Fabulous Flying Boats by Leslie Dawson

Author:Leslie Dawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Aviation
ISBN: 9781473826755
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

Catalina departing RAF Kogalla circa 1944.

AUTHOR COLLECTION

The idea of re-establishing contact between Australia and London arose again in October 1943, when talks between Hudson Fysh and BOAC considered the possibility (calculated by Qantas pilot Captain Crowther) of using specially adapted Catalinas to fly non-stop between the Swan River at Perth, on the west coast of Australia, and Trincomalee, on the east coast of Ceylon. The diplomatic mail could then be forwarded overland to Karachi to be put aboard a BOAC flying boat about to return to the UK. The introduction of Transport Sunderlands to the West Africa service had freed BOACs two remaining Catalinas, and the Air Ministry would supply both to Qantas, selected as the agent for BOAC. Trial crossings would be carried out by RAF Catalina crews based in Ceylon, despite opposition and misgivings from senior RAF (Transport Command) officials for placing such an undertaking in the hands of a civilian organization – and an Australian one at that!

Crewed by BOAC and seen with RAF serials and the white and blue roundels of RAF South East Asia Command on the wings and fuselage, G-AGFL and FM respectively left Poole on the 11 and 17 of April 1943 bound for Trincomalee. The arrival of the two Catalinas at Ceylon on 21 and 25 April enabled RAF Catalina crews from No 222 (General Reconnaissance) Group to begin proving flights to Western Australia with Qantas personnel as supernumerary aircrew.

One hundred and sixty-eight years earlier, an enthusiastic teenage midshipman serving aboard the twenty-four gun frigate HMS Seahorse had felt Trincomalee to be the ‘best harbour in the world’. Seventeen year old Horatio Nelson had yet to acquire the knowledge and seamanship that would earn him the undying gratitude of a nation however, and in his wildest of dreams would have had no conception of the problems of unsticking a supremely overloaded flying machine from those waters. An inland freshwater lake on the south of the island proved far more suitable.

The largest natural lake in Ceylon, Kogalla was an extensive RAF flying boat base, the Sunderlands and Catalinas coming to share the sheltered waters with the Qantas flying boats. The eventual five-strong fleet would all be named after the stars, essential to the astro (and dead reckoning) navigation required by the crews who would have to fly in non-radio conditions to avoid Japanese fighters. Each Catalina would have the name and a star painted below the rim of the cockpit, followed by the name of the airline, with a large identifying numeral (1-5) beneath the high tailplane. Given charge of the airlines Western (Indian Ocean) Division, Captain ‘Bill’ Crowther opened an office in Saint George’s Terrace, Perth, and acquired crew lodgings at a hotel on the Esplanade and within the New Oriental Hotel at Galle, an old Ceylon trading township, encircled by the crumbling walls of an ancient fort.

With two crews fully conversant with the Catalina, Qantas formally took over from the RAF on the first day of June. Stripped of all nonessential

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