John Willmott's Experiences in WWII
As told by John:These observations are from my abundant recall of tanks in action when I grew up as a kid beginning with the very first book I ever remember receiving as a kid of 3 in 1917. It was a British thin illustrated paperback, to me, a very special treasure named "Tanks In Action" showing tanks busting down walls, houses and crossing trenches as men in the trenches fired back. This made a lasting impression on me. And since my family subscribed to the NY Times and I learned to read before most kids with the help of my parents who were politically active against violence of "The Hun" and the violence of the Germans in WW1 beginning the year I was born and ending after I became aware of American and other "heroes" of varying kinds and scope, including General George Patton who "made the news" along with Will Rogers, the lariat-swinging cowboy philosopher and political commentator from time to time.
Then I "ran into" Rommel again while flying as a Pan Am Flight Radio Officer and would be pilot from May 1938 to June 1941 and had to "bypass" the Nazi occupation of Europe and N. Africa beginning in Feb. 1941, I learned all about Erwin Rommel fighting against George Patton fighting with British Field Marshall Montgomery to prevent the German capture of Cairo and Alexandria during his campaign in North Africa where his tank corps fought superbly, protected by Stuka attack dive bombers, hampered only by the long supply lines interdicted by the RAF, Royal Navy which had the advantage of secretly having the Enigma code device, later assisted by the U.S. Forces.
I knew about the existence but not the details of the "ultra secret Enigma code machine," having studied and used coding devices while in the USCG and my private research in the NY City Library.
Then I came "close to" Rommel again when I took off on my last ferry trip from Miami, Sept. 10, 1942, and was over Cairo Sept. 17 but was diverted to Wadi Sari, a dry river bed RAF base in what later became Israel because Rommel was only some 150 miles west of Cairo on his drive to take Alexandria. When over Cairo, I told the rest of the rest of the crew in a joking manner we should deliver the "Don't Wanna Fly" or flying brick, "clip wing Marauder to Rommel so his Luftwaffe pilots would kill themselves. Later the Martin factory added some 3 feet to each wing to make the B-26 a more docile bird for low time U.S. pilots to fly without killing themselves. Of course, the Luftwaffe pilots in Africa at that time were well-experienced pilots flying the Stuka which had bombed us on an earlier trip as we delivered another bomber.
The Germans did not surrender in North Africa until May 1943. But by then I was sworn into the USNR flying as co-pilot on the Martin Gull wing, twin engine Martin Mariners out of North Beach to Bermuda, San Juan, Trinidad and south. The Mariner did not fly worth a crap on one engine when loaded. We had to toss all the cargo and strip all the moveables overside one trip to make it to Bermuda. Therefore it was used for "local trips" and training enroute for pilots to transition to the larger Consolidated PB2Y3R for ocean flights promised "soon." But when we did get the Cronado boats, we again got involved in doing our unarmed job while dodging around Hitler's air and ground forces including the "Desert Fox" Erwin Rommel and his tanks and air forces.
The Germans lied and attacked Poland Sept. 1, 1939 and occupied France and most of Europe by Sept 1940 in Hitler's attempt to control the world but was stopped by the Royal Navy and the RAF. After Hitler over ran Europe he turned to Africa and was in control of most of North Africa with the Vichy French "traitorous Quislings" as "captive" or "willing accomplices."
By that time Roosevelt was trying to get an unwilling America into a war to stop Hitler. I was a volunteer to the RCAF in Sept. 1940 and was with the secret "Atlantic Airways Ltd." by June 1941, ferrying bombers across the South Atlantic to either Bathurst, Gambia; Freetown, Sierra Leon: Robert's Field and Fisherman's Lake, Liberia and thence to Takoradi, Gold Coast or Lagos, Nigeria where the RAF put us up at their rest house owned by the owner of the Ball Steamship Company.
Then to avoid contact with the Germans in the north, we cut from those points across central Africa and the south side of the Sahara desert via Kano, Maidugeri, Ft. Lamy, El Geneina and El Fasher to Khartoum at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. But we ferried the Catalina PBY boats from Fisherman's lake, to the Congo River at Leopoldville and thence over "unexplored" blank charts to Victoria Falls and to Khartoum in "Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, now Sudan.
It was on my last ferry trip with a twin engine "clip wing" Martin Marauder B-26 which almost became my last flight when we took off from El Fasher (near the ongoing massacres of Darfur) with the temperature at 120 degrees and a 4000 foot runway. We almost had flying speed "on the air cushion" as the end of the 4 foot raised runway went under us. That 4 feet saved us from "buying the farm" when we settled into the tops of scattered brush which, being in our way, jumped out and 'hit' our landing gear and whanged the bottom of the fuselage below our feet. When we got into Khartoum, the RAF guys asked us whether we were low chasing sheep, goats or camels across the desert. As we clambered out of the hot box, they were picking sticks and branches from our landing gear.
This was my last trip ferrying before the USAAC took over the Pan Am Ferry and Pan Am Africa operations from Sept to December 1942 After this, as a pilot, I rejected Apprentice Seaman and a gamble to be a Navy pilot with the USN or the offer as Captain with majority in 6 months "flying a desk with three flight hours a month to remain "qualified" as a pilot for $6 a month flight pay as a briefing officer in Natal or Africa.
Since I went to war to help kill Hitler, I refused to fly a desk for any amount so took Charlie Blair's offer as seaplane co-pilot and chief bowline catcher to fly Martin Mariner PBM and Consolidated Coronado PB2Y3R seaplanes for the Naval Transport Service or NATS across the North and South Atlantic to war areas.
During this time, General Patton and others cleared the Germans out of Rabat and Port Lyauty in Morocco and also Algiers and most of the rest of Africa giving us access to fly via Africa into Lough Neagh and Lough Erne, Northern Ireland to supply and transport special troops and personnel.
Out of WWII, I got two more Honorable Discharges for a total of 3.
In 1941, John ferried aircraft to Africa for Atlantic Airways Ltd. After Pearl Harbor, it became Pan American Air Ferries, and John continued to ferry a variety of aircraft to far-away places.
