Shadows : Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria 1967-1970

146 Pages·2000·136.73 MB·English

by  Michael I. Draper

Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria
1967-1970
/
Michael 1. Draper
!
Firstpublished in Great Britain in 1999by ALSOAVAILABLE CONTENTS
Hikoki Publications Ltd
16Newport Road, Aldershot, Hants, GU124PB
Eyesforthe Phoenix
Tel[phone] Fax:[phone]
Allied Aerial Photo-Reconnaissance Operationsin
email: [email protected] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 4 CHAPTER 7
South- ast Asia 1941-1945
Website: http//www.hikoki.dircon.co.uk/ Nordchurchaid airlift begins 142
by
© 1999HikokiPublications
GeoffreyThomas FOREWORD JointChurch Aid emerges;InternationalRed Cross
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the ISBN0951989944 By Frederick Forsyth 8 Operation 'lnalwa' started
purposeofprivatestudy, research, criticism orreview, as
permitted under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act CourageAlone
CHAPTER 8
1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, The Italian Air Force 1940-1943 INTRODUCTION
stored in aretrieval system,ortransmitted in anyform or by "Fly now-pray later" 157
And a crash in the Cameroons 9
byanymeans,electronic,electrical,chemical,mechanical, Chris Dunning TheChurch airliftisconsolidated;JointChurch Aid
optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without ISBN 1902109023 is launched; the IRC opens a new base at CotonOL!
priorwrittenpermission. All enquiriesshouldbedirected
CHAPTER 1
to thepublisher.
TheSecret Years
Crisis and Action 15 CHAPTER 9
FlightTestingatBoscombe Down 1939-1945
ISBN I 902109635
by TheDeclaration ofSecession Biafra 185
Edited by BarryKetley Tim Mason Old faces; old aircraft; new faces; new aircraft
Artwork by David Howley ISBN0951989995 CHAPTER 2
Design by Hikoki Publications
EstablishingBiafra's 'first' Air Force 23 COLOUR SECTION 2 193
Printed in England by Ian Allan Printing Emblemsofthe RisingSun
Imperial JapaneseArmy Air Force UnitMarkings
Distribution & Marketing by CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 10
in UK and Europe PeterScott
by ISB 1902109554 The arms airlift to Biafra 51 Biafran Air Force Operations 217
Midland Counties Publications
Establishing Biafra's 'second' AirForce
24TheHollow, al'l Shilton, Leicester LE97NA
LuftwaffeEmblems1939-1945 CHAPTER 4
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Federal Nigerian Air Force 71 CHAPTER 11
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CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 12
1713-20 Allied Lane,Charlottesville, Virginia
22903-5336, USA Stormbird Biafran relief aid starts 96 The Nigerians close in 239
Tel:[phone] Fax:[phone] Flyingthrough fireasaLuftwaffeground-attack Politics ofrelief; the wargrinds on
Biafra's final hour
email: [email protected]
pilotand Me262ace
by
CapliOl/la rearcover: OneoflhelelslingimagesoflheNigeriall Civil COLOUR SECTION 1 97 CHAPTER 13
War lVasoflhestarvingallddyillgchildrenin Biafra. Fora IVhilethe Oberst(i.R.) Hermann Buchner
worldslOodhelplesslyby. Thel/ Ihe reliefairliftstarted Foreighteen ISBN 0902109007 Postscript 259
mOl7lhs religiollsgrollps ofdifferentfililhs workedlogelher tofeed a
CHAPTER 6
nmioll. FatherJoePrendelgaslwasoneofalIumberofCmholicpriesls
WhiteEagles
of/heIrish/-IolyGhostOrderwhoworkedillappallillgcondilions/0help Uti and Uga 134
savelivesoflheII'IOSIvllillerable./-IereheofferscOlllforl10oneofhis"lil The Aircraft,Men and Operations
liefella's" IVho isslllJeringjiWIIInvashiorkor, anoftellfalalcondilioll ofthe Polish AirForce 1918-1939 The lifeline airstrips APPENDIXES 263
callsedby extreme prolein deficiency. This lVas Ihe lIIain illspiralioll
by
behilldIhemassiveairlift.JoePrendelgastnowlivesqllieliyinCalifor
Ilia;hopejidlyIhe "lilliefella",1I01V30yearson.alsoelljoysapeacejil! Bartlomiej Belcarz& Robert Peczkowski
life.
