The Special Erection Party

During July 1942, a specialised team of airframe and engine technicians arrived in Gibraltar to assemble aircraft that were delivered, crated-up in sections, by ship. The team were called the Special Erection Party, (S.E.P.) a title dreamed up (no doubt) to fool the enemy. Well, perhaps. It seems that humour was allowed by the military in wartime and the officer who christened this team probably amused his colleagues, not to mention the airmen involved.

The reason behind this activity dated back to the beginning of the war and to the siege of Malta which commenced on 11^th June 1940.  The Axis plan was to bomb and starve Malta into submission. Importantly, from an Axis point of view, Malta was ideally placed to damage or cut their supply route to North Africa. After a month of bombardment, Malta was low on supplies and particularly aircraft to fight off the attackers. In the opinion of the Chiefs of Staff, Malta was indefensible but Churchill overruled them, insisting Malta be supplied by whatever means and defended. Churchill believed that if Malta surrendered, the Germans hold on the Mediterranean would be absolute, its supply lines invulnerable, and Egypt would be next to fall. 

His view was echoed by Rommel; if Malta withstood the onslaught, the war would eventually swing in favour of the Allies. In May 1941 Rommel said: "Without Malta the Axis will end up losing control of North Africa."

     

So began a series of operations delivering food, ammunition, petrol and importantly aircraft by sea, via Gibraltar. The first was Operation Hurry, which left Gibraltar on 31^st of July. The goal was to fly-off twelve Hurricanes, from HMS Argus (a flat-top aircraft carrier dating from 1918) under the protection of Force H, which included Ark Royal. Despite enemy attacks en route, the aircraft were all delivered safely. This was the start of a series of 40 re-supply operations, 28 of which were aircraft-only deliveries known as Club Runs. The Club Runs saw aircraft carriers leave Gibraltar (the club) and steam around 700 of the 1100 miles to Malta, flying off their aircraft to cover the remaining distance. Over 24 months this led up to the famous Operation Pedestal in August 1942; which is where our story begins.

In August, Bill Snell arrived to join the SEP. This is what he had to say:

‘In August 1942, I was in a small group of RAF tradesmen who were sent at a moments notice (no embarkation leave) to West Kirby and fitted out with tropical clothing and a large toolbox. We eventually arrived in Greenock, Scotland and put on a boat, we arrived in Gibraltar a week later. There we received boxes of Spitfires in pieces, which we assembled and made ready for active service in time for the North African invasion. Some were flown by British pilots and some by American pilots – the planes having the USA cross instead of the roundels. We also had an aircraft carrier, HMS Eagle, and some Spitfires were carried half way to Malta then flown to the island which was under siege at the time and relying on three very old biplanes called Faith, Hope and Charity….’          (A bit more from Bill later)

Assembling the team on the Rock was only half the battle. Delivering the aircraft to Gibraltar was a major logistical task. This is how it worked:

The aircraft would be test flown and inspected at the manufacturer. The Air Transport Auxiliary would then fly the machine to a Maintenance Unit (MU) for weapons and military equipment to be fitted. The ATA was a civilian organisation made up of flyers unfit for military service, through age, short sightedness, etc. but who intended to contribute to the war effort. Amongst this cadre were some 168 determined women. These ATA pilots were quite remarkable for flying all types of aircraft, in all weathers, unarmed, without radio and with only limited Nav-aids; instrument flying was not allowed. In each case, once cleared to fly one class of aircraft, pilots could be asked to ferry any plane in that class even if they had never seen that type of aircraft before. To do so, they had ATA Ferry Pilots' Notes, a two-ring binder of small cards with the critical statistics and notations necessary to ferry each aircraft. 

After armaments etc were installed, the aircraft would be flown to a packing station (5x RAF and 1x Civilian) where they were disassembled and packed. Spitfires were initially packed in two cases; one for the wings and another for the fuselage, although single crate packs were used later in the war. If a ship was immediately available, the packs would be despatched by road haulage to the relevant dock. Otherwise they were sent to a Packed Aircraft Transit Pool (PATP) for temporary storage. There were two PATPs, at Southport and Motherwell.

Loading at the docks was supervised by an RAF Embarkation Unit (EU). The ships were assigned code numbers and usually, the prefix R was given to vessels carrying aircraft. Code names were used for some destinations; Bluff and Hamble were two of the codes used to designate Gibraltar. On arrival here, the S.E.P.’s first task was unloading and safely transporting the crates to North Front ready for re-assembly.

