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Consolidated Liberator II aircraft variant From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commando (Air Ministry serial number AL504) was a very long range Consolidated Liberator II aircraft adapted for passenger transport, to serve as the personal aircraft of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Commando disappeared without a trace on 27 March 1945 over the North Atlantic Ocean, while on a flight from RAF Northolt to Lajes Field in the Azores, en route to Ottawa in Canada. The cause of the disappearance of the aircraft remains unknown to this day.
| Commando | |
|---|---|
| Liberator II AL504 Commando, which disappeared on 27 March 1945. The picture shows the aircraft in its later single-fin and rudder configuration and lack of camouflage paint | |
| General information | |
| Type | Consolidated Liberator II |
| Owners | Royal Air Force |
| Serial | AL504 |
| History | |
| In service | July 1942 – 27 March 1945 |
| Fate | Disappeared over the North Atlantic Ocean en route to the Azores |
Volunteer pilot William Vanderkloot, a US citizen serving with RAF Ferry Command since June 1941, delivered a specially modified long-range Consolidated Liberator II in July 1942. Vanderkloot was ordered to RAF headquarters, where he was asked by Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, if there was a safe, direct route from England to Cairo, by air in the Liberator which he had just delivered to Prestwick Airport. Vanderkloot informed Portal that the flight was possible with one stop in Gibraltar. Initially heading eastwards from Gibraltar, staying over the sea in the afternoon, and then turning sharply south after dusk, flying over Spanish and Vichy French territory in Africa in darkness, before turning east again for the Nile, approaching Cairo from the south. Thus the danger from land-based enemy aircraft in North Africa and Sicily would be largely avoided without having to fly halfway around Africa.
Portal told Vanderkloot to "stay handy to the telephone". The next day Vanderkloot was taken to Winston Churchill's office, No.10 Downing Street. Churchill, clad in robe and slippers, offered him a drink, beginning a relationship that had Vanderkloot flying the Prime Minister on sensitive diplomatic trips across war-torn Europe, Russia, North Africa and the Middle-East.[1][2] "He took calculated risks," said his son, William III. "There was a lot more risk in flying back then. It was a frontier, and I think all the old pilots will say it, secretly to themselves, that they enjoyed being on their own. It was the wild blue yonder." As Churchill's pilot, Vanderkloot flew Lord Mountbatten to England in June 1942, conveyed the Prime Minister and Chief of the Imperial General Staff Alan Brooke to Egypt in August 1942 to replace Claude Auchinleck commander of the British Army in North Africa with Bernard Montgomery and also took Churchill to high-level talks in Moscow with Joseph Stalin, to Turkey to determine that country's wartime intentions, and to the Casablanca Conference in 1943.[3][4]
On delivery Commando had a regular Liberator nose and tail configuration despite the internal modifications but was later converted to have a covered nose and also the same single tail fin used on the Consolidated PB4Y-2. The VIP ("Very Important Person[s]") interior had comfortable seating, an electric galley and even a bed, installed for Churchill.[5][6] After the second extended trip,[2] Churchill never again flew in Commando, instead switching to Ascalon, an Avro York (a transport aircraft based on the Lancaster bomber, with a larger fuselage) with an all-British crew. Vanderkloot and his mixed US/Canadian civilian crew were all recommended for British awards for their service, he and one other receiving honorary OBEs.[7]
In September 1943 Liberator AL504 was withdrawn from VIP service and flown to a Tucson, Arizona USAAF base, where it underwent major modifications and emerged as a one-off transport, lengthened by seven feet, with single tail fin, extended fuselage, and upgraded engines. AL504 flew again in March 1944 as the trial version of the US Navy’s Consolidated RY Liberator Express transport.[8] Vanderkloot and the crew continued to fly it for a time, one crew member's last logbook entry for AL504 is 24 November 1944.[4]
Commando had served as Churchill's official aircraft during a critical period and later in the war was also used on occasion by other VIP's for their business in connection with the war effort. She also served with No. 45 Group Communications Flight (45 Gp Comms Flt), based at Dorval, near Montreal.[9] It was well maintained and proved extremely reliable and had been flown from Montreal to Sydney, Australia, on 5 November 1944 by Air Commodore C J Powell CBE, RAF (Senior Air Staff Officer) RAF Transport Command.[10]
Commando was the second of 139 VLR (Very Long Range) Liberator II aircraft delivered to the RAF mostly to be used by RAF Coastal Command on maritime patrol duty and anti-submarine warfare, escorting the supply convoys of merchant vessels and attacking and sinking German U-boats.
The Under-Secretary of State for Air Rupert Brabner DSO DSC, his deputy Sir John Abraham KBE CB, and the Air Member for Training Air Marshal Sir Peter Roy Maxwell Drummond KCB DSO & Bar OBE MC RAF needed to fly to Canada with other dignitaries to attend a ceremony marking the closure of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Winston Churchill's former personal transport Commando was assigned as the VIP aircraft.
Flown by Wing Commander William Biddell OBE DFC, the aircraft took off from RAF Northolt at 23:00 hours GMT on Monday 26 March 1945 to fly to Ottawa, Canada, with a refueling stop at Lajes Field in the Azores. Routine contact was established between the aircraft and its base at 05:22 hours GMT in the morning with the flight proceeding as scheduled. The flight was proceeding routinely when the last contact was made with RAF Transport Command at RAF Prestwick at 07:16 hours GMT on the morning of 27 March 1945 in position 40°30'N 20°17'W by civilian Radio Officer Frederick Williams aboard the aircraft, to advise an estimated time of arrival of 08:10 hours at Lajes Field. There were no further signals.
When Commando failed to arrive at Lajes Field, emergency calls were made by radio and air-sea searches initiated once the aircraft was classified as overdue. RAF Coastal Command, assisted by the Royal Navy, commenced a series of searches which were described by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in his announcement in the House of Commons on 28 March 1945. Close to the flight path which Commando would have been following over the ocean in towards Lajes Field, aircrew of the searching RAF Coastal Command aircraft spotted some yellow dinghies, a small amount of wreckage and an oil patch on the surface. It was 150–200 mi (130–170 nmi; 240–320 km) north-west of the Azores; there were no traces of any survivors.[11] Little could be done and it was considered probable that Commando had crashed at sea while approaching the Azores.[12]
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