In July 1935 203 Flying Boat (FB)
Squadron RAF was based in Basra and was equipped with six Rangoon flying
boats. Towards the end of that month four of these were flown back to
England to be exchanged for three Singapore IIIs (registration numbers
K4582, K4583 and K4584).
After familiarisation training
on the new aircraft the same crews left Plymouth Sound on 9 September to
return to Basra. The first leg of the journey was a non-stop flight to
Gibraltar which took a little over 11 hours. Two of the three had
reached Malta on the 16th when orders arrived for the
aircraft to go to Aden where the two arrived on the 24th. The
squadron was the first of three to be sent to reinforce Aden during the
crisis in Abyssinia.
Meanwhile the remaining two
Rangoons of the squadron had already set off for Aden from Basra, the
route taking them via Alexandria. They arrived in Aden on 1 October,
flying the last leg from Kamaran with one of the Singapores that had
been sent there the day previous to assess its suitability as a seaplane
base. On the 11th the two Rangoons would set off for
Gibraltar to join another squadron. The third of the three new
Singapores reached Aden on the 7th with a fourth, K4577,
arriving three days later.
3 of the 203 Sqn flying boats moored in Front Bay (aka Western Bay) off Obstruction Pier near Isthmus
Initially they were moored to buoys off Obstruction Point but on the 11th
one flying boat broke away from its moorings, as result of which all
existing moorings were condemned and the boats were anchored instead.
Within a fortnight new moorings had been laid for six flying boats.
Personnel of the Squadron were accommodated with
8 Squadron
at Khormaksar but as 203 was to be based at the Isthmus it was decided
to have the personnel close by. Flight offices and stores were put up at
the Isthmus, using old packing cases which were gradually augmented by
huts. For sleeping accommodation the Aden Protectorate School at the
Isthmus was taken over and occupied from the 14th.
With the Royal Naval presence
having been increased considerably as well there was excellent training
to be had over the next nine months, principally with destroyers but
also with submarines. There was the occasional operational sortie too;
for example on 19 November one flying boat took off with a 550lb bomb to
be dropped on troublesome tribesmen in the hinterland, but it was
recalled before it could drop its load.
203 Sqn shared the mail run to Kamaran and
Perim
with the other squadrons in Aden. On the run on 25 November the tail
plane of K4577 was badly damaged on landing and another had to be sent
from the UK, with the crew having to wait on Kamaran until it arrived on
10 December. The Singapore was quite spacious and was very suitable for
short distance travel by VIPs and there were several such flights to
Perim. It also carried commanders and staff officers to and from the
detachments in British Somaliland that were keeping an eye on Italian
progress in Abyssinia. It was also the era of formation flying and in
Aden opportunities for this were more numerous than in other stations.
In a way the flypast or air escort was also an alternative to a military
parade or guard of honour, there being no British infantry battalion in
Aden after responsibility for the defence of Aden and control of the
hinterland passed to the RAF in 1928.
|
203 Sqn flying boat moored at Isthmus |
In early 1936 two more Singapores left the UK for
Aden to bring the squadron up to its establishment of six aircraft.
One of the two, K6907, on its way to Aden on 29 January had to land
at Perim due to shortage of fuel. It was
moored to one of three newly laid moorings which parted during the
night. Fortunately the crew was sleeping aboard and the aircraft was
started up before any damage was caused. It then moored astern of a
destroyer. The final plane, K6908, arrived on 18 February. |
By mid-1936 it was obvious that
the crisis in Abyssinia was not going to spill out beyond its borders
and the extra squadrons could be dispersed to their home stations. 203
ceased flying on 1 July and prepared for the return to Basra. Heavy
equipment left on the17th and the first two flying boats departed on the
23rd. Due to a shortage of spares these were the only
aircraft serviceable and the forecast was that all the remaining
aircraft would not be able to fly out by the end of the month, which was
the target date. In the event they just made it.
In three years and two months
203 (FB) Squadron would be back again in Aden, under a different set of
circumstances – but that is a different story.
The Short Singapore III entered squadron
service with the RAF in January 1935. 203 Squadron was the first
overseas squadron to be equipped with this aircraft. Altogether 37 were
built for the RAF. It had a maximum speed of 136 mph at 5,000 ft, a
range of 1,000 miles flying at 105 mph and a service ceiling of 15,000
ft with a climb rate of 700ft per minute. It had a crew of six.
The
engine layout was somewhat unusual – it had four engines but two were
normal tractor engines and two were pushers, i.e. with the propeller
facing the tail. The Singapore had three Lewis guns, one each in the
nose and tail and one amidships. It had a bomb load of 2,000 lbs. The
wing span was 90 ft and it was over 23 ft high.
The Singapore replaced
the Rangoon in 203 Squadron, one of the last tasks of the latter being a
flight of three Rangoons which attended the centenary celebrations of
Victoria in Australia in 1934. From the specification given above it is
easy to appreciate that the Singapore was at best obsolescent by 1939.
As a flying boat it was replaced by the Sunderland, but as the maritime
patrol aircraft of 203 Squadron in Aden it would be replaced by the
long-nosed Blenheim Mk IV.
