May 9th 1942

[antarmike]

Operation Bowery, the 5th of 13 missions to fly in Spitfires from aircraft carriers to the beseiged island of Malta.

 

On this day there was a splendid example of airmanship.

 

Pilot Officer Smith, a Canadian, had taken off from the Aircraft Carrier wasp, but found that he could not draw fuel from the 70 gallon belly tank that had been fitted for the long, trans mediteranean flight.

 

Following his briefing he jettisoned the tank then loitered around Wasp until all the other Spitfires were launched.

 

Following signals from Wasp's deck landing Officer he set the Spitfire down. This was a commendable feat since the Spitfire was not fitted with an arrester hook, and Smith had not been trained in deck landings,

 

The Fuel feed problem was rectified and the following day, Smith took off again, and flew alone to Malta, where he joined the 59 other Spitfires that had flown in the day before from Wasp and Eagle.

 

4 Spitfires were lost on route.

 

In all the missions, 367 out of 385 Spitfires made it to the Island.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Of the four lost aircraft, were the pilots also lost?

[antarmike]

That I don't know. And of those 367 that made it ( in the earlier missions) some were destroyed almost immediately having been bounced by the germans beore they had time to refuel.

As the operations got more frequent the British were more prepared with protected dispersals, fuel standing by ready for the incoming Spitfires and other Spitfire already in the air to provide cover.

 

The whole mission was hairy, the Spitfires flying withan underslung 90 Gallon drop tank were severely overloaded.

 

The decision was made to remove 2 of the 4 Cannons the Spitfire V normally carried, and only 60 rounds per gun were loaded. The pilots chances in a dogfight were not good.

[antarmike]

Later on Spitfires flew directly from Gibralter to Malta, but now they carried an external 170 gallon tank and had another 30 gallon tank fitted in the fuselage. Because of the great range extra oil tanks had to be fitted also. The flight distance was 1380 miles and flights had to be on days with following winds.

 

17 such flights were made and 16 Spitfires arrived in Malta. I don't know whether the other one was lost of whether it divrted to Tunisia, because of low fuel levels.

Edited May 9, 2008 by antarmike