GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY Pioneering Flight - France to Egypt in a Handley Page
Between the Armistice and the middle of April 1919, the Squadron was engaged in passenger-carrying on the lines of communication of the Army of Occupation. The following month it was taken on the strength of the Training Brigade, Middle East, as the Royal Air Force planned a pioneering flight to move five squadrons of aircraft from France to Egypt.
It was arranged that the machines should undertake the journey by air, flying by way of Buc, Lyon, Istres (Marseilles), San Guiliano (Pisa), Rome, Taranto, Dekelia (Athens), Suda Bay (Crete), and Matruh, while the ground personnel and stores proceeded by rail and sea some days earlier.
Hilton flew one of 58 Squadron’s Handley Pages on the epic flight, and describes the journey thus:
‘4.6.1919 - One day en route for Pisa we got into clouds at 5,000ft. and so came down at 1,000ft., we were still in thick clouds and could not see the earth, at 400ft. I was able to just pick up the Mediterranean and as the cliffs and mountains on the coast are 2,000ft. and 2,500ft. it was very lucky I came out just over the sea, so we went 120 miles just along the top of the water at 250ft. to Pisa, it was quite exciting at Genoa a lifeboat was put out for us. I have had some trouble with petrol tanks and had to stay here to do repairs...
23.6.1919 From Crete (Suda Bay) - I spent a day Capua, five or six at Taranto, two at Valona, four at Athens, and here I am at Crete. I came on from Athens by myself, it was rather fun, I took a course straight across the sea, 175 miles, as the crow flies. Most of our machines have two pilots on board, but I am the only one on mine and have so far flown all the way myself just over 2,000 miles....
13.7.1919 Heliopolis, Cairo - I arrived here on the 29th ult: I was lucky enough to be the first machine to arrive here. We left Crete on the 28th ult: (i.e.) 9 machines and as we had 250 miles of water to cross, I pushed off without waiting for our escort, a flying boat which had engine trouble and could not start. All the other machines landed again at Crete, I pushed off and incidentally had trouble myself over the water, but I got across quite safely and then flew on the same day to Alexandria, doing 9 hours flying all by myself. I was not a bit tired though it just shows that with a big machine and a spare pilot... the cross Atlantic flight is not really so bad, after all it is only 16 hours.
I arrived here 3 days before the others and the General was quite bucked about it, although he pointed out that had I come down in the sea I should not have had much hope. Still I don’t think there would have been much hope with the escort they were intending to supply.
I am now under orders to take a machine up to the Persian Gulf. I expect to leave in about a week’s time. I am very bucked I was given the job as it is the first the Squadron has been given here. No flying machine of any type has ever been to the spot before.
I have to make all sorts of tests there. The place is near Bushire, I have first to take a Colonel as far as Baghdad, then go on to the Persian Gulf where the experiments are to be made.’
The whole exercise of moving the squadrons from France to Egypt was seen as pioneering work in the development of the Royal Air Force and worthy of substantial rewards for the personnel concerned - with Hilton, amongst others, being awarded the A.F.C. Hilton’s successful trip aside, the results as a whole were mixed, as recorded in Handley Page Bombers:
‘This whole transferring of complete squadrons to ‘foreign shores’ - in particular, the aerial transit by the 0/400 units - had no equivalent precedent in R.A.F. annals, and was to prove a daunting test of the involved aircrews’ skills and endurance.
No. 58 Sqn’s move to Egypt was completed by 2 July, while eight HPs of 214 Sqn had reached Cairo by 2 August. The third 0/400 unit, 216 Sqn, completed its move to Cairo by mid-October, and on 28 October, 1919, Gen. Seeley reported to Parliament: “At the present moment 51 Handley Page machines have left for Egypt. Of these, 26 have arrived, 10 are on later stages of the route, and 15 have been written off....”
