Issue No 21 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 19
route between the West African ports and Egypt,
which became known as the “Takoradi Route”,
after the port in the British Gold Coast colony
(now Ghana).
TO AFRICA
The first Ensign to leave the UK for service on the
route was G-AFZU, which departed Portreath in
Cornwall for Lisbon on November 9, 1941, only
to be attacked by a Heinkel He 111 while crossing
the Bay of Biscay. Badly damaged, the Ensign
was lucky to make it back to the UK, where it was
repaired and delivered on its second attempt.
The second of the Ensign Mk IIs, and the last of
the type to be built, G-AFZV (c/n AW.1822) was
delivered to BOAC on October 30, 1941, two days
after its maiden flight. In late January 1942 it was
flown by Capt W.B. Houston from RAF Bramcote
in Warwickshire to Portreath to position for its
flight to West Africa. Houston was again at the
controls when the Ensign departed Portreath on
February 1, equipped with two additional fuel
tanks on the cabin floor, containing a total of
1,010gal (4,590lit), bringing the total fuel capacity
to 2,074gal (9,430lit).
In the late afternoon the Ensign arrived at
Gibraltar, from where it departed at 0318hr on
February 3, bound for Takoradi via Bathurst (now
Banjul) in British Gambia (now The Gambia)
and Freetown in Sierra Leone. Everything was
proceeding well until about 1215hr when the
port inner engine began leaking oil off the coast
of Mauritania, nearly 300 miles (480km) from
Bathurst. Houston throttled the engine back
and feathered the propeller. Soon after, the port
outer engine began to show similar symptoms,
and, when the starboard inner also began to run
rough, the captain decided to descend to 1,000ft
(300m) and approach the coast of French West
Africa (now Mauritania and Senegal), preferring
the option of dry land rather than the sea.
With the aircraft sinking at about 100ft/min
(30m/min), Houston made a belly landing on
the first available stretch of desert, relaying his
position (18°30’N, 16°2’W) by radio as being
in the dunes a few miles from Nouakchott, the
Mauritanian capital, and about a mile from the
beach. The crew abandoned the aircraft and a
Short Sunderland of No 204 Sqn, flown by Flt Lt
E.M. Ennis, was despatched to rescue them from
the beach.
A French patrol found the Ensign in good
condition on February 12, and a party was sent
out to try to put it back on its undercarriage. A pit
was dug in the sand beneath each inner engine
nacelle (into which the mainwheels retracted),
allowing the undercarriage to drop and lock.
The aircraft was then removed by means of two
sloping trenches dug forward of the pits, after
which it was dragged to the beach and towedRecently discovered photographs taken by German soldiers in 1940 prove
conclusively that neither G-ADSZ Elysian, seen below at Merville after being on
the sharp end of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 strafing attack, nor G-ADSX Ettrick, the
severed tail of which is seen BELOW at Le Bourget, was repaired and returned
to the air, despite at least one respected source asserting that Ettrick was fitted
with Daimler-Benz engines and flown again.