Secret Mission
May 9, 2008 – 6:00 amIn the book, Dead Reckoning by McAvoy and Sigfred, we learn about the early days of aviation through the life of Sture V. Siegfred. One of his flights played a significant role in World War II.
In November of 1943, Sture received orders for a secret mission with instructions not to reveal the route of the flight, not even to the crew. As ordered, on Sunday, November 13, he left for West Palm Beach and on to Puerto Rico. Then to British Guiana, Natal in Brazil, Ascension Island, Accra in Ghana, Maiduguari in Nigeria, and then to Khartoum. On November 20, he made the final hop from Khartoum in Sudan to Cairo, Egypt.
Those of you with a good sense of World War II history will realize that this flight took place about the time of the Cairo Conference (November 22-26) when President Roosevelt met with Prime Minister Churchill and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. At many of the airfields where Sture stopped, he was asked if FDR was on the plane. He always answered in the negative.
At the Cairo Conference, a joint declaration was agreed upon to wage war against Japan until their government agreed to unconditional surrender. This conference was followed by the Teheran Conference November 28 to December 1. Here Roosevelt and Churchill were joined by Joseph Stalin at which time they agreed to cooperatively strengthen their operatons against Germany.
While in Cairo, Sture and his crew were assigned to fly wounded soldiers from Cairo to Khartoum, 1000 miles away. However, they did have time to enjoy some of the normal sight-seeing activities of visitors.
It was not until December 10, 1943 that Sture and his crew returned their passengers via the same route back to the United States.
The war still had many months of fighting before the end.
For more stories of World War II, please go to www.peggeorge.com.
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