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THE E-MAGAZINE OF THE AEROPLANE COLLECTION

IN THIS ISSUEHut 28 & News from the EditorMeetings & Events - Whose & Where to find themBill Dutton RAF (Retd)Northwest airship raid that never wasThe Halton CometBIDSTON AERODROME OPENEDDuxford 2012

www.theaeroplanecollection.org

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Work on the roof is almost finishes with just a fewroofing bolts still to fit. Future work:

1. Outside Painting.

2. New windows.

3. Floor repairs.

4. Main door repairs.

5. Painting the Portocabin.

6. Moving archive into the Portocabin.

Who’s Who and Where to find them

Chairman & ArchivistColin SchroederHilbre6 Oakdale DriveGreasbyWirralCH49 3PZT: 0151 678 7798

E:colinschroeder@hotmail.com

Vice Chairman & Website Co-OrdinatorJohn Davidson38 St. Marks Avenue,Altrincham,Cheshire.WA14 4JBT: 07939 605354E:john.davidson1@yahoo.com

Secretary Dave Arkle

46 Sylvan Avenue Altrincham Cheshire WA15 6AB T: 0161 969 2697 E:d.arkle@ntlworld.com

TreasurerGraham F Sparkes7 Mayfield Avenue, Stretford,Manchester. M32 9HLT: 0161 866 8255E:mayfieldsparkes@aol.com

RegistrarMike Davey33 Ennisdale Drive, West Kirby,Wirral. CH48 9UET: 0151 625 9971E:michael.davey10@virgin.net

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necessary anyway to get up to 5,000 feet to haveenough fuel to make Palestine in one hop. I don’tthink the trouble was ever solved but we did find aremedy. By using ordinary M.T. fuel of a much loweroctane, the little Lycoming engine behaved itself inthe air perfectly. But woe betide you if you stoppedyour engine at some little airstrip in the Transjordandesert and then tried to start again, in the heat ofthe day. I remember well, occasions when mypassenger and myself spend anything up two hourswearily swinging the airscrew without a sign of life.Then up with the engine covers, out with plugs,clean them, replace them and start all over again.This little engine had an uncanny of starting on thefinal swing before you gave up to wait for an aircraftto find you, with a fitter to take the thing to pieces.

However, I mustn’t be too unfair the little Auster.Once this problem was solved she was a verydelightful aircraft for the type of communicationduties that we were carrying out. You could take heranywhere, land on an airstrip, field, road or desert,without any difficulty. She had good endurance – ifyou my didn’t mind flying at 85 knots for hours onend. She was easily serviced, and view from thecabin on both sides, below and above was quiteremarkable for a high wing aircraft. I was thankfulfor this on an occasion when I happened to landback at Lydda during the time that the SixthAirborne Division were carrying out gliderexercises. A Halifax had just taken off towing aHorsa, and had climbed to a position immediatelyabove the airfield prior to setting course. At thatmoment the towline broke and my view through theroof of the Auster I had just landed was of anenormous glider with 90 deg flap heading straightfor the middle of my head! Ground loops were neverthings to be taken lightly, but on this occasion I did avoluntary one just in time to see the glider flatten outat the last moment and make an excellent forcedlanding on the runway where I had been taxiing afew moment before.

Once we had got over the difficulties of petrol in theAuster V, I can honestly say that these robust littleaircraft never gave us one minute’s trouble inhundreds of hours flying, and I am quite sure thatthe sympathetic looks of many a pilot flying muchlarger aircraft would have changed had they had thesame opportunity.P.S.Since writing this article it has been suggested –probably correctly – that the engine problem wascaused by carburettor icing, which is not only con-fined to cold air conditions. This would explain thegradual fall-off of power until eventually the weightof the ice caused it to break away – thereby result-ing in a surge back to full throttle power. Whether ornot the use of M.T. fuel was a contributory factor tothe cure can only be surmised, but we had nofurther trouble after the change.

