WW2 Airlinks to Australia - The Bill Legg Collection |
| by Malcolm Groom - 19/08/05 |
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Formed over forty years by Bill Legg of England, the collection contains many important items demonstrating
the great lengths the authorities went to to maintain the airmail connection between England and Australia.
The collection has strong emphasis on the postal history aspects of the covers and includes many evocative markings, rates and routes and frankings. Bill's interest in aviation began as a aeroplane spotter during the War with his philatelic collecting beginning around 1960. Contact through his local Society with those heavily involved with Australian philately led him to combine both his recreational interests into an intense study of airmails between Australia and the United Kingdom, in particular Imperial Airways and Qantas in the 1920's and 1930's. The collection represents the careful examination of many covers in the search for those items that demonstrate the key flights, rates and routes that illustrate the story. The selection also demonstrates the great knowledge that Bill has of his subject and his love of postal history, in particular airmails of the period. With over 40 year of experience and knowledge accumulated in the search for items to build his collection we can do no better than to present Bill’s recollections of the story of the Wartime airmails as they affected Australia. The story of the Wartime airmails and their effect on Australia The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, broadcast to the nation at 11:15am on Sunday 3rd September 1939 that we were at war with Germany. This was the result of the German attack on Poland on 1st September 1939. As far as the Empire services were concerned the war declaration resulted in an immediate return to the pre – E.A.M.S of a rate of 1/3 per ˝ oz. to Empire countries. There was also a reduction in the frequency of services from 3 to 2 a week, departing Thursday and Sunday. Turning to the Australian position the Government decided that the Q.E.A. service to Singapore should be suspended until the position regarding Italy and Japan became clear. Following the telegram from the U.K., Australia had suspended the E.A.M.S and on 5th September 1939 introduced a surcharge of 1/-6d per 1/2oz. By this time the Government had decided that Italy and Japan were not about to declare war and therefore it was safe to resume the service to Singapore. Thus on the 6th September 1939 the flying boat “Coogee” departed Rose Bay (SW169) with the first mail at 1/-6d plus the remaining mail at the old rate of 5d. Thus the Empire air services were changed to a wartime schedule with the minimum of interruption, and these schedules were maintained during the “Phoney War” period except for a time in January – February 1940 when severe winter conditions in Europe caused much disruption.
The “Phoney War” situation began to change on 9th April 1940 when Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. (Illustrate record 122802 for Norway cover). Next on 10th May 1940, Germany invaded France, Belgium and Holland and rapidly occupied these countries. The German army marched into Paris on 14th June and France capitulated on 22nd June 1940. (Illustrate 122796 for last flight through France of cover from Argentina to Australia) The event, which interrupted the Empire service, was Italy entering the war on 10th June 1940. This effectively closed the Mediterranean to civilian aircraft. This situation had been anticipated and arrangements had been made to open a flying boat route from Durban, South Africa to Sydney via Egypt, with a sea connection from Cape Town to the UK. The route became known as the Horseshoe and inevitably increased the transit time considerably. The first mail on the new route departed both Durban and Sydney on the 19th June 1940, just 9 days after the closure of the Mediterranean. The last mail to cross the Mediterranean from the UK departed on Sunday 9th June 1940. For Australia the position was somewhat different, as mail was already en route when the Mediterranean was closed on 10th June. Depending on its departure date from Australia this mail was unloaded in Egypt, India or Singapore and forwarded on by sea.
The Horseshoe route operated on a weekly schedule to begin with, but came twice weekly from August 1940 onwards. In May/June 1941 there were two major disruptions to the route due to uprising in Iraq and Syria. Finally in October 1941, due to a shortage of BOAC pilots and aircraft, Q.E.A. were requested to take over the section of the route from Singapore to Karachi. Fortunately, help came from an unexpected quarter, the American airline Pan American Airways (P.A.A.) opened a regular fortnightly service from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand on 16th July 1940. This gave an all air service to the UK but was expensive compared with the Horseshoe and thus, tended to be used by the business community.
In November 1941 there was an alteration to the route, Fiji being included. On the 7th December 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, resulting in an immediate suspension of P.A.A. routes across the Pacific. The following day the first bombs fell on Singapore and the Japanese invasion fleet arrived off Hong Kong. The Horseshoe route continued under increasing difficulty as Japanese aircraft disrupted the route. Q.E.A. had prepared a series of reserve routes to maintain the route. However by January 1942 the flying boats were operating a shuttle service between Batavia and Singapore. Singapore surrendered on 14th February 1942 and the Horseshoe was broken. Hong Kong surrendered on 25th December 1941 so mail can be found franked for the service but sent by sea to the USA. At the same time an announcement was made of a new combined sea and air route to the UK, at a rate of 2/-1d per 1/2oz (Sea to USA then by air). As far as civilian mail was concerned Australia had no airmail service to the rest of the world (except for the Trans Tasman service which continued during the rest of the war). An airmail schedule for May 1942 shows all distinctions as preceded by the words “By Sea to the USA”. With operational needs a priority; the space available in aircraft for ordinary airmail became a problem. One method to reduce the weight and space was the introduction of the airgraph service. This service made possible important economies in aircraft capacity. The other improvement was the introduction of the air letter. In July 1943 Q.E.A. inaugurated an Indian Ocean route from Perth to Ceylon with Catalina flying boats, a distance of some 3500 miles. The route had to be flown in one hop, necessitating a large fuel load, reducing the payload so that only air graphs and air letters could be carried. In November 1943 the route was extended from Ceylon to Karachi, a distance of a further 1500 miles. This extension was to connect with the BOAC route Karachi. The war situation had now improved, the Axis forces had been expelled from North Africa, and the Allied had captured Sicily and were advancing up the Italian mainland. Italy had surrendered in September 1943. It was thus possible to once again fly through the Mediterranean and mail could be flown by BOAC from the UK to Karachi via Lisbon and Gibraltar.
In June 1944, 2 converted Liberator bombers were added to the Catalina fleet. This enabled increased loads to be carried across the Indian Ocean and 7d air letters were now made available to civilians. Finally it was decided to operate a fast air service between Australia and England using converted Lancaster bombers, named Lancastrians. BOAC operated from London to Karachi and Q.E.A. from Karachi to Sydney. The service opened in June 1945 and was scheduled to take 3 days. |
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You can have a look at all of the airmails discussed here and much more in our Auction 271 catalogue, please place your bids early to avoid disappointment. Please check our auction calendar for the latest auction dates. |
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