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Volume 41 May 2007 Number 8 http://www.cahs.ca/torontochapter . Canadian Aviation Historical Society This meeting is jointly sponsored by CAHS Toronto Chapter Meeting Toronto Chapter and the Toronto Aerospace May 12, 2007 Museum- All CAHS / TAM members, guests Meeting starts at 1 PM and the public (museum admission payable) are -Under the Glider- welcome to attend. Toronto Aerospace Museum, 65 Carl Hall Refreshments will be served Road, Toronto AAALanding Fee @@@ of $2.00 will be charged to cover meeting expenses Next Meeting Sept. 15, 2007 Last Month’s Meeting . .....................2 National Convention . .............7 Meeting Dates ........................................ ..................7 CAHS Toronto Chapter Elections . ...........7 Poet’s Corner .......................................... .................7 This Month "My Vietnam Adventures" Air Canada Captain Bill Christopulos 1 Flypast V. 41 No. 7 Last Month’s Meeting U.K. in 1940. He retired from active duty in April Meeting 1996. His final assignment was as Defence and Air Attache to the British Embassy in Moscow, Hurricanes For Russia where his responsibilities and sphere of operations stretched over both the Russian Speaker: Air Commodore Philip J. (Phil) Federation and all but one of the Republics of Wilkinson, CVO MA FRAeS FRSA RAF the former Soviet Union. Previous assignments (Ret’d) included command of the RAF air base in Reporter: Gord McNulty Berlin during the period on either side of the fall of the Berlin Wall, leadership of the team developing Alliance arms control policy at NATO’s SHAPE headquarters in Belgium, and Faculty Instructor duties as RAF exchange officer at the USAF Air University, Maxwell, Alabama. Phil is currently an aviation security consultant. He also writes as a regular contributor to books and magazines on military aviation history. He has remained very much involved with the affairs of a group of RAF veterans who deployed to northern Russia in 1941, a story that until recently has not received the attention it deserves. In May 2005 he accompanied the fitter survivors, in the presence of HRH Duke of York and First Sea Lord (Chief of Naval Staff), as they commemorated the 60 th anniversary of the ending of the war in Europe at ceremonies in Murmansk. The men who served on the operation are remembered with gratitude by the people of Murmansk. Phil highlighted his presentation with a Phil points out key sites in Norther Russia showing of the excellent 30-minute DVD, Hurricanes Over Russia. The DVD includes the recollections of historians and veterans who CAHS Toronto Chapter President Howard describe the RAF’s deployment of Hurricane Malone introduced Air Commodore Phil fighters and crews to assist Russian forces after Wilkinson, a former --- and basically Hitler ended his Non-Aggression Pact with unreformed --- fighter-bomber pilot and Stalin and launched a devastating attack on instructor pilot who survived nearly 4,000 Russia on 22 June, 1941. The German air cockpit hours. Phil lives just a few miles from attack crippled the Soviet air force before it RAF Middle Wallop in the county of Hampshire could fight back. Five days later, a British in southern England, where the first of the military mission was engaged in Moscow as Hurricanes sent by the RCAF arrived in the the British quickly joined in supporting Stalin Flypast V. 41 No. 7 2 in the fight against Hitler. The RAF was able to The members of the Wing were received by a supply older Hurricanes which were being Russian major-general who was commander of phased out and could be shipped to Russia at the Joint Air Operation. They met decorated once. Soviet pilots who learned to fly the Hurricanes. An agreement was reached to supply 200 By 11 September, 1941, less than three months aircraft per month via naval convoys to the after the German invasion, the two RAF strategic northern ports of Archangel and squadrons were established as a fighting force. Murmansk. Two RAF squadrons --- 81 and 134 The Wing deployed to Murmansk, operating --- formed No. 151 Wing and were sent to from the nearby airfield of Severomorsk, a few Russia as the principal convoy of the first Arctic miles upriver. The Germans were about 45 Convoy. The top-secret convoy sailed from miles from Murmansk at the time. The first Liverpool in August 1941 and it carried a range combat action, on 12 September, claimed the of essential supplies, not just airmen and life of Sgt. Norman Smith, a young man who aircraft. The personnel included pilots who were was the only Wing pilot killed in north Russia. veterans of the Battle of Britain and ground However, the Wing had achieved its first crew. They were not allowed to communicate combat victory. A dangerous problem would with anyone about the operation, under threat of soon emerge. Four aircraft nearly crashed on court martial. Some