Andy was not a happy person. It was 6.00 a.m and he was strapped into the back seat of a bright red De Havilland Comet. The engines were idling as Archie was going through the last of his checks. Stephens and the aircraft’s chief mechanic were standing nearby. Andy could see they both looked worried. Beyond them he couldn’t see much at all because of the thick misty fog covering Croydon airfield.
“Are you really sure you can’t wait any longer, Sir?” Stephens shouted over the roar of the engines. “I’m sure the sun will burn off this fog later in the morning.”
Archie didn’t bother to look up from what he was doing.
“You know as well as I do, Stephens, that we must make Baghdad before dark. We can’t delay any longer. Anyway, there are hundreds of acres of grass in front of us. We’ll be airborne well before the fence!”
“I’m with Mr Stephens here,” the mechanic said. “If you want my op…..”
“No, I don’t want your opinion!” Archie snapped back at him.” Goodbye, Stephens, I’ll send you a telegram from Baghdad.”
Stephens knew it was hopeless to argue. He took a few steps back and motioned to the mechanic to do the same.
“Goodbye, Sir. Goodbye, Andy,” he said as he waved.
Andy waved meekly back.
“Bye.”
The canopy closed around them with a thunk, but the rumbling noise of the engines remained much the same. They almost sounded annoyed at being woken and dragged out into the cold at such a rude hour.
“All set, Andy?” Archie yelled over his shoulder.
“Yes, I s’pose so,” Andy yelled back. “How are you going to see in this fog?”
“Even if the weather was good I can’t see past the nose of this old crate until her tail comes up. We’ll have travelled several hundred yards by then. A few hundred more and we’ll be up and away.”
It sounded simple, but Andy was still worried. He pulled the coin necklace out from under his flying suit. If looked like they were about to crash he would yank it off and return home. If he had time that is.
Archie held the brakes on and pushed the throttles forward as far as they would go. The engines roared and the Comet started to vibrate. A few seconds later he let the brakes off and the plane slowly gathered momentum.
As Archie had mentioned to Andy, the Comet was fully loaded with fuel and equipment as well as its human cargo. What he hadn’t told him was that when carrying such a load they would need every foot of room Croydon airfield could give them.
Archie spoke to the plane, encouraging it to become airborne.
“Come on old girl, more speed. Come on.”
As the Comet picked up speed Archie pushed the control column forward to lift the tail up which gave him some vision over the nose and more control. He praised the plane as the tail responded.
“That’s it, good girl. Now, a little more speed and we’ll get you off the ground.”
The noise and vibration in the cockpit was terrible. The engines were straining as the wheels rumbled along refusing to give up contact with the ground. The perimeter fence of the airfield was rushing towards them even though they couldn’t see it. The seconds ticked by and the Comet stubbornly refused to fly. Archie was starting to think about closing the throttles and braking as hard as he dared when they hit a lump in the field. The Comet bounced for a second then settled back to earth. Another longer bounce finally set them free, climbing slowly into the mist.
“Thank God!” Archie said quietly to himself.
Looking out his window Andy saw the shapes of houses rushing past under them, not a dozen feet below.
Archie kept the Comet climbing hard for several minutes, then when he was sure they had enough height he turned south-east towards the English Channel and levelled out. The engines settled into a rhythmic drone as he pulled the throttles back.
He had to concentrate hard on his instruments to avoid becoming disoriented in the fog and diving into the ground. He also had to monitor the engines and navigate using a compass, a stopwatch and his air-speed indicator. Andy sat quietly behind Archie. Stephens had spoken to him about not interrupting at critical times and this seemed to be one of them.
The thick fog surrounding them was slowly turning from dark grey to an intense crimson white forcing Andy to put on his sunglasses. Not long after, he saw wisps of yellowy-red which became larger as they burst out of the clouds into a brilliant sunrise.
Andy looked around, amazed at the view surrounding him. The sunrise was reflecting on the sea below them like a million shining jewels. He could see large merchant ships lumbering along with smoke rising from their funnels. Dozens of smaller vessels, which he took to be fishing boats, were scattered over the ocean. Squinting ahead Andy could see the silhouette of the French coastline. Beyond that the countryside was obscured in the morning haze.
“We’re over the English Channel,” Archie yelled over his shoulder. “That’s France ahead of us. We’ll be over the Normandy area in a few minutes!”
The coast of France passed beneath them. He watched the farms and villages slide by, noticing the occasional vehicle and quite a few carts and ploughs being drawn by horses. The weather was calm and the sky clear. Andy was really enjoying himself.
After a couple of hours Archie called for something to eat. Andy passed over a thermos flask of hot coffee and then a sandwich. The plane jiggled a little as Archie struggled between food and flying. Andy had a coffee and a sandwich himself.
As he sipped, he saw something in the distance off to his left. It was still many miles away but its huge silver cigar shape was unmistakable. He leaned forward and tapped Archie on the shoulder.
“Archie, is that what I think it is?”
Archie who’d been concentrating on flying, navigating, eating and drinking looked over to where Andy was pointing.
“By God!” he said. “Look at that! Do you know what it is Andy?”
Archie turned towards the huge silver flying machine dominating the sky in front of them. They could see a cabin protruding below it and two pods along each side with propellers spinning behind them. At the back were four fins, two horizontal and two vertical. The fins were red with huge swastikas painted on them. It kept getting bigger and bigger as they got closer.
“It’s an airship isn’t it?” Andy asked.
“Yes,” replied Archie. “It’s the Hindenburg. We’re very lucky to have seen it. I don’t think the Frenchies will be very happy about these Nazi Huns flying about their skies like they own them.”
They flew towards the airship until it filled the sky in front of them. Just when Andy thought they would collide with it, Archie banked the aircraft and flew along its entire length from nose to stern.
They were close enough to see through the windows. The passengers seemed thrilled to catch sight of the Comet and rushed to wave. The crew seemed less pleased to see them and used various gestures to prove their point.
“Typical!” Archie shouted. “Bloody Huns think they own the sky!”
“We were flying a bit close,” Andy said.
“That wasn’t close,” Archie said in disgust. “During the war we used to fly so near to the Hun’s airships you could spit at them.”
They flew on southeast and the airship disappeared behind them. Shortly after, Andy noticed a mountain range rising to meet them. Archie started a gentle climb as the foothills got steeper and grew into mountains. The scenery below was a stunning mixture of lush green farm land, villages and forests.
“We’re over Switzerland now,” shouted Archie. “We’ll have to climb a bit to get over the Alps, and then we’ll drop down into northern Italy near San Marino. We’ll go down the east coast of Italy by the Adriatic Sea and when we’re just north of Bari in southern Italy we’ll cross over to Kerkya in Greece. From there we’ll follow the coastline of Greece, then cross the Aegean Sea to Rhodes Island. Then we’ll cross the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus. After that it’s on to the Levant S
tates where it’ll be a hop skip and a jump to Baghdad. How does that sound?”
“Long,” said Andy.
Archie didn’t get time to respond. Without warning the Comet dipped a wing and fell from the sky.