At the same time I found my engines revs drop-ping off and adjusted my throttle opening accord-ingly. This seemed to do the trick for a short timeuntil once again my revs started falling off. Again,an adjustment to the throttle and we were back tonormal. This was the old trouble, as I lookedahead I could see that we were in for more thanthe usual amount – I had flown into a valley withno opening at the other end! Like a inverted let-ter ‘U’ the hills stretched out on either side and infront of me, and I had to fly straight ahead asthere was not room to do the steepest of turnsback the way I had come. I was already nearingfull throttle and it was quite obvious that my rate ofclimb was nothing like what it should have been toget me over the hill at the far end. However, myworries did not seem to have been communicatedto my two colleagues who were happily peeringout – the offer in the seat next to me to the star-board side and his colleague in the ‘dicky’ seatbehind out under the port wing, at the same timechecking their position on their very large un-wieldy maps. Still the revs fell off; still I opened thethrottle – and all the timer the hill came nearer. Bynow I was on full throttle and it would appear Iwas just going to hold my own or we should justhit the top of the hill. Looking back I think I musthave closed my eyes in those last few seconds.We cleared the boulders on the top of the hill bytwo or three feet and shot out over the other side,much to my immense relief – only to find my twoofficers congratulating me on my skill and judge-ment in clearing it by such a small margin!

His was not the only trouble because, having gotto full throttle, the engine then apparently cleareditself and, before we knew it, the airscrew wastearing itself out of the engine and I had to throttleback immediately to low revs to prevent losing the

As we were using Auster V’s on flights up to fivehours at a time this whole business could beexceedingly disconcerting – particularly as onemight be flying up from Kasfareet or Fayid on thelong journey over the Sinai desert when it was

Bill Dutton RAF (Retd)Concluding Article

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Northwest airship raid that never was

By Colin Schroeder - Chairman TAC

On January 31st, nine German airships left their basesat Friedrichshaven and Lowenthal in Germany.Usually, they would creep across the North Sea undercover of darkness to haphazardly bomb the southcoast of England. This time their orders were to flyacross the entire breadth of England and bombLiverpool, which until then, had been considered wellbeyond the range of the raiders. The audacity of theraid would show the British that nowhere would besafe from aerial attack.

Kapitänleutnant Max Dietrich, commanding L.21, wasthe first to cross the North Sea, passing over theNorfolk coast at 5:50pm in the evening. Inland, mistand fog were already forming around the heavilypopulated areas, making ground observation difficult.Not far away, was L13, commanded byKapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy who had alreadybombed London, the previous year.

Dietrich, using a combination of calculation andobservation whenever the clouds provided a gapthrough which he could see, plotted his progressacross the country. Increasing his speed, he left L.13behind. He saw the lights of a city below him. Acalculation measuring airspeed against time told himthat this was Manchester. He saw likely targets butdecided not to drop any bombs, saving them and thesurprise they would cause, for Liverpool.

At 8:50pm looking down from the gondola, Dietrichcould no longer see any lights or ground features atall, and concluded that he was out over the IrishSea, slightly to the North of Liverpool. He turnedsouth, flying down the coast, looking for his target.Shortly, he saw it, twinkling, below were the lights ofa large town. Towards the south, separated by anarea of darkness, was another, smaller town.Dietrich concluded that he was over Liverpool withBirkenhead being the other town. He ordered actionstations and began his approach. He steered out tosea and came in to attack from the south, flying overBirkenhead, crossing the Mersey and onto Liverpoolitself. The incendiary and high explosive bombswere readied for release. There had been no at-tempt at all to interfere with their progress acrossBritain. They had the skies all to themselves.

At 9pm, the people of Liverpool were out and about,and there must have been many on that Mondayevening. They heard no droning engines to make themlook upwards. Anyone who did look up saw nothreatening, silvery cigar-shaped airship about tobomb them. There was no fear, there was no panic,and there was no danger. Above all, there was noZeppelin.

Dietrich's calculations had been wrong. When hethought he had passed over Manchester, it was in factDerby, which passed below in the mist. When hethought he had crossed the coast and passed on overthe Irish Sea, he had been flying over the sparselypopulated and unlit areas of North Shropshire andEastern Wales. He was 75 miles to the Southeast. His‘Birkenhead’ was Tipton, then a small industrial townin the middle of the industrial West Midlands. His dark,featureless ‘Mersey’ was an area of industrialwasteland and collieries known as Lea Brook. And hisjewel, his ‘Liverpool’ was Wednesbury, whichunfortunately received the surprise.

Flight Magazine published on the 3rd of February anofficially announcements issued by the War Office onwhat was known as Raid XI7 summarised below.

‘A Zeppelin raid by six or seven airships took placelast night’: ‘Bombs were dropped in Norfolk, Suffolk,Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, andDerbyshire, the number being estimated at 220.Except in one part of Staffordshire, the materialdamage was not considerable, and in no case wasany military damage caused. No further casualtieshave been reported, and the figures remain as 54killed, 67 injured’.

