ATA's 'International' Service

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 The ATA's official theatre of operation was the UK and at no time did it have responsibility for ferrying aircraft across the Atlantic, yet its ethos of doing 'whatever' was necessary with regard to supporting the fighting forces took it to the Continent of Europe. (Below an image showing four ATA pilots including one of the women pilots with Soviet troops.)

 

 

The ATA took to Continental skies as early as May 1940, when the catastrophic situation in France created urgent demands to deliver replace aircraft to RAF squadrons deployed in France with the British Expeditionary Force. This operation can best be described as 'improvised' as the ATA flew the aircraft across the Channel without lifevests, radios or maps. The taxi aircraft sent to collect the pilots who had delivered the combat aircraft was often besieged and commandeered by passengers with 'higher priority,' with the result that several ATA pilots had to find their own way home to Britain. Three pilots returned in Hurricanes that were so unserviceable (no brakes, no hydraulics and non-functional instruments) that they were about to be destroyed. In the end, all the ATA pilots who had volunteered to fly aircraft to France managed -- after many trials and adventures -- to evade being caught in the debacle, but it was a near run thing!

By the time Operation Overlord was being planned, however, the ATA's integration into RAF operations was so complete that the ATA's participation in the invasion was assumed and prepared. The RAF established two Group Support Units (GSU) on the English south coast to collect all service aircraft needed for units operating on the Continent. The ATA was given the responsibility for flying replacement aircraft to these  GSUs, while the RAF expected to fly the aircraft onward to frontline squadrons.

As the brilliant German strategist Generalfeldmarschall von Moltke warned, however, 'no plan survives contact with the enemy.' The GSUs proved unworkable. As the Allied troops pressed deeper and deeper into France, the strain on the RAF pilots became unacceptable. The ATA could deliver to the GSU far faster than the RAF could deliver onward to squadrons. In early September 1944, eight ATA pilots, who had just delivered to a GSU, learned that a number of aircraft were desperately needed in France and the RAF had no pilots available to collect them. Either the pilots themselves, or the Wing Commander at the GSU, requested permission from the Director General of ATA, Gerard d'Erlanger, for the ATA to fly the aircraft farther. He agreed and gave the honour of being the first ATA pilot to set foot in France since the capitulation in June 1940 to the Frenchman First Officer Maurice Harle.

After this first foray onto the Continent, the ATA undertook an increasing number of cross-channel flights so that by the end of October the ATA was well-established in the business of continental flying. Typically, however, it was not until 24 December that the situation was formalized and sanctioned by higher authority. After that, there was no stopping the ATA, and women pilots were also, if reluctantly, allowed to fly to the Continent. Meanwhile, the ATA had also initiated the charter flights for cargo that took ATA pilots as far as Rome, Naples, Algiers and Cairo. Passengers were flown to Copenhagen and Oslo. 

It is important to keep in mind that these flights were still very hazardous. Telephone communications with the Continent were unreliable at best. Accommodations were uncertain. Most importantly, the enemy was still active -- and sometimes no more than five miles away from the forward airfield to which the ATA delivered. In one instance, the Germans had pulled back only days before the ATA brought up replacement aircraft, and the airfield was still subject to sniper fire. A total of four ATA taxi Ansons were lost on the ground during the Ardennes Offensive. 

One of the pilots remembers: 

Setting out on a trip to the Continent in those days meant more than ever that [a pilot] might be away for quite a long time. Many times, Spitfires destined for some airfield in France would have to be flown on to the forward airfield to which the squadron had advanced. And then, of course, ...the ATA pilot would have to wait [for an aircraft to get back]. [1] 

In the immediate postwar period, the ATA continued to fly to the Continent.  Deliveries were made to Pilsen and Prague as well as to France, Belgium and Holland.  In August 1945, the ATA flew into Berlin itself. The photograph above was taken by Zita Irwin in the ruins of Hitler's Chancellory.

 

A former ATA woman pilot is one of the leading female protagonists in the Bridge to Tomorrow Trilogy about the Berlin Airlift.  Find out more about the series at: https://helenapschrader.net/bridge-to-tomorrow/

Watch a video teaser here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7rS_Mwy3TU 

                                      

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 [1] Alison King, Golden Wings, White Lion Publishers, 1956, p 173-174.

 

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