Assembling aircraft on an open runway in a strong Levanter must have tried the team’s patience. North Front is probably the most exposed site on the Rock since it is wide open to both easterly and westerly gales. To help them, the S.E.P. had six Coles’ 7 ton cranes (vehicle mounted on Thorneycroft Amazons) along with a number of specialised tractors, but a large part of the work was man-draulic. The wings, for example, were shouldered by a large group of men and held in place whilst the airframe technicians bolted them to the fuselage. It was also commonplace to sit fitters on the tail plane when engine testing, to keep the aircraft stable on the ground especially when taxiing over rough ground.  Spitfires are nose-heavy and tail-light; should the tail bounce up the propeller might strike the ground… and be wrecked.

Once the completed aircraft had been test flown and cannon tested at Gibraltar they were ready for delivery to the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, for Malta. Eagle had been converted from a cruiser and consequently had short 660 foot flight deck. This presented a problem for Spitfires who had only full-up and full-down (landing-position) flaps, so to add 20 degrees of flap, increasing low speed lift for carrier take-offs, temporary wooden wedges were inserted between the flap and the wing. These were subsequently released in flight by fully opening the flaps for a moment. HMS Eagle made five club runs before she was sunk off Malta during Operation Pedestal, by four torpedoes from U-73.

                                            HMS Eagle at Valetta before the war.

Trop. (tropicalised) Spitfires had an aerodynamic air cleaner mounted below the engine nacelle; seen here in a picture on board USS Wasp en route to Malta. Named for No. 103 MU Aboukir - the unit where it was invented - it had a minor effect on engine performance. A long range overload tank, fitted in Gibraltar, can be seen in the same picture. That increased fuel capacity by 90 gallons, to 157 gals, extending the Spitfires’ modest range of 435 miles to 700, but added weight that did detract from performance. However, this reduced the time aircraft carriers were put at risk and improved the carriers’ turnaround time. 

Not every re-assembled aircraft made it very far past testing at North Front. It is interesting to track an individual Spitfire:  EP 724, a Mk Vb (Trop) Spitfire with a Merlin 46 engine, was built at Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory, near Birmingham, during July 1942. CBAF built around 320 Spitfires a month and is credited with more than 11,500 assembled during the war. EP 724 was delivered by ATA to MU 38, RAF Llandow, an aircraft storage facility at Haverfordwest, on 31^st July ’42. Three days later it was transferred by ATA pilot to the enormous blister hangars of MU 76, RAF Wroughton, near Swindon, to receive weapons and equipment. EP 724 was then dismantled and crated before shipping to the SS Empire Heath which sailed from Cardiff on 28 August 1942, arriving at Gibraltar on 14 September ‘42 with a deck cargo of 16 Spitfires and two Hurricanes.

                                            A Tropicalised Spitfire on board USS Wasp.

In Gibraltar she was re-assembled and tested by the S.E.P. before being assigned to Flt/Sgt Albert Tysowski, RCAF, from Veregin, Saskatchewan. He was an unfortunate man. The powerful Merlin engine delivered a great deal of torque, so much so that Supermarine Pilot’s Notes instructed that ‘full right rudder be applied on take off’ to counteract the swing it produced. Whilst taking off on the 4^th November ’42, Albert’s aircraft swung, hitting a gun post and damaging the undercarriage. The airfield was crowded with other aircraft (for Operation Torch) so the pilot baled out into the sea at the harbour and the aircraft was lost. Albert was rescued without injury. This swing-on-take-off was a constant for Mk I, II and Mk V Spitfires and a number of similar accidents are reported; the most common being hitting the starter trolley and damaging the undercarriage.

We can also track this pilot. Albert Tysowski had enlisted in May 1940, and is shown in our picture (middle row 3^rd from left) graduating from 58 Operational Training Unit, Grangemouth, on 27^th May 1942. 

