him about the spelling and he knows that your spelling is correct and is unsure as to how he got it wrong. He says he will try and send me some more details of crews e.t.c. when he can get time from doing things in the house or garden. Just short of 92. I am sure that if there is anyone else still around who flew these runs to Sweden he would love to know.

I flew with our future queens grand father - Pete Middleton - who mentioned that he had flown the ball bearing run in a Mossie.
Very nice bloke and a good pilot. RIP.

BOAC Mosquitoes....Captain Nigel Pelly
 

There's a slight crossover to MandyW's thread....perhaps 'oldpilot' was on the Sweden run?
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...andfather.html

The early ball bearing runs - crew details
 

The early ball bearing runs used Armstrong Whitley civilianised bombers. That simply meant that all the armaments and unnecessary guns and turrets had been removed. In May 1942, an Armstrong Whitley with crew of four left Whitchurch Airfield, Bristol for Leuchars R.A.F. Station. There was daily briefing at Leuchars Meteorolgical Office to be told if we could and for the Captain to decide if we would fly to Stockholm that night. The crew was Junior Captain Gilbert Rae, B.O.A.C, Second Officer, Joe Coney, RAF seconded, Navigator William Coombes, RAF seconded, Wireless Operator, Jimmy Payne, B.O.A.C. Junior captains had only two and a half rings. Gilbert Rae was soon upgraded to three whole rings.

After a few return flights a second Whitley under Ian Goalen, Wireless Operator Eric Bristow and 2 other seconded RAF personnel, a second pilot and a navigator, Peter Ludgate joined the little group. We continued until
November/December and then recalled to Bristol.

BOAC Whitley photo 5 from bottom on
http://ww2bombers.e-monsite.com/page...whitley-2.html
Did your father ever mention the Curtiss CW-20 Commando prototype 'St Louis' which was also tried on the Sweden run?

The photo-site for Gothenburg-Torslanda airfield which was used as a diversion from Bromma sometimes has a few pics of BOAC types including Mosquitoes
"ESGB"

Pathfinder NE The early ball bearing runs - crew details.
 

New to this site!
My late father - Ian Dalgliesh was an R/O on the Leuchars to Sweden run.
He went on after the war to BEA and was for many years Chief Radio Officer, sadly he died aged 52 leaving so many questions about his war and life unanswered.
I am fortunate that my mother kept most of his career correspondence and when putting an album together came across a letter headed British Overseas Airways Corporation Airways House London SW1 Victoria 2323.
It was about the "closing of our base at Leuchars" and offered congratulations 'to you and all the others who have undertaken flying duties on the arduous and often hazardous wartime route to Sweden..." I was interested in the next paragraph "when the full story of B.O.A.C. activities during the war comes to be told you may rest assured that the Scandinavian operations will rank high amongst them..." The letter was dated 25 June 1945.
Curiosity now aroused, and having copied the many wartime entries on his passport started to search. Found your thread and others which gave me a good insight to this period of WW2. Would be interested if there are still any crew around who may remember my father, although he would have been 96 now.

Ball Bearing run
 

My late father - Jimmy Miller - was an R/O on the run from Leuchars. He flew many times with Nigel Pelly . I have found a load of correspondence between him and the Museum of Aviation in Winnipeg who were researching the flights. I have been in contact with the BA Museum and they are very interested in having it all.
He once told me they never carried a single ball bearing - it was mainly people and documents. Incidentally he was very friendly (after the war )with one of the German crew who were in Stockholm at the same time . The crews used to drink coffee in the same room .

Ball-Bearings Run
 

My grandfather is Eric Bristow, the Wireless Operator mentioned above. Many of the names mentioned in the posts above are familiar and my family and I would be so delighted to get in touch with anyone who has any further recollections or information about the ball-bearing run. My grandfather, who's now 96, went on to work for BOAC at Croydon Airport. He has great memories of serving as a temporary barman in the Red Reiver on Market Street, St Andrews. My grandparents also lived on Watson Avenue and their landlady owned a dress shop in St Andrews.