GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
‘To reduce weight only one of the N.C.Os could travel – he was in fact needed in the tail cockpit to give the correct trim for take off - and Smith won the toss. While Halley dashed back to get their kit and pay the bills, MacLaren taxied his way between the dunes as fast as he dared to avoid getting stuck in the soft sand. The tide was right out leaving a two mile strip of firm, damp beach. There was a slope across its width, but the pair of sound engines was on the side to counteract any tendency to swing. Today, a three-engined ferry take-off by a four engined aircraft from a concrete runway is a routine piece of operating procedure, and with the substantial power reserves of a modern jet transport presents no hazard. The crew of Old Carthusian were - as far as is known - doing it for the first time in aviation history, in a hot climate, from wet sand in an aircraft considered underpowered even by 1919 standards.
MacLaren opened up the three Eagles and at 1745 the aircraft slowly rolled away, gradually picked up speed and was airborne after a run of about a mile. Twenty minutes later they had reached 1,000 feet and were passing the Britomart on their starboard side. Her smoke was still a smudge on the horizon when their justifiable elation was rudely shattered as both starboard engines gave a few splutters and then stopped, leaving them to defy gravity by the sole efforts of the front port. The crew’s immediate diagnosis was the right one - the wind driven pump for transferring fuel from the main tank to the starboard gravity tank had finally shed all its miserable little vane cups and given up the struggle. Halley dived back to the engineer’s station and strenuously attacked the emergency pump with both hands, wondering how he could attract Smith’s attention. The engines picked up again and Halley hastened back to the cockpit. He had just managed to get through to Smith - 60 feet to the rear - by sign language when the engines again stopped, and again Halley rushed to the pumps. As the engines picked up for the second time, Smith came crawling down the fuselage and thereafter they took turns to man the pumps.
At 1845, just as the last light had faded, and with about 35 miles to go the rear starboard engine began to lose revolutions, its temperature shot up and there was no alternative but to throttle it right down, then switch off completely. The seizure was due to a broken oil pipe, and nothing could be done in flight. Since they were providentially left with an engine on each side they retained reasonable control though it was impossible to maintain height. The next half hour seemed like an eternity. With both remaining engines at full throttle and their temperatures reading only 5 degrees C below boiling point, MacLaren held the aircraft barely above the stall, and with the airspeed indicator showing 52 m.p.h. she staggered along, losing about 10 feet of vital altitude with every minute that passed. They just scraped over the ridge of hills to the west of Karachi, but very soon they must hit the ground and there was no possibility of circling around looking for the city’s temporary aerodrome.
By some happy chance the priority departure signal despatched by Brown from Ormara had not only arrived but was sent straight away by runner to the senior Royal Engineer officer who was playing hockey. He immediately appreciated the need for urgent action, grabbed some men and hastily improvised flares from petrol and rags, and for good measure fired off a few pyrotechnics as soon as the faint drone of engines was heard to the west. From the flight deck of Old Carthusian the crew peered at the myriad lights of Karachi still some miles away and wondered where they could safely put down. Then Halley gave a wild shout and pointed straight ahead. He had spotted one of the signals, and faintly twinkling on the ground almost dead in line with their heading was an obvious flare-path. They were now frighteningly low down and the straight in approach had to be exactly right, first time. It was precisely so and when the Handley Page rolled to a halt at 1915 the pilots climbed out, grabbed one another by the arms and literally danced for joy.
“Until that moment I thought that dancing for joy was just a figure of speech”, recalls Halley, “but we did it - though since we were such an oddly sized couple, the onlookers probably thought we were quite mad. They had seen us make a good and apparently normal landing, but knew nothing of our harrowing experience.”
Present day jet passengers bothered by the effect of long distance travel on their circadian rhythm or body clock may care to reflect that this first England to India flight over a distance of 5,560 miles was accomplished in 72 hours 41 minutes, at an average speed of 77mph
That night Halley underlined the impression that flyers were eccentric people by arriving for dinner with the Governor of Sind half an hour late and wearing a dinner suit nearly a foot too long in the sleeves and leg. He had fallen asleep in his bath from sheer fatigue - and was not the easiest to fit when it came to borrowing clothes.
When McEwen arrived and heard the full story he promptly forestalled any criticism of the pilots by signalling Air Ministry, saying that he could not speak too highly of their enterprise, grit and determination for successfully completing the flight in the face of so many difficulties, particularly during the final 170 miles - over 50 of which there was no possibility of landing.
Despite only once being able to land at the aerodrome designated on their flight plan, the crew had nearly always managed to notify some authority of their whereabouts before anxiety was aroused. The aircraft was for a short time posted as missing after the forced landing in Egypt, since it had not been sighted after passing Sollum, and H.Q. Middle East was about to launch a major search when the message reporting its safety was received.’
Third D.F.C. - the Kabul Raid
Having then flown on to Delhi, where a crowd of 30,000 and the Viceroy greeted the Old Carthusian, and undertaken some V.I.P. flights, Halley was summoned by General McEwan in lieu of the mounting troubles on the frontier and, to cut a long story short, was ordered to carry out a daring bombing strike on Kabul. Halley takes up the story:
‘Four 112lb. bomb racks from No. 31 Squadron’s B.E.2Cs were attached to the lower wing main spars, and connected to the front cockpit where an Observer would release the bombs. We put sixteen 20-pounders in the rear cockpit, and they would be dropped by the crew once the 112lb. bombs had been released. We had to true up the wings and tighten the fabric. We also fitted two laminated four-bladed propellers fashioned from a local wood called padouk.
We took off at about 3 a.m. on 24 May 1919 - Empire Day. An L-shaped flare path was laid out, consisting of seven flares made from empty five-gallon oil drums filled with oil-soaked cotton waste. These proved effective for take off, and would have been useful if it were found necessary to land in the dark in case of emergency.
The route lay towards the Khyber Pass, and as the clearing height was about 3,000 feet this meant flying around for about an hour to gain height before going over a ridge of hills. The Khyber was only dimly visible, as were a few lights at Jamrud Fort and Landi Kotal. From there we flew over the Kabul river and a rough road running parallel up to Jalabad, the only town of any size on the route. As we were approaching Jalabad and daybreak was coming up I was checking the starboard rev. counter when to my horror I saw water leaking from the base of the second cylinder. I got Flight Sergeant Smith up beside me and, with engines throttled back to aid hearing, we hurriedly conferred as to what should be done.
The leak was caused by a defective rubber connection fitted between the water jacket and the collecting pipe running along the base of the six cylinders. Drops of water were being blown by the slipstream, making it impossible to estimate the extent of the leakage. Kabul was still about 90 miles ahead, and there was the return time to think about. I was in the middle of a steep turn, and on looking down noticed smoke from a fire being blown in the direction of Kabul and stretching out parallel with the ground, indicating a favourable wind of some force.
Villiers got Flight Sergeant Smith alongside me again, and after some shrugging of shoulders and other signs of an even chance, we decided to continue.
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