ISB 0902I09732
Cap/iOI/IOlillepage:2hOllrs46mil'/illeSil7loilsfligfiljiwnAbidjallio
SaoTomeon16Allgusl1968andAnsonG-AWMG'sinstrlllllelllsindi Condor
ca/easCilisfi,CIOIYcrllisil/gspeedanddeadallcourse. Theco-pilol's
The Luftwaffe in Spain 1936-1939
face, IlOwever,expressescancel'llovertherClieoffileljlowfi'oman
IlIltesledalldunorthodoxallxiliclIYjilelS)lSlem. InrealilyIheiliain by
cabinJloorlI'asawashillavialionjilel. Thefliglll-decklVindoll'shad Patrick Laureau
alreadybeenopened10redllceIhejillllesinsideIheaircraftaslVellas
ISBN0902109104
!lying10redllceIheejJeCiofanoverheadIropicalSlln. Biafi'aprol'ed10
beaplaceIInfilforIhefililll-heaned(RayRoberls)
of Biafra's principle gun-runner, Hank Warton. It was becareful inonly repeatingthosewhichcan besubstanti
Luis' first-hand notes and his outstanding sketches that ated bysomedegreeoffactual evidence. Lt has notbeen
form the basis for colour schemes contained within this easy to exclude some stories but without any corrobora
book. tiveevidence,excludedtheyhavebeen. Oneinternation
al arms dealer spent many hours answering the most
--- In 1970,after theNigerian Civil War had ended, Peter searchingofquestionson thestrictunderstandingthathis
•• Marsonandtheauthorembarkeduponagradual process identity would not be revealed. It hasn't, but his assis
~tn'l\\ \~
•• , " of piecing the story together. The publisher has put my tance was crucial, as was also the un-named source who
nameon thecoverbutPeter'sshould be upthereaswell. acquired, on the author's behalf, various extracts from
• I
SALAJR ' Although virtuallycompleteby1982,thework came to a confidential French Police records on Baron Oppen
halt when both began separately developing other non heim'sactivities.
related projects, the authorcollaboratingon abook cov
ering theFalklandsAirWar. Pressureofotherworkthen Ifthebook had astart-point then it probablyoccurred
keptBiafraontheback-burneruntiltheendof1996when intheQueen Elizabeth Hospitalat ll1uahia, Biafra,dur
an article by Joao Vidal on Biafran T-6G Texan opera ing September 1968, with several all-too-briefconversa
tionsappeared in thejournal Air Enthusiasl. Thisarticle tions with Count Gustav von Rosen, and with Godwin
provided manyanswersto the only remaining'greyarea' Ezeilo, a Biafran Air Force officer. Von Rosen had
anditistothecreditofJoaoandthejournal'seditor,Ken recentlybrokenan airblockadeinto Biafraand wasvisit
Ellis, that this book was then dragged screaming onto a ing relief administrators. On each occasion the author
word-processorand finallycompleted. wastheretovisitaninjuredcrewmemberfrom theAnson
G-AWMG butwouldoccasionallyjoin impromptu meet
But aword ofwarning. This is not the tale ofaircom ingsand itwas from those di cussionsthat thegerm ofan
bat. Apart from the shoot-down ofaRed Cross DC-7B, idea for thisbook began to grow.
to thebestofthe author's knowledge there were no inci
dents of air-to-air combat. There were some incidents Beingon thespotatthe right time helpedenormously.
