4 October 1943: In an effort to interrupt the supply of iron ore from Norway to the Third Reich, the Royal Navy and United States Navy staged Operation Leader. Task Force 121, a combined task force of two British battleships, two cruisers and nine destroyers, along with the American aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4) and its escorts of a heavy cruiser and five destroyers, sortied from Scapa Flow on 2 October. The mission was to attack German convoys at the Norwegian sea port of Bodø.
By early morning, 4 October, the task force had arrived at a position in the Vestfjord Sea, about 100 miles west of the Norwegian coastline. At 0618, Ranger launched a strike force of 20 Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers with an escort of 8 Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters. The airplanes flew at 50–100 feet (15–30 meters) above the water to avoid detection. The squadrons maintained total radio silence.
Photographed looking southeast, VB-4 Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless 4-B-19, Lt.(j.g.) Clyde A. Tucker and ARM2c Stephen D. Bakran. Kunna Head, south of Bodø, is at upper right. 4 October 1943. (U.S. Navy)
The air strike was undetected and sunk or severely damaged several ships.
A second air strike of 10 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers with 6 Wildcats followed. They damaged several more ships in the harbor.
This attack was the United States Navy’s only aircraft carrier operation north of Arctic Circle during World War II.
Operation Leader. Bombs detonate close aboard S.S. Malaga. (U.S. Navy)
It was later determined that the steamship Rabat (2,719 tons) and the freighter Vaagen (687 tons) were sunk. The tanker Schleswig (10,762 tons), Topeka (4,991 tons) and the freighter La Plata (8,056 tons) were heavily damaged. La Plata was run aground to prevent its sinking, as was another ship, Kaguir (1,536 tons). A German troop transport, Skramstad, carrying more than 800 enemy soldiers, was damaged beyond repair. More than 200 soldiers were killed.
Enemy shipping under attack at Bodo, 4 October 1943 NH 84255
Strike force losses consisted of two SBD dive bombers and a TBF. Five airmen were killed, and the two survivors captured and held as Prisoners of War. One F4F, one TBF, and 4 SBDs were damaged. One airman was wounded.
Luftwaffe bombers counterattacked. A Junkers Ju 88D-1 and a Heinkel He 115B float plane were shot down by Ranger‘s Combat Air Patrol fighters.
Gun camera image of Junkers Ju 88 4N+EH on fire, 4 October 1943. (U.S. Navy via AirGroup4.com)
The Operation Leader task force retired and arrived back at Scapa Flow on 6 October.
Colonel Robin Olds, USAF, in the cockpit of McDonnell F-4C-21-MC Phantom II, 63-7668, on his last flight out of Ubon-Rachitani RTAFB as Wing Commander, 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, 23 September 1967. This was his 152nd combat mission of the Vietnam War. (U.S. Air Force)
23 September 1967: Colonel Robin Olds, United States Air Force, the Wing Commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Ubon-Rachitani Royal Thai Air Force Base, flew the final combat mission of his military career.
On this last mission, Colonel Olds flew a McDonnell F-4C-21-MC Phantom II, serial number 63-7668. Olds had flown this Phantom when he and Lieutenant William D. Lefever shot down a MiG-21 near Hanoi, 4 May 1967.
23 September 1967: Colonel Robin Olds’ last flight as Wing Commander, 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, Ubon-Rachitani RTAFB, Thailand. The airplane is McDonnell F-4C-21-MC Phantom II 63-7668. (U.S. Air Force)
63-7668 had been delivered to the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing from the factory on 18 January 1965. It was lost in the South China Sea, 27 January 1968.
23 September 1913: Pioneering aviator Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros (6 October 1888–5 October 1918) was the first pilot to fly across the Mediterranean Sea.
At 5:47 a.m., he departed Fréjus, Côte d’Azur, France, in a Morane-Saulnier G and flew to Bizerte, Tunisia, 470 miles (756 kilometers) to the south-southeast. He arrived at 1:40 p.m., having been airborne 7 hours, 53 minutes.
Reportedly, the airplane carried sufficient fuel for just 8 hours of flight. According to a contemporary report, only 5 liters (1.32 U.S. gallons) of fuel remained when he landed.
