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Flying control was not by any means an easy matter when one considers that in those days two way radio communication and a vary light pistol to be the only aids available to control that vast armada of aircraft that at times would be wanting to Use that small airfield. With so many unexpected events to take account of sometimes I'm sure it must have become a bit of a nightmare with only the one runway to do it all on. How could it be possible to take action quick enough to prevent a mid air collision when a Beaufort taking off from the Mediterranean end suddenly finds a Walrus seaplane flying across it's path down at the Bay end or the very suddenness of a Spitfire that had gone up on a flight test returning with a dead engine an event that from the moment the engine died to the perfect belly landing on the strip could have only taken a matter of seconds, luckily the strip was clear.
All those pilots who on arrival at Gibraltar, would, for the first time be seeing an airfield the like of which they had never seen before already with up to ten hours flying time behind them that day now expected to make their approach and set the airplane down, as simple as that.
The fact that flying into Spanish territory was absolutely forbidden put the chance of stooging around to size up the situation right out of the question because Spanish territory was only about one hundred yards to the north of the runway and on the south side the towering “Rock" face, in other words an aircraft couldn't circle the airfield it either made it's approach and landed or went right round the Rock again which then put the runway out of sight until the aircraft got back into line and ready to make a landing approach again. If all those sort of hazards are considered it can be seen that really the only safe pilot to carry passengers into or out of North Front were the ones that did the job daily, who were familiar with all the landmarks and had a good experience of the sort of weather conditions that could be expected at that particular place. I have seen our own Hudson pilots when making an approach from the Mediterranean being swept all over the sky as if by some unseen hand and have to fight for their lives to get the plane back under control and yet on landing they were unable to explain what had happened. Yet on another occasion a sudden call for three strike aircraft and because the wind was blowing straight down the strip from the Mediterranean, it blew so hard it was causing a sandstorm, the three Hudson's were able to comfortably take off in "V" formation.
While generally the weather was of a very amiable nature some local sporadic bursts did occur and a good illustration of that was over the question of fog. Six of our Hudson's had left on early morning patrols, there was a bit of sea mist hanging about which would usually clear as the sun rose, but on that particular occasion the phenomenon of the one and only fog to trouble us in all the time we were at North Front descended on the place. At ground level visibility was reasonable but above, say, fifteen feet it became thicker than any London pea souper and for once the towering Rock face was invisible. There was of course no immediate worry except to stop all further flying and everyone thought that as the morning wore on the fog would clear as quickly as it had arrived. Surprisingly the fog just stayed put and by noon when it was getting near to the time for the early morning patrols to return it was as thick as ever. One by one the returning planes arrived back and soon all six could be heard up above that thick layer of fog seeking desperately to find a way through it for a landing, as already fuel was obviously low.
For some considerable time those six aircraft flew around up above the layer of fog and whilst we were unable to see them we could hear them very loud and clear, sometimes they came across at a very low altitude seemingly as if they were trying to judge the distance of the runway from the "Rock" face, which they were able to see, but if they had then tried for a landing where they seemed to think the runway was all hell would have been let loose, straight through flying control.
As time passed so the situation became more and more desperate so much so that through lack of fuel "ZS" “P” was forced to ditch in the sea and then just as everybody on the ground began to feel it was now hopeless a message from one of the doomed aircraft announced a clearing had been found.
The Hudson from which the message had been received was captained by our Squadron Leader Bordeaux who then, having found the hole through which a landing could be attempted, quietly proceeded to marshal along the four other Hudson's so that they would be in line at suitable intervals for a kind of follow my leader sort of landing. From the ground it still wasn't possible to see anything least of all any kind of clearing in the fog but we knew from what was being said over the inter-com that the landing would be from the Algerciras Bay end. Suddenly the first aircraft came through the fog layer and by the angle of attack it was obvious that they were coming at the runway from off the Spanish coastline, then the second Hudson came through and touched down and so on until all five aircraft had made a safe landing to the cheers of everybody on the ground including about two hundred Spaniards who had been held up at the road crossing to the border post, by the emergency.
