Commercial airlines during WW2

I'm trying to write a story that takes place during 1943 in France and England. A character needs to get from France to England, and I can't find any information about passenger air traffic and if and how it operated to and from England during that year.
Can anyone help me out with that?

 

Commerical airplanes for passenger use were more common after World War 2 than during, in most places air transport came to a virtual halt since it would be impossible to fly and airplane during those conditions. Afterall, how would an AA crew be able to differentiate between a Boeing and a an enemy transport plane?

The Wiki is a decent place to start,

Airline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

During WWII the number of DLH's commercial routes were minimal. The He111C as well as another transport version, the He111G, was still used on the Berlin-Danzig-Konigsberg line, and only a few times on the Moscow-Berlin route. Just after the invasion of Poland all DLH's He111C's and He111G's were to be taken over by the Luftwaffe. These planes were fitted with military radio equipment and defensive armament. In the next few years the He111C was used as a liaison aircraft for general Luftwaffe needs.

Heinkel He-111C Commercial aircraft Leipzig WWII 1/72 Roden 009 - $18.75 : Plastic Models Store, Scale Model Kits.

Commercial services during World War II were intermittent at best. Pan American also conceded some of its monopoly to the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC), which had purchased three B-314s for its own transatlantic service, just before the beginning of the war. The major turning point in transatlantic air service occurred in June 1945 when the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board granted permission to three airlines to operate service across the North Atlantic. They were American Export Airlines, Pan American, and Transcontinental & Western Airlines (TWA). This agreement finally broke Pan American's monopoly over international air travel and contributed to the flourishing of air travel in the postwar era. (American Export would merge with American Airlines on November 10, 1945, to become American Overseas Airlines (AOA).
American Export became the world's first airline to offer regularly scheduled landplane (as opposed to seaplane) commercial flights across the North Atlantic. Using the reliable DC-4 aircraft, it began passenger services from New York to Hurn Airport near Bournemouth in England (with stops at Gander, Newfoundland, and Shannon, Ireland) in October 1945.
Air Transportation: The Beginnings of Commercial Transatlantic Service

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Pan Am flew its China route up thru 1940. The flights were still run as far as the Phillipines to late 1941. Most of the seats on those were used by mid level military officers traveling to or from the PI. Comercial flights continued across Latin America as there was still business traffic between North and South America. The airlines flew contract or charter flights for the US government through the war, mostly in the western hemishere.

In the British empire there was similar comercial traffic. The seats were filled mostly with mid level military officers and a residue of business men.

As for traveling from Britain to France, the mostly likely route would be from the UK to Portugal. A commercial flight went from near London to Lisboa several times a week. There also commercial ships that ran between the UK and Portugal. From Portugal to France the traveller would take one of many railroad connections. I dont know what commercial airline flights went between Spain and France or Germany.

 

As others have mentioned, it would be highly unlikely that a commercial flight would fly from France to Great Britain directly. It would be more likely to have originated in either Portugal or Spain, which wasn't that uncommon really.

Remember that the actor Leslie Howard was killed in 1943 while on a commercial flight between Portugal and Great Britain. Howard was aboard Flight 777, a commercial B.O.A.C DC-3 that was returning from Portugal. It was attacked by eight German Junkers JU-88 airplanes and shot down in the bay of Biscay.

So while they still had commercial traffic between the Iberian Peninsula and Britain, they were attacked occasionally as well, it could be that they were "innocently" attacked as they were in the commercial version of the Douglas C-47 (DC-3), but unlikely to my mind.

 

Yup, majority of flights from continential Europe orginated out of Lisbon. Luftansa did have flights going to South America using the Condors but were limited since Allied patrol planes flew out of Brazil. So if your character had to make a flight between Great Britain and France, they would have to divert their trip through portugal and then use a train to france.

 

In regards to Howard, I think miscommunication also had something to do with it where the pilots weren't told it was a civillian plane, I'll see if I can dig something up.

 

Breton

OK Hold on I have a question markings for Commercial Airliners had a different Colour or markings? Any Military Airplane would have very distinctive Colors, and since no Side Winders in those times, combat or Dog Fighting where carried out at close rang. I.D. Of the plane would be possible, and if the planed makes no aggressive posture the pilot could of taken the initiative. In Hindsight if they were ordered by Hitler or command not to shoot them down. As Air liners in France, Italia, España,+++ , ordered not to engage on commercial Air Liners transporting Civilians and Supplies which freely flew around Europa. I Found something on that from an "Old Thread" on this same Topic ! I will Post later got to fined IT.

Good News in April 16th, 2008, 03:10 PM talk about digging Up archives Posted by PzJgr AKA Drill Instructor. Who stated There was train service between those countries with heavy customs and security as expected So pretty much travel to and from Switzerland, whether people or commerce, was dependent on good relations with Germany. after posting this link. Which is Fact.


