Arctic Airmen The RAF in Spitsbergen and North Russia, 1942

In 1942 a Catalina crew of 219 Squadron, based in the Shetlands, was selected to carry out a series of top secret operations, including a flight to the North Pole. They were made at the same time as a Norwegian expedition to Spitzbergen to keep the Germans out of the area. The flights were over 24 hours long and reached the limits of human endurance in the extreme cold. Later, the Squadron provided cover for the Russian convoys. Ernest Schofield was the navigator on the crew and retained the logs. These were extraordinary missions, and on 21 September one ended with a Ju88 attack and tragedy.

Ernest Schofield joined the RAFVR (Volunteer Reserve) in 1940 and his tour of operations on Catalina flying boats ended in 1943. He was too valuable to lose and became an instructor for the rest of the war. Roy Conyers Nesbit joined the RAFVR one year earlier. He flew Bristol Beauforts and later Dakotas over Southeast Asia. He is the author of more than 25 books on air history.