The magazine also published the German version

‘On the night of January 31st one of our naval airshipsquadrons dropped large quantities of explosives andincendiary bombs on the docks, harbour, and factoriesin and near Liverpool, on Birkenhead iron foundriesand smelting furnaces, on Manchester factories, onsmelting furnaces at Nottingham and Sheffield, andthe great industrial works on the Humber and nearGreat Yarmouth. Everywhere marked effects wereobserved in gigantic explosions, and seriousconflagrations. On the Humber a battery was alsosilenced. Our airships were heavily fired on from alldirections, there were not hits, and safely returned.’

On the 2nd March Flight magazine published a furtherWar Office update along with an increase in thenumber of casualties and bombs dropped. It alsoincluded the following German version from thenotorious Wolff Bureau circulated to the German press.

‘From authoritative quarters we learn the followingfacts about the results of the air attack on the night ofJanuary 31st. The main objects of the attack were thedocks and the port and factory areas. The effect of thebombs was good; during the return voyage of theairships an enormous fire was still visible at a greatdistance. A number of bridges and harbour areas wereso severely damaged that it is for the present nolonger possible to use them. It is said that a numberof ships in the Mersey were badly damaged—amongothers a cruiser lying below Birkenhead and atransport ship of the Leyland Line. Stables containing200

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horses were destroyed by fire, and it is said that thehorses and the Canadian troops guarding them werekilled. Great damage was done at Birkenhead,Garston, and Bootle. The Booth Line and YeowardLine have been severely injured by the partialdestruction of the docks. Three ships suffered greatinjury. The neighbouring dry docks and engine works,as well as the Birkenhead Dry Dock, Engine and BoilerWorks, were completely destroyed. In all, more than800 houses were destroyed by bombs or fire. At themouth of the Mersey (in Bootle) a powder factory wascompletely destroyed. At Crewe, southeast ofLiverpool, the railways were greatly damaged, so thattraffic with London was interrupted. At this pointmilitary encampments also are said to have been seton fire’.

L21 was to return and actually find the northwest onthe 25th September 1916, but this time under thecommand of Oberleutnant Kurt Frankenburg. Theairship dropped its bombs in the Rossendale Valleyand around Bolton. Many of the bombs did notexplode, but those that did, killed 13 and injured nine.L21 was shot down on November 28th off Lowestoftwith the loss of all on board.

In the L.R.N. No. 88 Issue 1 2013 I described my visit tothe Trenchard Museum at R.A.F. Halton to return my oldservice cap. In early March this year I received a parcel, itwas in the form of a cardboard tube. When I removedthe end cap of the tube I was able to withdraw a rolledup piece of paper. I was delighted to find when I unrolledthe paper that it was a copy of a painting. It depicted aDeHavilland Comet aircraft landing on the grass airfieldat R.A.F. Halton and the artist was Brian Payne. The ac-companying letter stated “I thought you would like it as amemento of your time here as you were involved in theevent”. I remember quite well the event as I was one ofthe R.A.F. Policemen given the task of closing the roadbetween the villages of Weston Turville and Halton. Ioften though was members of the general public wouldhave thought being stopped by a military policeman on apublic highway.

I framed the print and hung it the wall up above thetelevision set. In time I began to think that I would like toknow more about the aircraft. So I started searching onthe internet and found that the aircraft was the sixthComet produced. Throughout it manufacture it wasknown by the Constructors Number 6006 and wasdestined for the Ministry of Supply to do test work onthe new Rolls Royce Avon engines which were to powerthe Comet Mark 2`s. It was classed as the prototypeComet Mark. 2 and was dubbed as 2X. It made itsmaiden flight on 16��. February 1952 and carried theregistration G-ALYT. During its test life it was based atthe DeHavilland airfield at Hadfield in Hertfordshire. Itdid venture to Khartoum to carry out tropical trials. Thefinal test was with to fly with a water spraying rig fittedin front of the Starboard (left hand) outboard engineintake to assess the de-icing capabilities. In 1954 theaircraft was withdrawn from use by the DeHavillandCompany and it is not clear what happened to theaircraft over the next few years. It made the short flightfrom Hatfield to Halton on 28��. May 1959, with John“Cats Eyes” Cunningham at the control, flew to R.A.F.Halton and landed on the grass airfield. It was to serve asan instructional airframe with No. 1 School of TechnicalTraining with the pseudo 7610M. In 1967 its usefulnesswas over and it was broken up for scrap.