politicians also travelled on account of the inadequacies of what Phil the convoy to set up missions from the U.K. and described as the abominable Russian fuel being from Poland, and there were also accredited used at the time. The engines would begin to correspondents. The well-known artist Feliks fail at altitudes of around 15,000 feet. The Topolski, a Polish-born expressionist painter, allies co-operated to solve the problem with a went as an accredited military journalist. He fuel additive, a tin-based catalyst. Phil noted completed a number of drawings, which were that in 1991, the company that developed the published in Picture Post and later put into a system reunited a group of about 40 veterans -- beautiful book which Phil managed to find a - air and ground crew ---- to publicize its fuel second-hand copy of. products. The main party sailed for Russia aboard a luxury The Soviets were soon presented with the first liner, commandeered for wartime operations and of the Hurricanes to be painted with Soviet carrying Hurricanes in crates. They arrived at markings. Flying different operations, Archangel on 1 September 1941 and the crated including bomber escort and point defence, the Hurricanes were assembled in nine days. Hurricane proved invaluable as a rugged Meanwhile, another group of pilots made the aircraft that could withstand the elements, the journey out of Glasgow aboard the aircraft relatively primitive conditions, and the carrier HMS Argus, with 24 new Hurricane Mk. tendency among Russian crews to be fairly II’s stowed below the 400-foot flat deck. The rough in their treatment of aircraft. In fact, the pilots had to fly off the Argus in difficult Hurricane was probably a better choice for the conditions. Phil noted that they had never been Russian operation than the lighter Spitfire seen to sea before, never mind flying off an would have been. The Hurricane was a deadly aircraft carrier. In fact, the briefing notes stated gun platform, equipped with eight machine that the carrier deck was 427 feet long. With guns, and could perform well at high altitude. 22 knots of speed over the deck, the pilots Hurricanes were effective in escorting Soviet needed 415 feet to get airborne. Pe-2 twin-engined bombers attacking German 3 Flypast V. 41 No. 7 supply lines near Murmansk. On 6 October, the for the Wing’s return to the U.K. On 7 Luftwaffe raided the airfield and all operational November, Stalin addressed Soviet forces in Hurricanes were scrambled as German bombers Red Square. It was a critical moment as the and fighters approached. There were no RAF Germans were only 40 miles from Moscow. As casualties and several ground crew were the Wing waited for news of their departure, commended for their coolness in standing by the promised shipments of Hurricanes began to their aircraft. Flying operations ceased when arrive at Murmansk. winter soon arrived. The winter of 1941 and 1942 saw the recovery According to official records, the Wing was of Russia and the beginning of the Soviet credited with shooting down 16 confirmed comeback which led to the eventual defeat of German aircraft and damaging more. It had the Nazis. Members of 151 Wing returned certainly established a strong, much-needed home on Royal Navy ships or on a merchant defensive shield. Phil noted that more German vessel, enduring harsh, perilous conditions at aircraft were downed by a combination of air sea. The Wing arrived at Scottish ports with no and ground attack. The Wing had made an loss of life at sea, but the men were deeply impressive showing, especially considering that conscious of the dangers faced by the convoys the air operation ran for only about a month, taking supplies to Russia. One convoy lost 22 from mid-September to mid-October. For its of the 33 ships that sailed. Given the risks, it part, 134 Sqdn. continued to train Russian pilots seemed nothing short of miraculous that the and ground crew. The Russians were excellent Wing personnel made it to Russia and back technicians. The newly trained Russian pilots safely. Back in London, the Wing commander, formed the first Soviet Hurricane squadron, and both squadron leaders and the highest-scoring in turn would train other pilots to fly Hurricanes. Wing pilot, Flight Sergeant Charlton Hall, Boris Safonov was the most famous pilot received the Order of Lenin at the Russian trained by the Wing. An adept pilot who Embassy. wouldn’t think twice about taking off in In all, 550 RAF personnel and 40 aircraft snowstorms, he became an ace who downed participated before dispersing to other theatres more than 30 enemy aircraft personally or in a of war. The force may have seemed relatively group during the war. Safonov, who was shot small, measured in absolute terms, and was in down and killed on 30 May 1942 after 224 Russia for a relatively short time.

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