Roland Garros’ flight. (Lycée Roland Garros)
Garros flew on to Kassar Said Aerodrome the following day. His airplane was then dismantled and shipped back to France.
On 15 October 1913, Roland Garros was appointed Chevalier de la légion d’honneur.
Roland G. Garros standing in the cockpit of his Morane-Saulnier G at Bizerte, Tunisia, 23 September 1913. (Sheila Terry/Science Source)
The Aéroplanes Morane-Saulnier Type G was a two-place, single-engine monoplane, which had first flown in 1912. The airplane used wing-warping for roll control. It’s landing gear consisted of two wheels and a tail skid. The wooden framework was primarily ash and was covered in fabric. The airplane was 21 feet, 6 inches (6.553 meters) long with a wingspan of 30 feet, 6 inches (9.296 meters). The wing had a chord of 6 feet, 0 inches (1.829 meters), no dihedral, and the wingtips were swept. The airplane had an empty weight of 680 pounds ( 308 kilograms) and a maximum weight of 1,166 pounds (529 kilograms).
The pilot’s instrument panel had a revolution indicator (tachometer), a barograph, and a compass.
—FLIGHT, No. 230, No. 21, Vol. V., 24 May 1913 at Page 562
The Morane-Saulnier G was powered by an air-cooled 11.835 liter (722.22 cubic inches) Société des Moteurs Gnome Lamda seven-cylinder rotary engine with a single Bosch magneto, with a nominal rating of 80 horsepower (one source indicates that the engine actually produced 67.5 horsepower at 1,250 r.p.m.), and driving a laminated walnut Chauvière Hélice Intégrale fixed-pitch propeller which had a diameter of 7 feet, 10 inches (2.570meters).
The airplane had a 14 gallon ¹ (63.65 liters) main fuel tank near the engine, and a second 8 gallon (36.37 liters) tank in the cockpit. Fuel had to be transferred forward by using a hand-operated pump. A 5 gallon (22.73 liters) tank for lubricating oil was adjacent to the main fuel tank.
Garros’ airplane maintained an average speed of 59.5 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) for this flight. The Morane-Saulnier G had a maximum speed of 76 miles per hour (122 kilometers per hour).
The Morane-Saulnier G was produced under license by Grahame-White Aviation Company, Hendon Aerodrome, London, England, and by Dux at Moscow, Russia. More than 150 Type Gs were built.
Roland Garros was born 6 October 1888 at Saint-Denis, Réunion (an island in the Indian Ocean). He was the son of Antoine Georges Garros and Maria Clara Emma Faure Garros. Garros was a racer and test pilot who had set many aviation records, including a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Altitude Record of 5,610 meters (18,406 feet), set 11 September 1912 at Saint-Brieuc, France. ²
Sergent Roland Garros, l’escadrille 23, Aéronautique Militaire (Collection Ronan Furic)
Garros flew in World War I as a fighter pilot for France and shot down a total four enemy airplanes. Garros’ airplane went down behind enemy lines and he was captured, 18 April 1915. He escaped nearly three years later and returned to France. For his military service, he was promoted to Officier de la Légion d’honneur, 6 March 1917. He was also awarded the Croix de Guerre.
Lieutenant d’infantrie Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros, Officier de la Légion d’honneur, Aéronautique Militaire, flying a SPAD S.XIII C.1, Nº. 15403, was shot down by the German ace, Leutnant Hermann Habich, near Vouziers, France, 5 October 1918. He was killed one day before his 30th birthday.
Stade Roland Garros in Paris, the tennis stadium where the French Open is held, was named in honor the pioneering aviator.
Garros in Tunisia, 1913. (The New York Times/Agence France-Presse—Getty Images)
¹ Fuel and oil capacities from a British publication, so quantities are presumably Imperial gallons.
The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the VICTORIA CROSS on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery:—
Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony LORD, D.F.C. (49149), R.A.F., 271 Sqn. (deceased).
Flight Lieutenant Lord was pilot and captain of a Dakota aircraft detailed to drop supplies at Arnhem on the afternoon of the 19th September, 1944. Our airborne troops had been surrounded and were being pressed into a small area defended by a large number of anti-aircraft guns. Air crews were warned that intense opposition would be met over the dropping zone. To ensure accuracy they were ordered to fly at 900 feet when dropping their containers.