PREFACE &ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
that came close to that description and on several occa On Sao Tome, Axel Duch, having left Air America and
sionsNigerianMiG-17sattemptedtointerceptBiafranT Vietnam to take up a position with Nordchurchaid,
6Gs and MFI-9Bs. Virtually all operational sorties by offered amuch-valued insight into the early attempts to
Africa, throughout the 1960s, was a continent in tur R.A.F. Avro Anson. Lt was at atime when no food was both sides were ground-attack missions in support of launch a relief airlift. On Fernando Poo island the
moil. The former Belgian Congo had witnessed civil war beingAowninandtheAnsonhadbeendesignatedtoferry army commanders. Some of the target locations were employees of Bristow Helicopters Ltd freely opened up
sincethestateofKatangahadbeendeclaredinJune 1960; reliefsuppliesfromtheislandofFernandoPootoBiafra* therefore quite obscure and the measurement ofsuccess old Situation Reportsand other records which helped to
unrestin AngolahadescalatedintoawaragainstthePor But it was during astopover on Sao Tome that he wit difficult to define. Some details ofspecific airsorties are describethe final daysatPortHarcourt. Oneoftheengi
tuguesecolonialistregimeaswasthecaseinanother Por nessed asmall Aeet of recently-gathered DC-7C aircraft included but this is primarily the story of the individual neers, Lan McLeod, had also kept adiaryofdailyevents.
tuguese colony, Mozambique. Rhodesia had made a thattook hisinterest. Theyall hadclearlyfalseidentities. aircraftinvolved;wheretheyoriginated,wheretheywere Inspiteofthelanguagebarrier,theSanta Isabel AirTraf
unilateraldeclarationofindependenceinNovember1965 On several return visitstoSaoTome he metanumberof basedandwheretheyendedtheirdays.Itisa torydriven fic Control staffalso allowed access to tower logs etc, as
andotherconAictsinvolved Ethiopia, EritreaandSudan. crewsinthebarofthePousadaSaoGeronimo,andgained by colour schemes, markings, destinations and cargoe . well asprovingtobeafontofmuch knowledge.
The igerian Civil War (in which the Eastern State of a fascinating and first-hand insight into Biafra's support Inevitably,inaworksuch as this, thestorywill be incom
Nigeriadeclared itselfastheindependentsovereignstate operations from thatisland. plete and despite exhaustive research details of some Biafrawassomethingofadichotomy;onoccasionsmi
ofBiafra) was aparticularly vicious African war. That it eventsarelacking. Ifitinspiresotherresearcher todelve sionaries mixed freely with international arms dealers;
lastedfromJuly1967untilJanuary 1970was, forthemost Subsequently the author became embroiled in anaive newsourcesthen itsobjectivehasbeen achieved. many missionaries,especiallythose Catholicpriests from
part, the result of considerable external assistance for attempt to export a number of ex-R.A.F. Provo ts to Ireland,putupwith the mostappallinghardships to help
both sides. Landlocked from early-1968 the Biafrans Biafra. This, as well as having spent ome considerable A wordontheinclusionofChapterNotes. Aneminent feed the civilian population. They loaded aircrafton the
fought for their very existence-a fight against starvation time at Blackbushe in the company of pilots specifically scholaroncerightlyclaimed that there is nosuch thingas islands;theyofAoadedthemat Ii,oftenunderaveryreal
and a well-armed enemy. A hugely successful publicity hiredto AyabatchofproposedBiafran AirForceHunter 'oral history';thereisonly'oralevidence','history' being threatofbombing. They knewmostofthe aircrews;they
campaign launched by the Biafrans during1968brought jets,convinced him thatonedayastorywould unfold. what historians make of all their evidence. Again and even buried some ofthem after the inevitable accidents
the conAict to the forefront of world conscience. As a againduringworkonthisbooktheauthorhasbeenstruck and crashes. (The author highly recommends Fr Tony
result the Churches, the International Red Cross and Lt was during the earliest period of researching the by the fallibility and the treachery of human memory, Byrne's book, Airlift To Siafra for amodest, yet honest,
otheragenciesrai edsufficientfundstolaunchareliefair Biafran operation that the author metwith PeterJ. Mar especially when the teller is looking back 30-plus years. recollectionoftheairlift. AlsoFrBilly Butler'sautobiog
lift into Biafra, an airlift which, in tonnage proportions, sont. Renowned forhisextensiveknowledgeoftheLock Giventhenatureofthesubjectprimaryreferencesources raphyTo PlacesFarAway-A WandererForChristwhich
wassecondonlytothe1948-49BerlinAirLift. Butunlike heed Constellation series Peter had, and with the helpof in the form of official documentation are not generally successfully portrays Father Butler's unique humour,
theBerlin affairthe airliftto Biafra was almostentirelya LuisTavares in Lisbon, closely monitored the operation available. Becauseofthis,andtheneedtorelyupon'oral often in the face ofhuman misery).
