~ 52 I JANUARY 5, 2020 THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA LIFE& WELLBEING HISTORY How Malta unfailingly - - - - .. - --

... / jinxed Sir Alan

But anyway, plenty of alternative sources fill figures in the world of aviation". The papers the Governor, General Sir John Philip Du in those blanks. also reveal the first hitch: Cobham had Cane, but medium-rare protein hardly helped I have relied to some extent on Cobham's announced he would be landing at Kalafrana, the stricken aircraft. The weather only wors­ (edited and abridged) autobiography A Time so all the VIPs flocked there to greet him. They ened and the seas mounted higher. Soon the GIOVANNI to Fly, published posthumously in 1978 by waited and waited, but seeing darkness fall, portside float became waterlogged and broke BONELLO Christopher H. Derrick, sadly crippled by the Cobham changed his plans and landed in St off too. The port wing went under in spite of absence of an index. A chatty, racy, candid Paul's Bay instead. In the following issue, the a number of RAF men ·piling their weight on memoir, sometimes mischievously humor­ paper revealed that when in Malta, the Cob­ the starboard wing. They decided to try to ous, in which the author bares his soul, hams stayed at the Osborne Hotel in Valletta. beach the injured boat at any cost. spreading equally across the pages both pride That, sadly ended his run of good fortune. "It was dragged up a slipway on its keel by Malta and Alan Cobham were not ::ompati­ in successes and humility in failures. Gladys went ashore the following day, to no fewer than 300 men, after the failure of a ble. The ace aviator's encounters with the His clinical depressions, his triumphs, his explore Malta by car, and the sightseeing first attempt to drag :it up on a trolley. The Maltese islands almost invariably ended in touching veneration for his adored wife the spared her the subsequent disaster. "Rather operation was indescribably wet and cold and .-:.- .r-'- near-disaster, though he does not seem to actress Gladys Lloyd, jostle for space. An over­ foolishly" Sir Alan decided to fly the aircraft to noisy and violent, and it cost us the starboard have held that against the island or its inhab­ all stinginess in giving away precise dates the Kalafrana base, on the southeast­ lower wing and an elevator, though the itants. I'll wade through that dooned rela­ detracts very little from the authenticity of ern side of the island, to refuel before resum­ strength of the keel meant that the hull got tionship between one of the world's greatest the narrative. ing his flight to Benghazi. He failed to factor in away fairly lightly." airmen and Malta, as this has not, as far as I Cobham's first significant encounter with the gale-force southeasterly that was blowing. The papers carried a press release from could ascertain, been recorded so far. Malta happened in 1927. He was piloting his Royal Fleet Auxiliary headquarters, Malta, Sir Alan Cobham belongs squarely to leg­ then favourite aircraft, the Short S.5 Singa­ describing in some detail the mishap, and end. In the inter-war years his name had pore model, a large seaplane powered by two announcing that Cobham's flight would be become a household word. His flying Rolls-Royce Condor engines, claimed to be the "The pilots had been delayed by "a few weeks". In a later edition, an