While flying at 1,500 feet near Arnhem the starboard wing of Flight Lieutenant Lord’s aircraft was twice hit by anti-aircraft fire. The starboard engine was set on fire. He would have been justified in leaving the main stream of supply aircraft and continuing at the same height or even abandoning his aircraft. But on learning that his crew were uninjured and that the dropping zone would be reached in three minutes he said he would complete his mission, as the troops were in dire need of supplies.
By now the starboard engine was burning furiously. Flight Lieutenant Lord came down to 900 feet, where he was singled out for the concentrated fire of all the anti-aircraft guns. On reaching the dropping zone he kept the aircraft on a straight, and level course while supplies were dropped. At the end of the run, he was told that two containers remained.
Although he must have known that the collapse of the starboard wing could not be long delayed, Flight Lieutenant Lord circled, rejoined the stream of aircraft and made a second run to drop the remaining supplies. These manoeuvres took eight minutes in all, the aircraft being continuously under heavy anti-aircraft fire.
His task completed, Flight Lieutenant Lord ordered his crew to abandon the Dakota, making no attempt himself to leave the aircraft, which was down to 500 feet. A few seconds later, the starboard wing collapsed and the aircraft fell in flames. There was only one survivor, who was flung out while assisting other members of the crew to put on their parachutes.
By continuing his mission in a damaged and burning aircraft, descending to drop the supplies accurately, returning to the dropping zone a second time and, finally, remaining at the controls to give his crew a chance of escape, Flight Lieutenant Lord displayed supreme valour and self-sacrifice.
—Fourth Supplement to The London Gazette, 13 November 1945, No. 37347 at Page 5533.
The Victoria Cross: “For Valour”Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony Lord, D.F.C., Royal Air Force.
David Samuel Anthony Lord was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, 18 October 1913, the son of Warrant Officer Samuel Beswick Lord, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and Mary Ellen Miller Lord. He was raised in Ireland, British India and Wales. Lord was educated at St. Mary’s College, a seminary in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales, and the University of Wales in Cardiff.
David and his brother Frank enlisted in the Royal Air Force 6 August 1936. In 1938 he was promoted to corporal and requested an assignment to flight training. He trained as a pilot at RAF Uxbridge, and on completion, 5 April 1939, was promoted to sergeant.
Sergeant Lord was assigned to No. 31 Squadron, a bomber/transport unit then based at Lahore, Punjab, in what is now Pakistan. The squadron was equipped with Vickers Type 264 Valentia biplane transports, but early in World War II these were replaced by more modern Douglas DC-2s. The squadron flew in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Eqypt. Lord was promoted to Flight Sergeant, 1 April 1941. In June 1941, Lord’s Dakota was severely damaged by attacking German fighters and he was forced to crash land. Along with his passengers and crew, Lord safely returned to friendly lines.
Flight Sergeant Lord was appointed a warrant officer, 1 October 1941. In 1942, Temporary Warrant Officer Lord returned to operations in India, where he flew “the Hump,” the aerial supply line to China over the Himalaya Mountains. He was appointed to the commissioned rank of Pilot Officer on probation (emergency), 12 May 1942, and then promoted to Flying Officer.
Douglas Dakota Mk.III, FL512, of No. 31 Squadron in Burma, circa 1944.
In The London Gazette, 16 July 1943, it was announced that Flying Officer Lord had awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions in Burma.
Flying Officer Lord was reassigned to No. 271 Squadron, based at RAF Down Ampney, Wiltshire, England, flying the Dakota Mk.III. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant, 2 June 1944, and flew in the airborne assault of Normandy, on the night of 5–6 June 1944. On 1 September 1944, Flight Lieutenant Lord was commended by George VI for valuable service in the air.
Only one member of Lord’s crew, the navigator, Flight Lieutenant Harold King, survived. The others were buried next to the wreck of their Dakota, at Wolfheze, just northeast of Arnhem, The Netherlands. Following the war, their remains were moved to the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.
Flight Lieutenant King was captured and spent the remainder of the war at Stalag Luft I, a prisoner of war camp at Barth, Western Pomerania. When he was repatriated, he reported what had happened on the 19 September 1944 mission.