civil airliftandoperatedonlyat nightintoan airstripcon evidence' which normally would only help in leavening
2Above: Jakob Ringlerarrivedat Sao Tome inJune 196910 assisl
verted from a bush road. It was, and still remains, the FalherTonyByrne,theIrishPriestandinstigatoroJlheCARITASrelieJ the narrativewith anecdotal recollections,the authorhas The late Reverend William Aitken proved an enor
largestcivilian airliftsincetheSecond World War. airliflloBiafra. ThroughhiscameralensJakobsubsequemlycapllll-ed quoted the verbal sourcewhereverpossible. moushelpduringtheearlydaysofresearch. tPortHar
evelYsignificantevemontheisland. InIhissimplislicviewan Imerna court and then at Uli for much of the war, Bill had the
Theauthorhasbeen concerned topresentthe happen lionalRedCrossBoeingC-97CbringsinacargooJurgentrelieJaidafter Manyofthese verbal ource ,forquiteunderstandable foresight to keep adiary to which he allowed full access.
IheRedCrossairliflfromCOlonouhadbeensuspendedon6June1969.
ingsofa30-month conAict in an objectiveand assystem reasons, demand no m ntion, norseek anycredit. Some Fr Anthony Byrne (who featured so prominently in set
The twin-flSh insigniaojJOINTCHURCHAID becal'nean instamly
aticamanneras possible. Some ofitwas seen first hand recogniseablesymboloJthemassiveChurcheffortft'omSaoTomeasdid haverelatedunbelievablycolourfuldetail ofvariousinci tinguptheSaoTomeairlift)offeredconsiderablesupport
when,inJuly1968,hewasaskedtojointhecrewofanex- Iheratherdrab-lookingC-97CintheJarbackground dents-whichareprobablytrue-buttheauthorhastriedto and acted as a much-valued conduit for contacting air-
4 5
crew. SodidFrBillyButler,FrTom Cunninghamand Fr Guillemot and Emmanuel d'Herbes. Two other pilots and Jean-Pierre Dubois. From Canada, Brian Harris AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Joe Prendergast, all of whom did much of the unglam gave valuable time and information; they were Biafran made available original documentation on Canairelief's
orous work on the relief airlift. Fr Leo Laden provided AirForcepilotsWillyMurray-BruceandLarryObechie. operation; Larry Milberry also assisted in no small way. All place-names are shown as they were known at the
vital material from church archives in Dublin. time of the 1967-70 conAict. Since then some countries
In the USA, Stefan Bailis and Bob Cobaugh helped The author thanks Sue Bellamy of the Bermuda Civil have changed name as have capital cities, airports and
Accident investigators and assessors Peter J. Cooper, clarify the situation regarding the Biafran B-25s; Scott Aviation Authority, Tony Beales and Jerry Boyd (of stateboundariesetc.
