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"THE GOVERNMENT
 IS THE SERVANT
 OF THE PEOPLE
 AND NOT ITS MASTER"

Winston Churchill
Oslo 1948

PM’s North Africa Tour May / June 1943  

By Air Commodore John L. Mitchell, LVO, DFC, AFC

Volume 14  Issue 1  Spring 2002

The following is an excerpt from The Diary of a Navigator on the Prime Minister’s Private Aircraft (1943-1945) by Air Commodore John L. Mitchell, LVO., DFC., AFC., the last surviving member of Churchill’s wartime air crew. The Air Commodore was our guest on June 20, 2002 at a special dinner at the Royal Canadian Military Institute.

28 May 1943
Our first flight with ‘The Owner’ was to Algiers (Maison Blanche), a two and a half hour trip with full fighter escort.  To our discomfort, the US P38 Lightning Interceptors from their base at Oran cavorted about altogether too close for safety.  The RAF Spitfighters from Gibraltar had kept a more discreet and useful distance and height from us, from where they could in fact ‘defend’ us. These Lightnings were in no position to do this and only wanted to get near enough for their pilots to see the Prime Minister giving them the ‘V’ sign from his state room window.  

1^st June 1943
After three very pleasant days and nights at the Altetti, we took off at 09:30 for the one-hour’s flight to USAF B17 BASE at Chateaudun du Rumel, near Bone.   There, the Prime Minister witnessed the take-off of a wing of Flying Fortresses about to bomb Pantelleria.  The passenger list was now augmented by General Alexander.  After inspecting the tented Operations Headquarters, the Prime Minister and party continued on to Tunis (El Aouina).  Lunch was served on board for the first time, and Corporal Shepherd (an ex-RAF Hendon batman) did his best with mainly cold rations loaded in Algiers. We were not yet to discover the secret of ‘victualling’ the aircraft from local resources, but on this occasion we made sure that at least the beverages were adequate.  

2^nd June 1943
The following day we were ordered to position the aircraft an airstrip at Gromballia, south east of Tunis, which was more convenient for our passengers.  We had expected to fly as far south as Enfidaville and on to inspect the Mareth Line, perhaps proceeding towards Tripoli but we had yet to learn the vagaries of the Owner’s travel requirements.  No sooner had we circled the Kasserine Pass (where an American armoured force had come up against a German Panzer Division rather disastrously) than that Prime Minister decided he wanted to return directly to Algiers.  The whole flight took only two and a half hours.  

The PM came forward on the return journey and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine in the co-pilot’s seat. He announced that he would like to try the controls.  He did so, and when Collins attempted to smooth out some of the resulting altitudes of the aircraft with discreet use of the tail trimmer, the Owner admonished him.  He soon conceded that he would share the controls: Collins to work the rudder and he, the PM, would try climbing and diving.  He clearly enjoyed himself, much to the consternation of the passengers  (including Tedder) who were thrown about in the back, and to the astonishment of the USAF fighter escort of P38 Lightnings which were then keeping a more sensible distance from us.  CIGS commented in his Diary: ‘The PM gave us somewhat of a swaying passage for a bit.’  On landing at Maison Blanche, ‘Dad’ Collins explained to our escort commander who was doing the driving.