After investigation, the Victoria Cross was posthumously awarded to Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony Lord, D.F.C. His parents received his Victoria Cross at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 18 December 1945.
Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony Lord, V.C., D.F.C., was the only member of the Royal Air Force Transport Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross during World War II.
Flight Lieutenant David S.A. Lord’s medals in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery, Imperial War Museum. (Left to right, Victoria Cross; Distinguished Flying Cross; India General Service Medal 1936 with Northwest Frontier Clasp; 1939–1945 Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; France and Germany Star; Defence Medal; War Medal 1939–1945 with Bronze Oak Leaf.)
Flight Lieutenant Lord’s airplane was a Douglas Dakota Mk.III, the Royal Air Force designation for the U.S. Army Air Forces’ Douglas C-47A Skytrain. It was built in January 1944 at the Midwest City Douglas Aircraft Plant, adjacent to the Oklahoma City Air Depot (now, Tinker Air Force Base) at Oklahoma City, OK. Douglas gave it the company serial number 12383. It was a C-47A-5-DK Skytrain with the serial number 42-92568. The airplane was one of the 5,354 built by Midwest City. The plant turned out 13 C-47s each day and produced more than half of the Skytrains built during World War II.
42-92568 was delivered to the U.S.A.A.F. on 24 January 1944. The Skytrain was turned over to Royal Air Force at Dorval Airport, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 4 February 1944, and assigned the RAF identification KG 374. It was then flown across the North Atlantic to the United Kingdom, 17 May 1944. KG 374 was assigned to No. 271 Squadron, 10 June 1944, and the squadron identification YS L.
A Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Douglas Dakota painted in the markings of Flight Lieutenant Davis Samuel Anthony Lord’s KG 374.
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain is an all-metal, twin-engine, low-wing monoplane transport with retractable landing gear. It was operated by a minimum flight crew of two pilots, a navigator and a radio operator. The airplane’s control surfaces are covered with doped-fabric. The primary differences between the civil DC-3 and military C-47 airframes was the addition of a cargo door on the left side of the fuselage and a strengthened floor in the cabin.
The C-47 is 64 feet, 5½ inches (19.647 meters) long with a wingspan of 95 feet (28.956 meters) and height of 17 feet (5.182 meters). Empty weight of the C-47A is 17,257 pounds (7,828 kilograms) and the maximum takeoff weight is 29,300 pounds (13,290 kilograms).
The C-47A was powered by two 1,829.39-cubic-inch-displacement (29.978 liter) air-cooled, supercharged R-1830-92 (Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp S1C3-G) two-row 14-cylinder radial engines with a compression ratio of 6.7:1. These were rated at 1,060 horsepower at 2,550 r.pm., up to 7,500 feet (2,286 meters), maximum continuous power, and 1,200 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. at Sea Level for takeoff. Each engine drives a three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic constant-speed full-feathering propeller with a diameter of 11 feet, 6 inches (3.505 meters) through a 16:9 gear reduction. The R-1830-92 is 48.19 inches (1.224 meters) long, 61.67 inches (1.566 meters) in diameter, and weighs 1,465 pounds (665 kilograms).
The C-47 has a cruising speed of 185 miles per hour (298 kilometers per hour) at 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) and service ceiling of 24,100 feet (7,346 meters).
The C-47 could carry 6,000 pounds (2,722 kilograms) of cargo, or 28 fully-equipped paratroopers. Alternatively, 14 patients on stretchers could be carried, along with three attendants.
KG 374 crashed at Wolfheze, The Netherlands, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Arnhem. Fragments of the wreckage are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum.
Douglas C-47 Skytrains at the Midwest City Douglas Aircraft Plant. Douglas produced 13 C-47s a day at this facility. (U.S. Air Force)
North American Aviation NA-73X prototype, NX19998, at Mines Field, California, 9 September 1940. (North American Aviation, Inc.)
9 September 1940: North American Aviation completed assembly of the NA-73X, the first prototype of the new Mustang Mk.I fighter for the Royal Air Force. This was just 117 days after the British Purchasing Commission had authorized the construction of the prototype. The airplane was designed by a team led by Edgar Schmued. The 1,150-horsepower Allison V-12 engine had not yet arrived, so the NA-73X was photographed with dummy exhaust stacks. The prototype’s company serial number was 73-3097. It had been assigned a civil experimental registration number, NX19998.
