BRITAIN TO SWEDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25851, 23 May 1945, Page 5

BRITAIN TO SWEDEN

HAZARDOUS AIR ROUTE WAR-TIME CIVIL SERVICE (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, May 22. The worse the weather conditions the better were the prospects of a safe landing on the wartime civil air route between Britain and Sweden, which is one of the most hazardous routes in the world. Details of the route have just been revealed. On the 800-mile lap between Leuchars (Fifeshire) and Stockholm planes had to fly over 250 miles of enemy-occupied territory which was heavily defended. They were unarmed and without navigational aids. To elude waiting Luftwaffe fighters, the pilots, who were mostly British and a few Norwegian, had to wait for poor, cloudy weather, which kept the enemy fighters grounded. Twelve hundred flights were made between 1941 and the end of the war, with a varied assortment of planes. One plane is known to have been shot down, and others just disappeared. The Germans, knowing that the planes were carrying key personnel, did all they could to break up the service.