- ---t records, .his pluck, his resilie:J.ce, his "only all-metal flying boat in the world", eyewitness recounted in great detail how the inspired vision during what could still be which the pilot described as "a heavy labori­ instructed to shoot storms buffeted the aircraft and the heroic considered the pioneer years of 'open cock­ ous aircraft to fly; we had endless petty diffi­ efforts required to salvage it. The accident, the pit' aviation, earned him a place at the very culties with adverse weather and difficult him down if he gave author said, served as an eye-opener for the top among the elite aviators in his:ory. moorings and - on several occasions - with urgent need of a civil aerodrome in Malta. Alan Cobham was born on May 6, 1894. In boats that threatened to ram us". any sign of turning Cobham cabled Rochester to send a new he joined the Royal Flying His wife Gladys accompanied him for the wing for the plane, and this reached Malta on Corps, and distinguished himself through a first time ever, together with Captain Worrall, back to Malta ... " December 26; in the idle interval they carried compulsive interest in long-distance avia­ engineers F. Green, C. E. Conway and camera­ out all the other repairs and also "sampled tion. After the end of the war he had already man S. R. Bonnett. They were heading for a the extremely colourful social life in Malta", established his exceptional reputation in a survey flight round , to explore the pos­ The next day Cobham took off from no doubt at its peak around Christmas time. firmament teeming with heroic d;:;redevils sibilities of a new of giant flying boats St Paul's Bay and touched down in St George's By early January the engineers made the on both sides of the combat divid·e. from Cairo to Cape Town and from there up Bay (the Kalafrana inlet below St George's plane airworthy again, and Cobham tried For his achievements and his exploits, the west coast of Africa to . chapel, not the one riext to StJulian's). Owing some test flights and gave free joy-rides to King George V knighted him in 1926. Apart Cobham left Rochester on November 17, to the heavy swell, his aircraft had to be towed Sir Roger Keyes, to Clarke Hall, the Air from his legendary feats, his most lasting and, because of the Malta debacle, reached laboriously to its moorings a long distance Commodore commanding, and some others. · 1egacies to the growth of air travel were the Cape on March 30 the following year. away. The towboat "foolishly pulled us side­ They were now all set to go, but on the eve probably his pioneering belief in the future He returned to Rochester on June 4. ways on to this. The wing dipped horribly of their departure, the din of another gale of civil, as different from military, aviation, They left Ajaccio in Corsica and headed for and, before we knew where we were, the woke Sir Alan up at night, and news reached and his placing long-distance in-flight Malta on November 24. No reliable weather starboard float had been wrenched off". him that the Singapore had broken loose refuelling on a secure technical footing. forecast warned him what was in store. Three men immediately rushed out on to from its moorings and had been swept ashore Malta features more than once in Cob­ "Headwinds delayed us, and it was almost the port lower wing to keep the boat more or in St George's Bay. He instantly went down to ham's colourful and adventurous life - and dark when we toucheq down alongside HMS less balanced and stable. It that precarious see, cursing under his breath. He found the never happily. Several sources document his Queen Elizabeth in St Paul's Bay. We tied up condition they were towed to some sort of plane beached; thankfully not on the rocky Malta connections, though the National astern of her, and were welcomed on board safety. They moored the damaged flying boat side of the bay "its nose towards the sea, its Archives in Rabat seem to be entirely silent for dinner; the Commander-in-Chief, Sir in the raging gale with a load of sandbags on tail hanging over a four-foot sea wall and with about him, and this possibly because his Roger Keyes, (later Admiral of the Fleet), its port wing. frightful waves threatening it with total Malta misadventures may have been offered my wife the hospitality of his quarters "The high winds and the rough seas contin­ destruction at any minute". recorded in the more secret 'military' files aboard. So far, so good." ued for days, giving us no possibility of beach­ That was at 3am. It took them all day till which the imperial government did not On arrival, the local press waxed ecstatic ing the Singapore for repairs without damag­ night-time to get the plane secured in a more leave behind after Independence in 1964. about Cobham: "one of the most outstanding ing it badly." They had a pleasant lunch with sheltered part of the bay. "The intervening

The sea-plane station in Kalafrana in the early 1930s. -·

-< THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA JANUARY 5, 2020 I 53

Attempts tli''~sale flying boat d~ring a gci!iill l

Sir Alan Cobham (1894-1973)