Each HP crew involved in this move to Egypt could have told a lengthy tale of problems, frustrations and sheer determination... The overall move of 0/400s to Egypt in 1919 cost the R.A.F. no less than 18 Handley Pages written off in accidents, or from other causes, and the lives of eight crew men...’
Cairo - Baghdad and VIP Flights Hilton was then in engaged in explorative flights for the proposed Cairo-Baghdad section of an air mail route:
‘I left Cairo at 4am on July 26th [1919] with orders to take a certain Colonel to Baghdad as quickly as possible and then proceed to the place and do certain tests at all times during the day. Then to wait here and be ready to leave for Karachi (India) to meet and bring back General Salmond [later Air Chief Marshal Sir ‘Geoffrey’ Salmond]. All this is to commence the new aerial route for India. On my return to Cairo I am to carry mail bags and these will be the first mails taken on the permanent service (aerial). I will carry letters addressed to you and Dick, which I will slip in the bag and so if you keep them you will know it was amongst the first mail bag carried, of course they will be stamped with the Aerial post mark.’
58 Squadron was renumbered 70 Squadron, 1 February 1920. Hilton continued to serve, with what was designated a bomber-transport unit now equipped with Vimy aircraft. The Squadron were still based in Egypt, and Hilton, now a Flight Commander, wrote the following on 19 September 1920:
‘I think I must know some of the deserts of Arabia better than any white man alive... I have a little command of 5 Handley Page machines and two Vickers Vimy.... About a fortnight ago I took General Salmond and French General in my machine 200 miles into Arabian desert, on a certain job, we were just going to land in the desert at a spot the General thought would make a suitable spot for machines in distress to make for, when a party of Bedouins appeared all round waiting for us.... they showed themselves just too early as I was not quite on the ground so I opened the engines out as quick as I could and got away. Of course we were well armed too but would have been outnumbered. I have been flying 6-8 hours at a stretch without coming down at all so you can guess how tired I am in the evening.’
By June of the following year Hilton was still flying Salmond to various sites, ‘I am stuck rather near here [Allenby Hotel, Jerusalem] for the present, this is how it happened. I was taking Air Vice-Marshal Salmond along and I was landing at a place called Ramleh when unfortunately a camel got in the way and I crashed, killed the camel, but I am pleased to say no one on the machine was hurt. I shall be going on again in about four days. I am carrying petrol out to a place - Azrak in the Blue (Desert) due east of the Dead Sea.’
Hilton moved with 70 Squadron to Baghdad in December 1921, and was primarily tasked with flying the Cairo-Baghdad air mail route. In May of the following year the Squadron made a strategic move to Hinaidi, to be in a position to counter the infiltration of Turkish forces across the north-eastern border of Iraq. Hilton wrote on 13 September 1922, ‘Owing to the pressure of Turks, I, and another, who is doing the mail, were sent up to a small town in the north to remove political officers and English and Christian officials. It was all very sudden, but it came off successfully.’ (Ibid)
The Squadron re-equipped with Vernons in November 1922, and Hilton was part of the R.A.F.’s ‘Vernon Fleet’ that took part in the offensive air action against both the Turks in the north and the dissident Sheikh Mahmud in the Sulaimaniyah district between February - June 1923. He wrote, 7 April 1923, ‘the newspapers seem full of war and rumours of wars in the Mosul district, we get most of our news of the war from the newspaper. We have, during the last month, had some bombing to do... I have been doing a good deal of flying over snow lately and very rough country about Persia.’ (Ibid)
Hilton was awarded the D.F.C. for gallant conduct during the operations in Kurdistan between 15 February - 19 June 1923. He was posted back to the UK in January 1924, and served at R.A.F. Martlesham, the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, 1924-1929. The A&AEE carried out the evaluation and testing of many of the aircraft types and much of the armament and other equipment that would later be used during the Second World War. Hilton was awarded the Second Award Bar to his A.F.C. for work carried out at the unit.
www.dnw.co.uk
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