Prof. Niles Bohrs flight from Bromma to Leuchars

[vingtor]

Originally Posted by FrankieS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7691137@N06/3749134003/

This is the same photo as catalogue No. CH10666 in the IWM photo collection (and copyrighted by IWM).

It is also printed in the book "Blockade Runners" by Lars-Axel Nilsson and Leif A. Sandberg. According to the captions the three BOAC officers are R/O Frank Frape, R/O James Payne and Capt. Nigel Pelly. I think however Pelly is wrong and that it is in fact Rae.

Nils

[vingtor]

ai have just discovered that the passenger and crew list for Bohr's flight is published in the book Kurirflyg by Lars-Axel Nilsson and Leif A. Sandberg, also translated to English with the title Blockade Runners.

The document specify that the danish professor Niels Henrik David Bohr traveled to Britain in a Mosquito 6 October 1943, departing 18:45. The crew was Alf Kristian Hiorth and Kaare Wigen.

The document does however list the aircraft's registration as "AGGG". This does not match the Bromma Journals which list G-AGGC as the only BOAC aircraft departing that day, at 18:40 piloted by Hiorth.

G-AGGG did however depart on 7 October at 18:53, piloted by Capt. Vernon A. M. Hunt.

Interestingly, I have had this book for 10-20 years and I have used it much as a reference the last couple of years, but I have not looked at the final pages where this document is reproduced.

Nils

[FrankieS]

So interesting a story !

Denmark to Sweden,
Sweden to United Kingdom,
UK to USA.

On the internet I couldn't find out about
the last leg of his journey:
when, from where and with what
ship did Bohr and his student son Aage Niels
escape to USA and when/where there did
they arrive?
Can anybody clarify this?


thanx,
FrankieS

[Adriano Baumgartner]

I finally found, amongst my hundreds of book that one I mentioned before. On pages 64-65 from the book "The Danish Resistance" by David Lampe, it is said that "apparently" on the first flight to carry out Niels Bohr, the Mosquito suffered engine failure and came back to Stockholm:
"The Secretary watched the take-off, then decided he would wait at the aerodrome for a while before returning to his home in the city. Half an hour later the Mosquito landed again in the field; engine trouble had forced it back. Dr. Bohr would have to wait until the next night to get to England. The Germans dared take no direct action agains Bohr while he was in Sweden, but they were looking everywhere for him, hiping to prevent his leaving. A naturalized Swede, German by birth, reported to the Nazi espionage agents in Stockholm that he had seen Bohr at the aerodrome. At the time the Danes did not know of this security leak. Whether it was a result of the information the Germans received is not known - but one of the two Mosquitos bombers that left Stockholm the following night never reached England. On this next evening Bohr was again strapped into a Mosquito bomb's bay and the aircraft took off. This time it did not return"
1- Was there an early return due to engine trouble recorded on the Stockholm files/archives?
2- Was there a Mosquito loss reported on the days before and after the actual flight that brought Niels Bohr to security?
Yours
Adriano Baumgartner

[vingtor]

The Bromma Jounals would have recorded any returned flights. There were no returned flights on the 6th or 7th October 1943. The nearest is 18 October when G-AGGD returned after 34 minutes due to engine trouble. There were two returned flights in 2 October, with G-AGGC. These are however listed as "test flights", indicating that the return was planned. It eventually departed for Britain after the two test flights.

There were no Mosquito losses around this time. G-AGGG was lost on 25 October, with an American government official as passenger.

The Swedish spy, working for ABA, would have been Johan Emil Müller, who was known for his sympathies to Germany (where he was born) already in 1940.

Nils

[Carl-Fredrik Geust]

Hello Vingtor, will your coming book also mention the "Russian" courier flights (Ia. Soviet diplomats on board Swedish/British aircraft)? One Swedish aircraft with family members of Soviet diplomats was shot down by German fighters - the case is rather well known, but I have got some additional Russian info (I am now in my summer house without access to my library),
Carl-Fredrik Geust
carl.geust@pp.inet.fi

[Chris Going]

Interesting thread, this. Our family lore is that my late uncle, Albert Christensen, and his wife 'Missie' were involved in Bohr's exfiltration from Denmark. This involved their promenading along a small stretch of coast path north of Kopenhagen for a number of evenings at a more or less set time until the German sentries were used to seeing them. Then Bohr, dressed to resemble my uncle, took his place on the walk out -presumably A Christensen had laid up somewhere on the route earlier in the day. Bohr and he would have swapped overcoat/hats etc at some secluded rendezvous, then AC would have returned along the path with his wife while Bohr slipped across the Kattegat in a small boat. My uncle never talked about any of this on the grounds that the techniques were still very much valid. But he did use the air route himself once or twice, I believe.

Best


Chrisg

[vingtor]

Hi Kalle. We have met a couple of times at the FLIT meetings at Malmen, at least I remember your name from there. I am planning to go this year as well, in case you are. Anyway, the scope of my book is the flights between Britain and Sweden during WWII, covering British, Norwegian, Swedish and American services/operations. All shoot-downs and accidents are described in detail. Thus if you have supplementary information, I would be very interested. I am also to and fro my summer house during the summer, but I will contact you by e-mail, and we can take it from there.

And to Chris. Details about Bohr's flight is very interesting. Although the escape from Denmark may be outside the scope for the book (or maybe not?), I find the whole story very interesting and if not covered in the book it should at least be subject for an article. Thus, any detail about the escape from Denmark is welcome.

Cheers
Nils Mathisrud
(nils@vingtor.net)

[FrankieS]

addendum:

Transfer of Niels and Aage Bohr from Scotland to the U.S. was
by steamer RMS Aquitania

29./30.11.1943 Greenock/Glasgow
06.12.1943 NY (?Long Island)


bye,
FrankieS