The NA-73X was a single-seat, single-engine, low wing monoplane with retractable landing gear. It was primarily of metal construction, though the flight control surfaces were fabric covered. The airplane was designed for the maximum reduction in aerodynamic drag. The Mustang was the first airplane to use a laminar-flow wing. The fuselage panels were precisely designed and very smooth. Flush riveting was used. The coolant radiator with its intake and exhaust ducts was located behind and below the cockpit. As cooling air passed through the radiator it was heated and expanded, so that as it exited, it actually produced some thrust.
The prototype was 32 feet, 2⅝ inches (9.820 meters) long, with a wing span of 37 feet, 5/16 inch (11.286 meters). Empty weight of the NA-73X was 6,278 pounds (2,848 kilograms) and normal takeoff weight was 7,965 pounds (3,613 kilograms).
Aeronautical Engineer Edgar Schmued with a North American P-51-2-NA (Mustang Mk.IA), 41-37322. (San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives)
The NA-73X was powered by a liquid-cooled, supercharged, 1,710.60-cubic-inch-displacement (28.032 liter) Allison Engineering Company V-1710-F3R (V-1710-39) single overhead cam 60° V-12 engine, with four valves per cylinder and a compression ratio of 6.65:1. It used a single-stage, single-speed supercharger. This was a right-hand tractor engine (the V-1710 was built in both right-hand and left-hand configurations) which drove a 10 foot, 6 inch (3.200 meter) diameter, three-bladed, Curtiss Electric constant-speed propeller through a 2.00:1 gear reduction.
The V-1710-39 had a Normal Power rating of 880 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m. at Sea Level; Take Off Power rating of 1,150 horsepower at 3,000 r.p.m. at Sea Level, with 44.5 inches of manifold pressure (1.51 Bar), 5 minute limit; and a War Emergency Power rating of 1,490 horsepower at 3,000 r.p.m., with 56 inches of manifold pressure (1.90 Bar). The V-1710-F3R was 7 feet, 4.38 inches (2.245 meters) long, 3 feet, 0.64 inches (0.931 meters) high, and 2 feet, 5.29 inches (0.744 meters) wide. It had a dry weight of 1,310 pounds (594 kilograms).
U.S. Army Air Corps flight tests of the fully-armed production Mustang Mk.I (XP-51 41-038), equipped with the V-1710-39 and a 10 foot, 9-inch (3.277 meters) diameter Curtiss Electric propeller, resulted in a maximum speed of 382.0 miles per hour (614.8 kilometers per hour) at 13,000 feet (3,962 meters). The service ceiling was 30,800 feet (9,388 meters) and the absolute ceiling was 31,900 feet (9,723 meters).
The Curtiss P-40D Warhawk used the same Allison V-1710-39 engine as the XP-51, as well as a three-bladed Curtiss Electric propeller. During performance testing at Wright Field, a P-40D, Air Corps serial number 40-362, weighing 7,740 pounds (3,511 kilograms), reached a maximum speed of 354 miles per hour (570 kilometers per hour) at 15,175 feet (4,625 meters). Although the Mustang’s test weight was 194 pounds (88 kilograms) heavier, at 7,934 pounds (3,599 kilograms), the Mustang was 28 miles per hour (45 kilometers per hour) faster than the Warhawk. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the Mustang’s exceptionally clean design.
Only one NA-73X was built. It made its first flight 26 October 1940 with test pilot Vance Breese. The prototype suffered significant damage when it overturned during a forced landing, 20 November 1941. NX19998 was repaired and flight testing resumed. The prototype’s final disposition is not known.
Originally ordered by Great Britain, the Mustang became the legendary U.S. Army Air Corps P-51 Mustang. A total of 15,486 Mustangs were built by North American Aviation at Inglewood, California and Dallas, Texas. Another 200 were built in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation.
The P-51 remained in service with the U.S. Air Force until 27 January 1957 when the last one, F-51D-30-NA 44-74936, was retired from the 167th Fighter Squadron, West Virginia Air National Guard. It was then transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where it is on display.
North American Aviation NA-73X prototype, NX19998, left front quarter view. (North American Aviation, Inc.)
