DETECTING SMUGGLERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21694, 12 July 1932, Page 14

DETECTING SMUGGLERS

■ NEW USE FOR AIRCRAFT OFFICIAL REPORT. (From'Ouk Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 20. Use of seagoing aircraft to combat smugglers and gun-runners in the Red Sea was a possibility studied in recent aerial reconnaissance of the Sudan coast. Official details of the flight reveal that the formation of three day-bombing bi planes surveyed a number of anchorages suitable for flying boats or floatplanes and that on at least one occasion smugglers’ dhows were sighted from the air and their presence reported to British sloops en gaged in coastal patrol in the vicinity. The dhows were seen hidden in shallow channels behind reefs, so placed that they were readily perceptible only from the air. Their crews were hard at work unloading cargo on to camels. The aeroplanes immediately flashed the news to a warship and to the Sudan Political Ser vice, which asked in return that aircraft should assist_ detection and arrest of the smugglers by reporting any large camel convoy seen moving near by. This one incident provided indisputable evidence of the potentialities of aircraft in checking illicit trading on this long and difficult coast, and the official report indicates that the subject is likely to receive further study.

The machines selected for the work were Fairey 3F landplanes of No. 47 Bomber Squadron which is stationed at Khartoum. First they were flown to i ort Sudan where seaplane floats were substituted for the land undercarriages. Their two main tasks were to test sites already chosen as suitable for seaplane anchorages and to discover others. Action against the illicit traders grew spontaneously out of events that marked the flight. EXPEDITION INTO THE DESERT. Another picturesque facet in the manysided work/of the Royal Air Force overseas is displayed in the story of a reconnaissance into the little known Sudanese desert fkr west of Khartoum which was undertaken following an attack by armed tribesmen on a camel caravan of peaceful Dongola Arabs. Five 3F day bombers, two large Vickers “.Victoria ” troop carriers and a motor machine gun battery of the Sudan Defence Force, were moved out to El Fasher, their officers under instructions to scour the desert for the raiders and to take such steps in the collection of detailed information abo.ut the country and the establishment of suitable landing grounds as would render difficult similar attacks in the future. At the same time the reconnaissance was planned in a way to explore thoroughly possibilities of operating aeroplanes in conjunction with motor machine gun units.

In 1930 a similar reconnaissance expedition, also employing aircraft and machine gun batteries, failed to find a suitable route and this new attempt was made in a different direction by way of Darfur. Three Fairey planes were detailed to work from an advanced landing ground on the Wadi Shau, and to reconnoitre ahead of the machine gun unit. The two remaining Fairey - craft were based at El Fasher to act as spare aircraft and to maintain , supplies to the Wadi Shau with the help of the two big troop carriers. When the reconnaissance was concluded after 23 days in the field much valuable information had been gathered about the region. Three sites suitable for landing grounds were found on the Wadi Shau and at Bir Naturn and Nukheila. This time the aircraft had no difficulty in maintaining contact with the machine gun battery all through the reconnaissance. THE RECONNAISSANCE FLEET. Powered with a single Napier 530 h.p. motor,' the 3F biplane is one of the most largely used aeroplanes in the Royal Air Force, employed for day bombing, . gunnery spotting, aerial photography, highspeed communications, and other. of the multifarious duties allotted to “general purposes ” planes in the British service. Two similar engines enable each “Victoria” troop carrier to bear aloft 22 fully-armed infantrymen and their equipment, or a similar load in munitions of war or other urgent supplies; much modern British air strategy is based on the use of’“heavy transport” planes of this. kind.