Aeroplane – June 2018

ABOVE:

The only time all

five Mitchells were

together prior

to their arrival in

England was the

lengthy stopover

at a cold and

stormy St John’s,

Newfoundland. A

US Coast Guard

HC‑130 Hercules

and two PBY

Catalina firebombers

are among the

aircraft occupying

the ramp beyond.

AEROPLANE JULY 2018 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 33

note saying he was unable to reconcile

Hawke’s positive attitude towards

leaving with his own apprehensions

about the state of the ocean, weather

and the aeroplanes.

The crews assembled in the met

office at 04.00hrs on Tuesday 9 May.

An ex-World War Two bomber

pilot named Bill Parish had been

commissioned to fill in as a co-pilot.

Parish had the dubious honour of

being shot down twice in the same

day. Unlike Tallichet, himself a

former wartime pilot, Parish had no

experience of the B-25 and, more to

the point, had not flown since the war.

Having scraped the ice off the

windscreens, the accumulators were

connected, and for the next few

minutes the ramp was awash with blue

and white exhaust smoke as each of the

10 Wright Cyclone engines coughed,

fired, backfired and spluttered. The

aircraft were lined on the ramp

wingtip-to-wingtip. Eventually, all

were ticking over and they taxied one

after the other to the runway threshold.

Hawke confessed, “You’re exposed

in that aeroplane for about 20 to 30

seconds on take-off. I myself am not

in love with the first 30 seconds of

flight — I sit there and the sphincter

is slightly puckered and I keep

looking out and thinking... After

that, the aeroplane is in the air and,

so long as things don’t fall off, it’s in

pretty good shape.”

As it was planned to make a

documentary film about the ferry

trip, which became known as B-25...

Mitchells Do Fly in IMC, a bit of

theatre was planned for the take-off

from St John’s. Cameraman Tony

Howarth and his assistant, Carolyn

Hicks, stood at the end of the runway

to film the first four Mitchells

lifting off in a stream take-off. What

happened next almost beggars belief.

The shot was to show all five

Mitchells grouped at the far end of

the runway. Then, one by one, the first

four would take off over the heads of

the camera and sound operators, Tony

and Carolyn. The first aircraft, Laden

Maiden, rolled, lifted off, roared and

clattered over. Always Dangerous was

already gathering speed but, to the

consternation of the film recordists,

showed no sign of getting airborne.

The crew, Tallichet and Addie, were

obviously having problems. The

aircraft veered to port, then back to the

centreline and towards the runway’s

left-hand edge. Knowing they were

not going to rotate they were probably

trying to get out of the way of Silver

Plane, which had started its run. The

next few minutes were something of

a mess. Always Dangerous — an apt

name, perhaps — crossed the runway

and backtracked at high speed, then

crossed once more and continued

to backtrack, preventing the fourth

machine from starting its run. Tallichet

brought the aircraft round and

followed number four off into the cold

and sunny sky.

Hawke later good-humouredly

described Hanover Flight’s first five-

ship effort. “Hair-raising! It looked

as if it was going to be tremendous.

Five aeroplanes in line at the far end,

us at the back. The first aeroplane

rolled down there nicely. The second

aeroplane, my beloved partner, rolled

down the runway and then there

was chaos. They then aborted their

take-off, turned around and came

back down the runway at a vast speed.

Meanwhile the third aeroplane had

taken off over them anyway — too

late to stop. The fourth and fifth,

being Vern and I, couldn’t take off

as he was coming down the runway

straight at us, and he went straight

past us, ran off the side of the runway,

brakes smoking, whipped around,

turned around in front of us and took

off. Not a word on the radio!”

The four airborne ‘chicks’ had to

wait for the mother bird, Doolittle

Raiders, to pick up Tony and Carolyn

before it too took off. Immediately,

another piece of theatre was planned

to get some air-to-air footage of the

aircraft in formation crossing the

coast. Bill Baldwin, co-pilot in Tokyo

Express, would later recall, “It was

typical amateur formation flying, a real

dangerous mess because we wanted to

slow down at the coast so we could all

get together. Some were slowing down,

some were accelerating, and they were

all almost piling into each other.”

Just an hour into the flight Tallichet

announced that he had a hydraulic

problem once again and was turning

back, asking Mike Wright in Silver

Plane to escort him. Yet again Hawke

could see his flock being split up.

After some exchanges on the

28-35_AM_Hanover_July18_cc C.indd 33 04/06/2018 12:25