Squadron Leader Bordeaux, a veteran anti "U" Boat pilot had saved the day which really was to be expected as of all people that day no doubt his desire to survive at that time would have been greatly heightened in the knowledge that shortly he was due for some home leave to, be married and he wasn’t one who would wish to disappoint lady. Rumour had it that the lady was the daughter of a very prominent politician of those days.
Familiarity breeds contempt so thy say, _and in some cases such an attitude of mind brought about contemptuous acts that did sometimes cause air crashes. Occasionally the results of such acts would become apparent when they went seriously wrong but the classic one in my own experience happened while at North Front when our c/o Wing Commander McCombe decided to flight test a, Hudson that had just received an engine change. Now our commanding Officer was just about the best pilot in the Squadron and there was a sort of impression to be gained that "to fly in the same Hudson piloted by him almost guaranteed a safe return”. In those days all engines were of course of the piston sort and each cylinder was fitted with two spark plugs worked by two separate ignition systems this being done mainly for safety although it was designed that maximum power be obtained with both systems working. Part of the pre-flight check out included making sure that each system was functioning correctly and whether any appreciable drop in revs was recorded on the rev counter as switches on the flight panel were manipulated to do that. On take off I was carefully watching the instrument panel from the co-pilots position we had full power, tail up and just about to become airborne when to my surprise the c/o calmly leant forward to work the mag switches to check out the ignition system at that point.
Fortunately nothing bad happened but a small act like that could have had serious results as any power loss at that point could have produced another one of those messes. I flew, in and out of, North Front on many occasions with many different pilots in several types of aircraft but that was the only time I saw a pilot do that.
Indeed, although I must have witnessed most of the flying accidents that happened there, apart from some bumpy approaches when landing from the bay end and on one occasion a burst tail wheel I never experienced anything spectacular myself.
It was late 1942 some weeks after the opening of the North African campaign that Zhikorsky arrived at North Front, he having just completed a visit to Eisenhower’s headquarters. His plane touched down early afternoon; I believe it was a passenger-carrying version of a Wellington Bomber, special care being taken to have the aircraft moved as far as was possible away from the runway and to offer extra security by having it parked overnight fairly close to the control tower. Zhikorsky's party was given V.I.P red carpet treatment with the Governors car in attendance that in itself was an unusual sight for us at North Front, and then after getting into the car they were taken away to the Governor’s residence. By the dress we could tell there was woman in the party although we were not aware until after the crash that it was the great man's daughter.
On take off early next morning as everybody now knows the plane crashed into the bay with fatal results. As we went, to breakfast that morning we met up with some of our duty night crew, who told us that Zhikorsky had been killed, in the crash and that naval frogmen were out at the wreck trying to recover the bodies. By the time that one happened the number of wreaked planes lying in the water at each end of the airstrip were many and we saw nothing sinister or unusual about it as has since been suggested, indeed the only outstanding thing was that such a very important man had lost his life.
The probable cause of such crashes was the fact that enough familiarisation flight time had not been made the prerequisite for carrying passengers through North Front.
There always has to be the big one and when it happened the memory of the tragic event that it was must have lived forever in the minds of all who saw it, certainly as far as I’m concerned it remains as vivid today as on the day I watched it happen.
As the campaign in North Africa progressed successfully so the plight of Malta became relieved and of course for many reasons the need to bring people out of that island became a fairly high priority. It was now possible to fly to Malta and back with ease and planes from 233 Squadron did so on a number of occasions and as the various aircraft flew back to North Front so they would bring back with them the odd passenger or two.
Then at North Front a Liberator aircraft of Transport Command began making an appearance, much to our great interest as it was the first time we had seen that particular plane although in view of our experience of the place it was thought that to use such a monster at North Front seemed to be asking for trouble. The attached photograph shows the Liberator as it appeared at Gibraltar, parked and on take off.