difficulties were indescribable." Furious waves punctured the brand-new starboard float and it became waterlogged and useless. They replaced it with the old one, hurriedly repaired. This operation, always difficult, became impossibly so during a gale. They tried to get the flying boat off the beach, using a towboat and the full power of the aircraft's engines. But the hawser snapped, leaving Cobham almost out of con­ trol while the gale howled and the waves crashed all over. Dr Alfred Parnis), he identified the best places experiment of immense value". Cobham took a matter of a second or two which might have A new line had somehow to be got to them. on the island to build airports and flying-boat on fuel and provisions in the skies over Malta. brought this experimental flight to a disas­ Four men came out on a skiff and ended prac­ stations. It is an absolutely captivating report Then something petrifying happened. "I trous conclusion." The onward journey to tically sucked into the propellers. Some fell - pioneering, visionary, and down-to-earth. found that the throttle lever was loose in my Karachi had to be aborted and a crestfallen in the sea and narrowly escaped drowning. He believed in Malta's untapped potential, hand: I could move it backwards and for­ Cobham lingered in Malta up to October 10. But one managed to cling to the nose of the and the future proved him right. wards without any effect. I had no control If the flight over Malta ended in near disas­ Singapore and also to the line. "It was only That precious account, now almost forgot­ whatever over the engine. I turned back at ter, very real tragedy dogged Cobham that very because of his heroism that I eventually ten, published under the prophetic title once ... we slowly lost power and soon I found same day. The W.10 aircraft that had refuelled found myself pulled slowly to safety." 'Malta's opportunities as a great airport', myself gliding in with the prospect of landing them in mid-air after take-off at Portsmouth, The following day the sun shone brightly would need a study and a celebration on its in some very small, stone-walled field". suffered structural failure on its return and and Cobham flew the craft to Grand Harbour, own. Today's Malta International Airport is This would be difficult at any time, but with crashed, killing the whole crew of four. where cranes lifted the airplane out of the ultimately the brainchild of Alan Cobham. the fuel tanks now full to the brim "any crash­ And the end of the Short Singapore sea­ water to be repaired again. On January 21 he But strangely you will not find any trace of landing would be followed at once by fire and plane, made famous by Cobham, had yet and Gladys bid their farewells and took off for this in his published memoirs. probably explosion". Stretching to the utmost another tragic Malta connection. On Febru­ Benghazi, waved off from the island by a sur­ Maltese postcard publishers could not all his skills and sangfroid, he managed to ary 15, 1935, Singapore seaplane K3595 prise formation of RAF aircraft as escorts. He resist the urge to cash in on the high-profile belly-land the aircraft at Mai Far, shattering crashed into the Peloritani mountains near heard that the pilots had been instructed to calamity. Almost concurrently, different edi­ only the propeller in the process. In the face Messina. All the crew and passengers were shoot him down if he gave any sign of turning tors released at least two postcards. One of death, "Cobham and Helmore stepped killed - eight RAF personnel including the back to Malta ... showed 'Sir Alan Cobham's Seaplane at from the machine unharmed, as unflurried half-brother of the First Sea Lord David "The Maltese episode," Cobham concluded Calafrana, Malta', while the other had 'Sir as if they had stepped from a train". Beatty, and a civilian senior technical officer. "served as a reminder that aircraft - especially Alan. Cobham's G-EBUP. Malta. 1928' in How had this come to pass? An examina­ The Air Force brought their bodies over to flying boats and - were still very Grand Harbour, ready to take off. Both are tion of the engine immediately showed gross Malta where they were solemnly buried in the much at the mercy of the weather... and at the today extremely rare. negligence in the maintenance of the aircraft. Capuchins' Naval Cemetery near Kalkara. ·mercy of their own technical imperfection." Was this the end of Cobham'sjinxed con­ A cotter pin that held the throttle linkage had Gladys Lloyd Cobham died on October 19, Cobham's pains turned into Malta's gains. nection with Malta? Hardly. After the two fallen out. This should have been held in place 1961, and her husband Sir Alan, on October In his forced and prolonged stay in Malta the frightening experiences in the island, the ace by a split pin that had never been inserted at 21, 1973. Two beautiful lives, beautifully restless pilot did not waste his time. He aviator had to face a third scary misadventure all. "It was a criminal oversight and neither spent. drafted an extremely detailed report on the in Malta. On September 22, 1934, he was the work inspectors nor the AID had noticed advantages of Malta as a hub for worldwide flying an Airspeed Courier with Squadron it." Had the cotter pin failed when flying over air routes. Criss-crossing Malta by car and Leader William Helmore on his way from the sea or through the clouds hiding the Acknowledgements by plane, accompanied by the Minister Britain to Karachi to demonstrate the feasi­ mountains of France, the consequences Thanks to Leonard Callus and Maroma Camil­ for Industry and Commerce (presumably bility and advantages of inflight refuelling "an would undoubtedly have been lethal. "It was leri. All images are from the author's collection.

Postcard showing Cobham's flying boat in Kalafrana, issued in Malta.

The Osborne Hotel in Valletta where Sir Alan and Lady Cobham stayed during their delay in Malta.