Despite the report of his being rescued uninjured from his dip in the harbour, he appeared on a Canadian casualty list of 6^th December ’42, as ‘seriously ill as a result of injuries sustained on active service.’  We don’t know if this was a separate event, but it seems unlikely. He was repatriated to UK and after recovery joined 602 Squadron, flying Spitfire Vb AD 290 on operations over the Channel and France. On 15^th July ‘43, he escorted 12 Douglas Bostons, on a regular Operation Roadstead, known colloquially as Rodeos, to bomb Poix Airfield, north of Paris. On the return trip they were jumped by Me109s and Albert was shot down (as were 3 colleagues) but managed to bale out into the English Channel. After three hours paddling in his dinghy, he was spotted by two ME 109’s, and then picked up by a German motor boat. He was to spend the rest of the war in Stalag 357, Falling-Bostel, until liberation in April ‘45. WO2 Albert Tysowski was returned to Canada eventually passing away on 28^th August 2016, at Kamsack, Saskatchewan, aged 96.

The tally of aircraft prepared by this small team is really quite extraordinary. On the 14^th September ’42 the 16 Spitfires and 2 Hawker Hurricanes arrived on board the SS Empire Heath.

The next day 70 Spitfires and 27 Hurricanes, delivered by the SS Empire Cabot and SS Empire Franklin, which had arrived as part of the same convoy (OG89) as SS Empire Heath. All were built and tested and most dispersed to vacant areas in 11 days. However 32 of the assembled Spitfires were then transferred to HMS Furious who flew-off 29 of them to Malta on 29^th October. (Operation Train, which was the last delivery of Spitfires to Malta by carrier)

This was also the day when three Decima X frogmen entered the water at Punta Mayorga and placed limpet mines on the SS Ravenspoint, lying in the Commercial Harbour, 7 cables (1600 yards) off North Mole. Three mines exploded on the port side, the ship flooded and sank, sitting on the bottom on an even keel in 30 ft of water. (See postscript)

On the 29^th September, 20 more Spitfires arrived, many of which had been damaged in transit, presumably by rough weather at sea, requiring additional work.

The 28th October saw the arrival of 116 Spitfires and 13 Hurricanes to be prepared for Operation Torch.

What is apparent to us today, though unknown at that time to everybody except the invasion planners, is that the prime purpose of providing the S.E.P. in Gibraltar was to facilitate Operation Torch.

So, a last word from Bill Snell of the S.E.P:

‘Later on we fitted overload tanks to the belly of the Spitfire and they were able to fly non-stop from Gibraltar to Malta. A very brave pilot tried the first overloaded ‘plane. He had been badly burned in a previous crash and said, “If I don’t make it, with these burns I won’t be missed a lot.” Unfortunately, I can’t remember his name. We assembled about 1700 Spitfires and some Hurricanes in the twelve months we were there. Then we moved onto North Africa.’

From October 1942, adapted Spitfire Mk VCs with additional internal and external fuel tanks and most armament removed were capable of flying the 1100 miles from Gibraltar to Malta, which made Club Runs redundant.

Operation Torch began before dawn on the 8th November, when Gibraltar was locked down, the frontier closed and one hundred thousand soldiers on the high seas in a multitude of transports converged on Gibraltar.  A reputed 650 aircraft of all types were crowded into the dispersal areas around the Gibraltar runway. During October, additional accommodation had been provided by the construction of 42 Nissen huts on the Cormorant reclamation. Every available storage area was filled with fuel, ammunition and other essential supplies; some 168 American pilots were billeted at RAF North Front... and some 466 Gibraltar aircraft landed on captured airfields in North Africa.

Postscript:

So what happened to all those delivery pilots who had ferried aircraft to Malta?  Civilian operator BOAC ran a regular collection service bringing them back to the Rock and then on to the UK using the Curtiss CW- 20A pictured.

And what about all the crates, that SEP were left with, after re-assembling aircraft? Some undoubtedly found their way across the border to be incorporated into the shanty towns around La Linea… and I remember that when the Parcel Post Office moved from Landport Ditch up to what is now Grand Battery House, observing the stencilled marks on the ceiling planks and wondering where they came from. Now I think I know, where at least some of them originated.

Additionally, the Admiralty expressed this thought after the attack on Ravenspoint:

'In view of the prevalence of attacks by limpet mines and time bombs clamped to the bilge keels of British vessels in Spanish waters, enquiries were made whether Spanish authorities would be prepared to arrange for ships to be examined by divers. Replies showed that the scheme would be practicable at Seville and Cadiz, but it was decided not to proceed with it in view of the notorious amenability of the Spaniards to bribery. It was hoped that the knowledge that at any time we might institute such a search might have a deterrent effect.'

 

First published at Gibraltar History Society Chronicle 2023.    Paul Hodkinson.