However, there were others that knew better and the go ahead was given for that Transport Command Liberator to be used to airlift a whole plane load of people from Malta. The Liberator duly arrived back at North Front and as it made a pass over the strip most of us stopped what we were doing to watch the landing, as we knew that inside that plane were about forty men, women and children who would be pleased to be at Gibraltar. Some of the men on board were sick service personnel and stretcher cases.
The plane made one pass over the strip turned to starboard at the Mediterranean end, flew round the “Rock” via Europa point, turned into the Algerciras Bay to begin it's landing approach. By the sort of approach that the plane was making it was obvious to us, very experienced residents of North Front that the man at the controls was an expert. That pilot made a perfect approach so that by the time the aircraft drew level with the end of the runway it was ready to touch down. Just try to imagine the sheer joy and excitement being felt by all those passengers inside that Liberator at the moment of touch down, all having now escaped from the deprivations of the years of siege at Malta. But fate was about to decide otherwise.
We stood watching from our dispersal area, this would have been about half way along the runway, and as the plane approached us we could see that it appeared to be going much too fast. As it reached a point opposite to where we stood everything started to go wrong, it was going too fast, then a surge of power which lifted the plane back into the air for a moment to be immediately followed by the power being shut down again, it was as if the pilot had made the instinctive reaction to get airborne again and then had realized almost at the same instant that the length of run would not allow him to do that. What the poor devil's thoughts must have been as the plane rushed on towards the sea wall at the Mediterranean end would be difficult to guess at but for sure there was a pilot in a position that no pilot would seek to be in, with a plane out of control.
We watched as the Liberator, seemingly without making any further attempt to slow down, quickly reached the sea wall and as it went on over the top, for a split second disappearing from view, until the tail rose up into the air and the whole plane went over on to its back and then sunk down into the sea.
With others I went up to the sea wall and on reaching it all that could now be seen of that Liberator was the top of the tail fins. There wasn't any sign of life at the wrecked plane but a number of very brave airmen were stripping off on the beach to swim out to attempt a possible rescue. In the wink of an eye all on board the plane had perished and later that day as we took our usual path through the emergency equipment sheds on our way back to the dispersal area we saw the pathetic rows of covered bodies that frogmen had already brought out from the wreck. It was obvious to us that the bodies of children were among the dead and as we went on our way we wondered just who were these people who had died so tragically on their flight to freedom and that very expert pilot over there, who had been lured into the trap, what was his name, where did he come from? In the rush of war the time to ponder on such questions was limited but for sure the answers would fill a volume.
Of its time a very large air crash and although in numbers it, had by today’s standards become insignificant I doubt if a more tragic air crash has ever happened.
Our own on the spot verdict of what had gone wrong was that the aircraft's brakes had failed which seemed to be borne out by the fact that the plane had hardly slowed from start to finish but local official opinion claimed that a sudden change of wind direction was the cause of the crash. Liberator flights into North Front ceased.
During the months leading up to the North African invasion on November 9th 1942 the resident Squadron, by number 233, reached peak performance at North Front, Gibraltar and met in full all the demands that of necessity would be the lot of any Royal Air Force unit so placed in the unique position of having the only aircraft within a radius of a thousand miles capable of carrying out all the necessary preparation photographic and reconnaissance work in connection with that invasion plus our usual persistent anti-"U" boat patrols and strikes, plus the odd occasional bombing raid.
Due to the limited space available for such a Squadron at North Front the maximum number of Hudson’s ready to 'GO' at any particular time had to be kept at about twenty so it can be seen that to cover all requirements had meant very intensive Use of those aircraft and crews since flying operations by now were going on almost right round the clock. This also made it imperative that the replacement of lost, damaged, or unserviceable aircraft received top priority.
Such events as the August convoy to Malta had called for considerable activity during which at the end of one day's flying alone four of our Hudson's had failed to return. The idea of the convoy was of course to relieve Malta but I think all were aware beforehand of that futility of such an undertaking and that the chances of it being fully successful were slim.

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