The Halton Comet by Dennis Stead

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EASTER 1920 – BIDSTON AERODROME OPENEDBY COLIN SCHROEDER

CHAIRMAN - THE AEROPLANE COLLECTION

Great Northern Aerial Company of Liverpool acquired35 acres of land near Bidston railway station inSeptember 1919 for an aerodrome to be used asheadquarters for their proposed services linkingnumerous cities around the country to ‘health &leisure’ resorts. During the 1920 Easter holiday,between Wednesday 31st March and Saturday 10thApril, they organised an Aerial Gala, to mark theopening of the aerodrome, it would then close untilWhitson, then reopen and continue throughout thesummer. Admission to the Gala was 1/- (5p), with athree-penny tax. Unfortunately they had not managedto put the finishing touches to the aerodrome beforeit was opened three hangars had almost beencompleted. It was intended that the field wouldbecome permanent, and eventual be properlylevelled and made dry.

Great things were being promised with theestablishment of the aerodrome. Flights to London,departing Bidston at 8:45am and arriving at theLondon aerodrome of Cricklewood at 10:45am, thiswould allow ‘almost a full day of business’. The returnjourney it was suggested could be made on the sameday. This service was to link up with the London toParis flight. This started from Cricklewood at 11:30amand cost about £15. Enquires had been received fromvarious interested parties. One Liverpool businessman, wanted to book four trips each week to Londonat £15 15s a journey, and a prominent medical manenquired as to the possibility of undertaking long tripsat short notice for urgent consultations or operations.

For the Gala, it was intended to get about twentyaircraft to the aerodrome, but the weather interferedwith the arrival of a number of aircraft from Blackpooland London. The weather not only restricted flightsbut also decreased the attendance. How popular theGala might have been, is shown by the fact that onthe Good Friday when the weather cleared up, 800people paid for admission and 51 passengers werecarried on short trips.

A full programme had been planned including ‘longflights’, with Blackpool as a favoured destination atfive guineas (£5.25) single and seven guineas (£7.35)return. Guinea (£1.05) flights over the River Merseywould be available, and for those not minded toventure so far afield, the thrills and sensation of flightwould be provided by short ‘flips’. There were alsofree flights to holders of lucky numbered admissiontickets purchased in advanced.

Flying was of course the chief attraction, but to givethe aerodrome the character of a pleasure haunt,there were refreshments, dancing and music by themilitary band of the Comrades of the Great War, allheld in a large pavilion which had been erected.

At the opening ceremony, Mr J.J. Beasley, thechairman of the Great Northern Aerial Company, saidthat the company was trying to create popular interestin flying, and had established a number of aerodromesthroughout the country. They were conscious of thetremendous sacrifice, which the flying man had madefor their country during the Great War. He sincerelyhoped that the Government would back up the effortsof the civilian flying companies. He asked the Mayorof Birkenhead, Alderman J.H. McGaul to open theaerodrome.

Alderman McGaul wished the company every successand having expressed his, admiration for the airmanwent on to say. “I feel that for certain purposesconsidering the great unrest and turmoil throughoutthe country, that aviation is going to be our salvation.If we can come to a place of this description whentransport has been stopped between here, London,and Paris (There had been a good deal of industrialunrest with a recent rail strike). If wires have been cut,and means of communication are at the mercy ofagitators who care not for the good of their country butonly for themselves. If we can come to loyal citizensat a place like this and book a passage for a certainplace, flying will have done a wonderful service onbehalf of the rest of the Empire”. He welcomed theconstruction of the aerodrome, because of itsproximity to the borough over which he presided andsaid he was sorry that their friends in Wallasey hadprevented them from including the aerodrome groundsin Birkenhead’s expansion scheme. He went on to saythat “The Government was perhaps not behaving aswell as it might towards aviation, and it behoved thoseinterested to create such a feeling in the whole countrythat the value of aviation would become apparent toevery man in the street. If they did that, they would bedoing a great service, not only to aviation, but also tothe nation. They would be doing something forEngland as well as for themselves”.

Mr J.S. Bumphrey of the International AviationCompany in responding to a toast to the pilotsdescribed the obstacles placed by the Air Ministry inthe way of civilians who wished to purchase aircraft.He had set out to purchase one with his naval gratuity.It took him six weeks to buy it and three months toobtain delivery. The Air Ministry had refused to loanan aircraft to an aero club, but he had seen 500machines being broken up at Aintree.

Following the speeches, William Nichole attempted aflight, but days of continuous rain, and a very heavythunderstorm on the previous night, had made theground so sodden, that, although the aircraft couldhave taken off, it was considered advisable, not to riskthe possibility of a bad landing. Conditions did improvethe next day to allow flying to commence.

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DUXFORD 2012By John Stanley

Member of the Friends of MOSI