AIR FLEETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 226, 23 September 1940, Page 6

AIR FLEETS.

TWO DEMOCRACIES. BRITISH AND DUTCH. AERONAUTICAL HISTORY.

The civil air fleets of two democratic nations now engaged in a death struggle with Germany arc making aeronautical history by carrying on operations and even pioneering new routes while bitter aerial warfare rages over much of their territory, writes Ansel E. Talbert in the New York "Herald-Tribune."

Neither British Overseas Airways nor K.L.M.. the Royal Dutch Airlines, has shown signs of weakening, although their 'planes and operating terminals have licen under bombardment, their pilots have been put on active military duty in many cases, and their supply of equipment has been cut off almost totally. A camouflaged British flying boat, the Clare, not even the latest of its type, opened regular service between the liesiogcd British Isles and North America a few days ago, and an Ameri-can-built Douglas DC3 of K.L.M. is waiting a go-ahead signal from United States authorities to begin service I>etwecn Taraken, Java, and the Philippine Islands.

A new strategic air line into Netherlands New Guinea will be opened soon by the Dutch company, which moved its headquarters from Amsterdam to Batavia, Java, when German troops overran the Netherlands in May. This pioneering work will be carried through in spite of the damage to K.L.M. equipment. K.L.M. Had Fifty 'Planes. Before invasion of the Netherlands, K.L.M.'s air fleet consisted of more than fifty transport aeroplanes, of which 24 were American-built DC3's, similar to those used" on many lines in the United States, and ten were smaller DC2's. The descent of dive bombers of the German Luftwaffe on Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam, on May 10 destroyed seven DC2 and DC3 transports and several score of smaller taxi, charter and freight 'planes belonging to K.L.M.

Other 'planes at Schiphol were captured, but the company managed to keep out of reach of the Nazis a transport fleet consisting of 11 DC3's, one DC2, four Lockheed 14's, two DCo's and two Fokker transports built in the Netherlands. Its subsidiary in the East Indies, K.N.1.L.M., kept a miscellaneous fleet of Douglas Lockheed, Gruinman, Fokker and Sikorsky transports flying while affairs were in a turn.oil.

The lack of airports in Europe and the general shortage of equipment have suspended K.L.M.'s European and African routes, hut the line's skyways in French Indo-China, the Straits Settlements, the DRtch East Indies and connecting with Australia have not been interrupted. Services in South America and the West Indies, except the line running through Trinidad, where there have been many fifth column scares, also continue carrying passengers and mail. Defy Italian Flyers. Under the. very nose of Italian bombers attempting to destroy the British oil line from Mosul, Irak, to Haifa, Palestine, K.L.M. has run a weekly service between Lydda, Palestine, and Batavia, Java. American Douglas DC-3 'pianos, the favourites among Dutch pilots, are being used on this run. During the eleven months of fighting British Overseas Airways, Ltd., had not experienced a general suspension of activities for even a single day. Although 500 of "its men, including many crack pilots, went on active service with the Royal Air Force when the German mechanised columns invaded Poland, British Overseas Airways continued to operate its routes. Air liners of the company flew daily between London and Paris while the battle of Flanders was in progress, and when Paris fell the same 'planes kept flying with Tours as their new French terminus, until that centre also fell to the Germans. Pilots Decorated. Bombardments by German 'planes and other war considerations have made schedules somewhat irregular, but the British Overseas Airways service from the British Isles to Lisbon, connecting with Pan-American Airways Clippers, is still open. Until France was engulfed, the connecting service—an important link between Great Britain, the United States, Canada and South America—stopped at Bordeaux. On the day following the elimination of the Bordeaux stop, a British flying boat flew direct from Britain to Lisbon.

The experience of British Overseas Airways pilots serving with the. flying forces in Britain has proved invaluable in many military operations. Two fly-ing-boat bomber crews were chosen for work entailing night flights over the North Sea on the basis t)f their firsthand knowledge of night flying over the Atlantic

Captain Henry B. Collins, now a flight lieutenant in the R.A.F., recently received the Distinguished Flying Cross for delivering anti-tank ammunition to the Allied forces in France, and two other former pilots of the British companv, Captain C. F. C. Wright and First Officer J. A. M. Reid, have received awards for bravery.