By: John W. Willmott
Yes indeed, I flew the DC3 and the DC2.
And while I did not fly the C-47 since I was flying larger aircraft in the various
"engagements,"
I did ride in them when transported from place to place on occasion.
I got my original ATR on the DC3 after training on the Bamboo Bomber.
In the ferry operations of
Atlantic Airways Ltd.,
an organization likely no one alive today remembers,
we flew the aircraft "requisitioned" from the U.S. Airlines
by Roosevelt in early 1941 to Africa as the basis for Pan American Africa
which was to do the personnel transport from West Africa to India etc
for the military forces where the longer range flying boats could not land inland
from the sea such as on a river or lake.
The aircraft requisitioned which we flew were DC-2, DC-3 and Lockheed Loadstar.
I have pictures of them lined up at old Miami Municipal next door to Opoloicka
Navy base, Miami.
And we ferried them trans ocean from Natal to Africa non stop with the cabins
filled with drums of gasoline
- non droppable- in case of engine failure.
Drums were plumbed together to a hand wobble pump used to refill the wing tanks.
We stunk of gasoline and were actually flying bombs ready to explode.
The Lockheed gave us experience for the next planes which were the Hudson
and the Vega Ventura torpedo and mine laying bomber.
I have pictures of them also
I had many flights in bucket seats of C-47s returning from ferry missions to
the Mid East and North Africa.
I have done some very interesting writings about my DC-3 experiences
which I wrote essentially as a letter to my airline friends and SPAR,
the airline retiree's bulletin and which, if expanded and or rewritten will
eventually
be part of "My Story" which has been slowed due to my political works.
I tack on picture of bucket seated Gooney Bird bringing us home across Africa
to meet the PAA Clipper for transport to stateside.
I am the one closest since I had camera and had to set it for
auto exposure of us.
We are all PAAF crew members.
Cheers. JWW at 2251 ETD May 31, 2002
I too, felt more than a touch of pride at the bombing of Japan
by Doolittle's group.
But remember being very unhappy and angry about the losses of some crews,
especially the execution by the Japanese of some captured pilots.
However the bombing was the first ray of hope to raise the dejected spirits
of America
because it seemed the Japanese and also the Germans were winning all the battles.
In Jan. 1942 we, of
Atlantic Airways Ltd.,
became officially
Pan American Air Ferries
with the declaration of war against Japan on Dec. 8, 1941.
Prior to that, we did not exist and had been told our passports were worthless
and we would not be recognized or acknowledged if captured.
With recognition, it was no surprise to the people in Miami to see a bunch of
military PBY flying boats
arrive and training exercises begin in late December 1941.
I volunteered for the boats, having flown seaplanes with Pan Am and privately
at Chalk's Seaplane Base.
After doing the "books" and some water jumps, a group of 5 PBYs with
me
on my checkout trip departed Miami on December 27 on aircraft N71.
And exactly one month after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Jan. 7, 1942
I was going into Rangoon during a Japanese bombing attack and flying low up
the Iriwaddy River
on my checkout flight as pilot on a PBY,
one of a group we flew to the Royal Dutch Navy in Surabaja via Batavia, Java.
We had been loaded with tires, mags, props
and 50 cal ammo for the P-40s
of the AVG Flying Tigers based there who were cannibalizing their planes
to keep a few in the air against twice daily bombings.
From there on the 8th we flew to Batavia and Surabaja
where we on our plane delivered ours to the Royal Dutch Navy.
The flight had broken up at Khartoum due to different routings etc.
And later in 1942 I got to fly the B-25 on several flights to Basra and Baghdad,
Iraq and Tehran for the Russians.
My first B-25 flight other than the brief checkout bounces after reading "the
book" overnight
about April 1, 1942 was our departure from Miami on April 3, 1942
on North American B-25 112-519 which had another official number, 41-12591.
This flight was to Basra.
On the 16th when Doolittle took off from the carrier to bomb Tokyo on April
16,
we were out of Accra, Ghana via Kano to the North near Lake Chad in Nigeria
to Khartoum,
then called Anglo Egyptian Sudan at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile
rivers.
We heard of Doolittle's flight some short time after that
via Press Wireless short wave radio at Hicksville, L.I.
but there were few details until later.
We delivered this aircraft to the "rigid" unsmiling Russians as I
described them on April 19 in Basra, Iraq.
Thanks for the good memories. Incidentally,
I had met - or rather been in the presence of Doolittle when I was a kid on
the flight line and he spoke to me "Wow!)
as I polished his windshield and helped gas his plane.
He was doing long distance and speed flights from Roosevelt Field, LI. in 31
and 32
when Frank Hawkes was flying his Texaco 13.
I have pictures also of that which I took.
Also met Wiley Post when I worked on his Winnie Mae polishing his windshield
and gassing it.
Have a picture of me "up" on it doing my job.
Just like to put things into perspective of where I was in my life when others
did their "big thing"
which inspired me into a lifetime of flying when I was a kid in grade school
and high school. .
I tack on a couple of me and the B-25s. That's me with the green suede official
GI mosquito boots! JWW
Here I am turning my short stint at guard duty after arrival
in Africa over to the official guard
before we "toured" to the food and tents for the night..
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