Aeroplane September 2017

AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 105

“Final deterrent to the already

outnumbered enemy”, The Aeroplane

continued, “was provided by the

arrival of a flight of Dakotas with

four Jeeps, and trailers and 75mm

howitzers. Even more impressive

was the unhurriedly regular arrival of

48 Dakotas carrying the 1,000 men

of the 3rd Parachute Battalion. The

speed with which the men deplaned

and marched off created a marked

impression.”

That drop concluded ‘Longstop

I’. The same afternoon, attention

switched to Brize Norton for

‘Longstop II’, demonstrating the

operation of an RAF mobile staging

post and an Army forward supply

organisation. It had not been

considered possible to hold the whole

affair at a single airfield, and, as the

report said, “The practice dropping

of paratroops, moreover, is always

made where there is a minimum

risk of landings being made on hard

surfaces.”

This time, “it was assumed that

Brize Norton had been captured, with

runways intact, apart from minor

damage, but with all buildings and

internal communications destroyed

by previous bombing attacks and

‘scorched earth’ destruction by the

enemy. Since its capture, the airfield

had been sufficiently developed to

receive heavy transport aircraft and

all the equipment for the staging post

and forward air supply organization

had been flown in. The afternoon’s

demonstration was confined to a

demonstration of the arrival of the last

loads of equipment, their distribution

and use.”

The assets involved mainly hailed

from No 47 Group, beginning with

Yorks containing RAF movement

personnel and related equipment. The

loads that followed took in the Army

forward air support organisation,

RAF maintainers and their equipment

(including spare aircraft engines

and wheels), and further Army

personnel and equipment. One York

simulated an arrival with an engine

out, whereupon “the recently airborne

ground crew pounced upon it and

started work on replacing the engine

with one flown in previously.”

Activities relating to this wave of

aircraft “occupied little more than 15

minutes”. Six more Yorks brought

further supplies, and a final quartet

carried RAF signals and medical

equipment and personnel, jeeps

and an RAF Regiment platoon.

The Aeroplane described ‘Longstop’

in its entirety as “one of the most

convincing demonstrations that we

have seen since the war”, though

aspects of it had been altered for

the purposes of demonstration. For

instance, the staging post built during

‘Longstop II’ was a compact affair,

whereas in real-world conditions it

would have been dispersed across

the site. Likewise, Flight in its report

mentioned how “the timing appeared

to be a trifle optimistic, and later

aircraft had to keep their engines

ticking over for a considerable period

before the aircraft in front of them

had unloaded and cleared.”

Both the RAF and Army

considered ‘Longstop’ to have met

their main aims. But one aspect of

the exercise, carried out in front

of a privileged few observers only,

had perhaps the most immediate

significance. This was a demonstration

by 24 Dakotas of what The Aeroplane

called “controlled landing at close

intervals”, employing “new methods

of radio control”. The technique

had been developed by the research

department at Transport Command

HQ and tested at Bassingbourn. At

this stage, it allowed aircraft to land

at a rate of one per minute under

instrument flying conditions. At Brize

Norton the Dakotas flew in at two-

minute intervals, with a maximum

error of just 40 seconds. Such

capabilities would be brought to bear

in Berlin, once the airlift’s own air

traffic systems had been sufficiently

refined.

This was perhaps the main legacy

of the capabilities shown as part of

‘Longstop’ — named, incidentally,

after the moniker applied by Allied

troops to a strategically important hill

in Tunisia during the campaign there

in June 1943. However, as a relatively

public means of demonstrating

Britain’s airborne capabilities,

covered extensively in the press,

the event had served a wider

propaganda purpose.

ABOVE:

A Jeep being driven

gingerly out of a

York’s side loading

door.

103-105_AM_ARK_Sept17_cc C.indd 105 31/07/2017 11:23