Aeroplane – June 2018

NEXT

MONTH...

In part two of this

feature, we

remember the

filming of Hanover

Street, with more

very rare imagery.

AEROPLANE JULY 2018 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 35

Preparing for the next leg, Hawke’s

briefing was concise. “After the

Azores, the flight to Europe is a very

simple flight, because if you get into

trouble all you’ve got to do is turn

right and you can’t miss. It’s a big

continent”. As things turned out, this

is precisely what Hanover Flight was

forced to do. On Wednesday 10 May,

having taken off from Santa Maria

in the hope of making it all the way

to Jersey in the Channel Islands, they

encountered strong headwinds.

Hawke and Parish took the lead

for this leg. Having been given some

attention, Doolittle Raiders’ engines

were running well but now it was

the turn of Baldwin and Ohmert in

Tokyo Express to suffer the vagaries of

35-year-old powerplants. Baldwin later

explained, “We had a couple of anxious

moments when we thought we’d lost

an engine for a while. Fuel started

streaming out of the left-hand nacelle,

and the fuel pressure started dropping.

I knew that one of the old, corroded

fuel lines had broken. The engine

started running rough, but then the

power came back on... It happened

about half-way between the Azores

and Portugal, about three hours out

either way. I thought we would have

to punch it out. That was the most

anxious moment of the whole trip.”

The ever-increasing headwind was

causing each of the aircraft to burn

fuel at such a rate that Jersey was out

of the question. The decision was

made to ‘turn right’, in order to land

at Porto in Portugal. It had taken six

hours to cover about 900 miles.

Once on finals, Bernhard Haddican

requested permission for the

formation to perform an overshoot.

This was the first opportunity there

had been to film a ‘buzz-job’ down the

runway with a break to the left for the

downwind leg. With his director’s hat

on, Hawke berated Mike Wright for

not keeping up with the two ahead in

the echelon, so spoiling the symmetry

of the shot.

After the cold of Newfoundland,

the warm sunshine made the

unplanned stopover pleasant enough.

It was at Porto that they learned

that Always Dangerous had made it

safely back to St John’s but had run

off the runway and burst a tyre. Now

Tallichet and Addie were hanging

around waiting for a replacement.

The main contingent was off again

in the early-morning sunshine, giving

onlookers another treat as they made

a low flypast. They headed to Jersey

for fuel and then on to the home run.

Haddican was, quite literally, at home

when he spoke to the Jersey tower.

Then the four Mitchells landed, one

behind the other, giving even the most

avid aviation enthusiast something he

wasn’t going to find in his Ian Allan

spotters’ books.

Reaching England at last, the

Needles off the Isle of Wight, the

white cliffs and the M4 motorway all

passed beneath the wings of the four

Mitchells. One aircraft was reported

to be ‘torching’ and more than

one Wright Cyclone was running

decidedly rough, but Luton’s approach

lights were in sight.

In the fading light the bombers

taxied to a standstill on the Luton

airport tarmac. Hawke, in Doolittle

Raiders’ cockpit, closed off the pumps

and with a sense of achievement

said to Bill Parish, “We made it

— all four of us made it...”

ABOVE:

Photographed from

Doolittle Raiders,

Laden Maiden, Silver

Plane and Tokyo

Express approach

the Azores.

28-35_AM_Hanover_July18_cc C_THIS ONE.indd 35 04/06/2018 12:53