BELOW:
WO S. Evans being
helped in to one
of the immersion
suits issued to the
Vampire pilots.
AEROPLANEABOVE:
Led by Bobby
Oxspring in
VT871, a fi ve-ship
of Vampires is
photographed from
an Avro Lincoln in
late June 1948.
AEROPLANE44 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE JULY 2018Vampire F3s were allocated. With the
aid of underwing drop tanks, this mark
could do the job — just. Rehearsals
were conducted during May and June
to prove this. Wrote Wood, “From
performance calculations to fi t the
non-standard fl ight profi le which had
to be adopted, a maximum acceptable
planned fl ight time of two hours
45 minutes was imposed as a limit.
But that limit assumed little or no
deviation from track, so very accurate
navigation would be required; it was
just not possible to achieve this level of
accuracy with the Vampire’s equipment
fi t. Its only pretension to a navigation
system was a Magnesyn compass,
which any jet pilot of the time will tell
you was laughable — even for cross-
countries in clear blue 20nm visibility
over land.”
Considerable support was necessary.
It was decided to allocate three de
Havilland Mosquito PR34s from No
1 Ferry Unit, Transport Command,
one to lead the Vampire formation
and navigate for it, another to conduct
wireless communication and provideradio fi xes, and the third, as an offi cial
RAF report put it, “to fl y ahead of the
Vampire force and survey the wind
conditions and general weather.”
As Wood outlined, there was
“little knowledge at this time on the
behaviour of the upper winds, and any
forecast wind velocity above 20,000ft
on the route was not thought to be
accurate... Reliance at this time had
to be placed on the reports from a
mere three weather ships anchored
in the Atlantic — plus those from
the few land-based meteorological
stations”. He added, “Really accurate
‘actual’ weather conditions at the
destination airfi elds were also vital, as
there were no diversion airfi elds at all
on two of the legs.”This concentrated the mind. “I
suppose the most daunting aspect
of the crossing”, Wood continued,
“was that one was fl ying a single-
engined aircraft which had no engine
relight facility. A fl ame-out over
the ocean would, we knew — and
notwithstanding the considerable
precautions taken to save our necks
— result in the probability of one’s
demise of about 0.99, I should think.”
The route would fi rst take the
Vampires from Odiham to Stornoway
on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer
Hebrides. From there they were to
proceed to Kefl avík, Iceland — then
called Meeks Field — and Bluie
West One airfi eld at Narsarsuaq,
Greenland, before the trans-Atlantic
leg. Landfall would be made at Goose
Bay, Labrador. Even with air-sea
rescue support from an RAF Avro
Lancaster on the stretch from Scotland
to Iceland, and a US Air Force Boeing
SB-17 for the rest of the fl ight, the
risks were still considerable.
A fl ight profi le had to be devised
that met the needs of the Vampires
and Mosquitos alike. Wood said, “theRAF 100 TRANS-ATLANTIC VAMPIRES
air speed for maximum climb rate in
the Mosquito was much lower than
that of the Vampire, so in order not to
lose each other, a compromise speed
was used — too fast for the Mosquito,
too slow for the Vampire — and the
penalty was a loss of range, vital in the
Vampire’s case. Secondly, the Vampires
were required to suspend their climb
at 25,000ft and cruise at that altitude
until the fuel drop tanks had emptied,
before slowly continuing to 30,000ft,
where the rate of climb neared zero.”
Departure from Odiham took place
on 1 May. The met Mosquito, PF621,
set off fi rst. It was in the hands of
Sqn Ldr H. B. ‘Mick’ Martin, who
had been a fl ight commander on No
617 Squadron during wartime and
fl ew on the Ruhr dams raid. The
two other Mosquitos took off before
the Vampires. “We in the Vampires
then lined up on the runway in vics
of three formation”, Wood recalled,
“with sections line-astern. When the
Mosquitos were running in off their
wide orbit of the airfi eld, they would
call ‘go’ to the Vampire leader who
released his brakes and rolled, followed
by the other section at 1,000-yard
intervals astern, with the overfl ying
Mosquitos taking up station behind.
A snake climb followed, and then
the formation changed to the cruise
pattern when cloud penetration was
complete”. Mosquito PF620 took up
the formation lead, while PF623, as
described in an offi cial report, “kept to
the rear of the Vampires and was in a
position to act as safety aircraft should
one of the fi ghters develop engine
failure or be forced to return to base.”
The two-hour stretch to Stornoway
was trouble-free. However, “On
landing we were told that the upper
winds for Kefl avík were of jetstream
strength, on the nose at 120 to 150kt,
and there was no hope of continuing
that day! Our met Mosquito had gone
through Stornoway for Kefl avík and
had confi rmed the forecast. These
upper winds continued unabated for
the next 11 days!”
With the Vampires and Mosquitos
grounded in the Hebrides, Wg Cdr
Russ Jeffs, who had been given the job
of RAF liaison offi cer in the USA, had
time to sort out the arrangements for
the Stateside tour. He met the US Air
Force’s appointed tour directors, Majs
Robin Olds and James McFadden.
“A happy choice of offi cers these”, he
wrote, both having served in the UK
during wartime. In a Beech C-45, they
fl ew Jeffs around the bases the RAF
contingent would visit.
At Stornoway, a sense of urgency
was injected into proceedings when,42-49_AM_No54Vampires Squad_July18_cc C.indd 44 04/06/2018 06:59