Arctic Airmen by Ernest Schofield

Author:Ernest Schofield
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750955447
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

The survivors at Barentsberg needed help urgently, and the only way to provide it was by air lift. There was no possibility of a landing until one of the fjords was clear of ice. A parachute drop from a Catalina was not practicable. The best solution was to pack supplies into small containers which could be thrown from the blister cupolas while flying as low as possible along the lower slopes at the side of the fjord. We would have to look for some deep snow drifts and hope that a cushioned impact, followed by rolling down the slope, might prevent the containers from bursting. Preference would have to be given to sturdy supplies that would not break easily. Long streamers, with orange cloth knotted at intervals like a kite, would help the survivors to find the containers in deep snow.

A major difficulty was that the Catalina was already heavily laden with extra fuel to give us the required range. The total weight of extra supplies that we could carry was severely limited. The first step was to remove from the aircraft all items of equipment that we could dispense with. The nine crew parachutes, personal kit, bunk fittings, flares and even sea markers were taken out. The aircraft was stripped of all but absolute essentials.

All this work was organised with great gusto by our flight commander, Squadron Leader H.B. Johnson, and his enthusiastic staff. They put themselves into the shoes of the survivors to decide what their most urgent needs might be. Since Spitsbergen was a natural refrigerator, it seemed reasonable to assume that Barentsberg would have yielded some supplies of frozen food. It was decided that the men would prefer medical supplies and warm clothing, together with minor luxuries to improve morale, such as cigarettes, tobacco, jam, chocolate, tinned meat and such like.

There was no time to collect supplies from the mainland. Everything had to come from the NAAFI and the resources of Sullom Voe. The survivors would be unlikely to complain if they received RAF blue battledress, long johns, flying suits and gloves. Someone remarked that, if a land battle developed, the enemy would be surprised to find themselves faced with a force that looked like the RAF Regiment.

The prevalence of fog around Spitsbergen and the difficulty of finding the precise location of the survivors in poor visibility meant that Tim Healy and his crew and our ‘P for Peter’ were probably the best to act as carriers. Our most urgent need was for sleep, and we left the organisation to others and went to bed. In the top drawer of my desk was a schedule of all the work that still had to be done in preparation for the flight to the North Pole. This was no longer an urgent priority and could be locked away.

For this next flight, and some subsequent ones, authorisations from Headquarters were given by telephone, largely to approve the actions taken on local initiative. Kit bags and parachute bags were used as containers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.