No European country remained truly neutral during WWII. Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland all worked to some extent with the Axis. In Switzerland, the people who lived through the war wanted to believe that it was their army and fortifications that kept the Nazis out. Historical research and documents clearly show that if the Nazis wanted to invade Switzerland, it would have been quick and relatively easy. The reason Germany spared its tiny neighbor to the south was because Switzerland proved much more useful as an independent state than as a satellite. The Swiss made many useful weapon components (aluminium for the Luftwaffe, spark plugs for jeeps taken from the Russians, timing devices for bombs, among other things), and thus their factories were not bombed every night. The Swiss National bank bought gold from the Reichsbank, the Reichsbank was given Swiss francs in exchange, and used them to buy cobalt, nickel and tungsten from the other “neutral” countries. The Turks, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish, who were all under heavy pressure from the Allies not to accept direct gold payment from the Reichsbank, then exchanged the Swiss francs for gold. The problem was that the German gold came from the Belgian National bank reserves (not from concentration camps as some sensationalists would have it) and the neutrals knew it. Finally, the Swiss allowed trains to carry food and non-weapon supplies from Germany to Italy, with dozens of trains every day on their way to Africa. But did Switzerland have any other choice? Probably not. Totally surrounded by the Axis, most of its coal supply came from Germany every week, and all of its exports had to go through Axis controlled territory. For a landlocked country with no natural resources, this meant the Swiss had to work out some form of accomodation with their neighbors. The problem is that the postwar generations have been raised to believe that it was the Swiss army, and not the country’s usefulness to the Germans, that protected it from the wrath of war. The Swiss are now coming to terms with this part of their history, as for example the people of France and Japan have. As a foreigner, it is best to avoid passing judgment on them and giving lessons, at the risk of offending your hosts.
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Switzerland during WWII

But Form France to Great Britain would most likely or anything leaving would be Shot down.

 

If I understood your question, air travel at the time was a relatively new concept and one with a somewhat niche market until World War 2. The world was in no way globalized like it is now, there were soldiers who had never met a Brit, German, American, etc before the war, their first contact with them was on the battlefield, if such conditions were present, how would they know about foreign companies, technologies, etc?

To my knowledge, markings were not as unified for planes as they are now, disguising ships was nothing new so the same could have been done for planes, I can definitely see the viewpoint of an airforce having to think about how to deal with such a presence.

Long range planes and more advanced forms of dog fighting did exist during World War 2, one famous class of planes known for its manoeuvrability and long range was the Japanese "A6M" plane.

Best Fighter Planes of WWII

The wiki cites a book by the German pilots who were responsible for attacking the flight that day.

Leslie Howard (actor) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BOAC Flight 777 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bloody Biscay: The Story of the Luftwaffe's Only Long Range Maritime Fighter Unit, V Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 40, and Its Adversaries 1942-1944

And here is the final message sent out by the pilot of the airplane carrying Howard.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851817,00.html

Foggy weather conditions (which called off the mission the pilots were sent on in the first place) are also of note.

Keep in mind however this is a first hand quote, I'm merely conveying relatively new information. The loss of life with such an incident is indeed tragic, but the event itself is complex and no where near clear cut.

 

Civilian airliners could be shot down under the same reasoning trains could be shot up. There might be military personnel on board. The Ju-88 that shot down the DC-3 probably knew full well it was in civilian markings, might have even receive permission to attack. It had British airline markings, and therefor became a legitimate target.

 

Assuming the markings did indeed exist, I'm looking for some images or even logs of the search party that went to the wreckage, it might give a clue as to whether or not the markings existed or not.

Also, it was a Danish plane (KLM) so it would not have British markings on it.

 

It was listed as BOAC, not KLM in the Time article. Even so, wouldn't KLM be Dutch not Dane?

Doesn't really matter, it appears that this incident was a first in the "shooting down of civilian aircraft" in the war years. They had (until then) been given "safe pasage".

Perhaps it was the suspicion that Winston Churchill was aboard that doomed Howard.

 

Yea I misread, it seems the crew and equipment were Dutch but transfered to BOAC during the war which *might* explain why their were no tags on the plane.

Edit:

According to these Wiki entries,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_B_Mk_I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Overseas_Airways_Corporation#Incidents

A Spitfire shot down a BOAC plane by accident a few months before the Ju 88 incident. The sourced links seem to be down so I'll find more information on it if I can.

 

I also didn't see the part about the KLM plane being transferred to BOAC, and also its having been repainted in camo. tints, that also might have contributed to its demise. That camo. painti might have had something to do with the other incident as well.

 

Mehars second link probably explains the interception. It was widely believed that Churchill was aboard, so the German spies reported that back to Berlin, when the only celebrity was Leslie Howard. Had Churchill been aboard, I'm sure there would have been as strong an escort as possible, probably off a carrier. All it did was expose a German spy ring, and the loss of 17 civilains. War is a dirty business, but the gamble of killing Churchill could possibly have severely disrupted Allied battle planning.

 

It's in the first link,

BOAC Flight 777 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RE: Bad weather, no markings of any kind on the plane, etc.

 

Not exactly on topic so move if needed: I recall reading years ago that there was a daily flight from Lisbon to Geneva and of course a return. The purpose was said to be for diplomatic discourse between the Axis and Allies, the plane clearly identified and flight plan known to all. The personal and content were said to be carefully monitored and obviously it would have flown over occupied France and "neutral" Spain. Cannot remotely recall the source and have no idea if this was true, it could also have been weekly, given my 70 rear old memory !

I have read of Allied pilots getting to Spain then returning to their units in the UK. Does anyone know if any interned Allied pilots made it out of Switzerland or Sweden for that matter.

Kindly,

Gaines

 

If I remember right allied pilots who made it to Switzerland were interned and often released in prisoner swaps etc. Just as in the Pacific. If fliers landed in Russia they were interned then released, but the aircraft were kept.

 

Thank you all. I guess what I mainly wanted to know was if there were flights for civilians going into England or if the Blitz and the AA stopped that. But I guess there were, if Leslie Howard was doing it.

Thanks again

 

merk: You stated

As posters have explained, there was NO airline service between these Countries.
Your character will either have to get to Portugal or Sweden if he is to fly on a British aircraft.
Of course, he could either row across, steal a yacht or somehow get smuggled on a fishing vessel and picked up by British ship or sub. Only other way would be for him to be a Resistance agent and picked up by Lysander.

Might be better to rejig the plot!!