and Fred Kirby helped enormously as did John Thompson (author of The B-25 in Civil Service) added British Airways) and icky Pearce who provided avalu
Humphreys, of Amnesty International, to whom the furtherdetails. JackMallochandHankWartonboth per able link with former aircrew on Jack Malloch's arms The island of Fernando Poo, together with Rio Muni on
author isgrateful fordetailsofthe L-749A '5N85H'acci sonallyprovidedauniqueinsightintotheirrespectiveAy nights. themainland,constitutedSpanish EquatorialGuinea.On
dent. Sister Ann Bent, former Matron at Umuahia's ing experiences, especially Hank who allowed access to the island the main town (which gave its name to the air
Queen Elizabeth Hospital and a passenger on the last his personal papers. Hank's Operations Manager, Twoaviationhistorianshavebeenkindenoughtoallow port) wasSanta Isabel.
Aight ofWarton's ill-fated L-1049D '5T-TAC', offered a Bertram Peterson, through his brother Frank, also made their respective published works to be used as aprimary
unique insight into the Bissau incident. Alex Rumley available his collection of documents and photographs. source and parts quoted within these pages. Leif Hell During October 1968Spanish Equatorial Guinea gained
(late of Templewood Aviation Ltd) made available his Other former employees of Hank Warton who helped strom, joint-author of Foreign Invaders, extensively independence from Spain to become The Republic of
own personal files, without which some ofthe grey areas enormously include John Trent, Larry Raab, Jack researched the Biafran B-26 operation and was particu Equatorial Guinea. Fernando Poo was renamed Bioko
ofthe arms-supplychain would have remained distinctly Crosson, Clyde Arnspeiger and Derick'Red' Mettrick. larly helpful, as was Joao Vidal who unearthed the com and Santa Isabel became Malabo. The first President of
darkgrey! Flight crews from Jack Malloch's operation, including plex story of Biafra's T-6G operations. Without their independent Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macias
Malcolm Porter, Ian Rodwell, Colin Miller, Cliff respectiveinputthesesubjectswouldhavebeenconsider Ngueme,ran theStatein aharsh dictatorial manneruntil
Bruce Ronaldson (late ofOXFAM) allowed access to Hawthorne,DaveGoldsmith,Brian Ditcham,JackWight ably shorter on detail. Lennart Burns also helped enor overthrown in a coup on 3 August 1979. However the
his records; Pastor Mollerup allowed extracts from the andHenryKinnearallgenerouslyofferedtime,assistance mously by liaising with the publisher ofthe late Gunnar island remains one ofthe few places in the world where
Nordchurchaid Operations Report and Chamrong Lo anddetailsfrom personal FlyingLog-Books. Theauthor Haglund's book GueriLlapiLol in which the Biafran MFI outsidevisitorsaredistinctlyunwelcome.Throughoutthe
(Comite International de la Croix-Rouge) undertook isalsogratefultoChristopherHalseforallowingaccessto 9Bsagaisrelated. StefanSjodinverykindlyundertookall textthepre-October1968names havebeen used.
searchesofICRCrecords. the log-booksofhis lateFather,CliveHalse. ofthe translatingprocess.
TheislandsofSaoTOOleand thesmallerPrincipeformed
Aircrewandgroundcrewonbothsidesprovidedinvalu Roy Chuck, Harold Peall and the lateHarold Bunday, Unearthingphotographsofaircraftandeventscovered part of the Portuguese Overseas Provinces until gaining
able detail of operations and incidents. Jimmy Webb, all formerly of Hawker Siddeley Aviation, helped to fit inthisbookhasbeenan utterjoy. Itshouldnotbeunder independence in 1974. By 1975 aclassic Marxist single
AresKlootwyk, PaulJenner,DavidPriest,Rod Priceand pieces of the jigsaw together, as did John F Coggins, emphasisedthattakingphotographsinNigeriawasstrict party regime had become established on Sao Tome and
Keith Sissons all offered important mission details from Simon Hare,Guy Kremer, RichardHumberstone,Stuart ly forbidden. Many shots were taken secretly from the islands became increasingly isolated. However even
their Flying Log-Books, as did Paul Martin who spent Marshall, Anton Ie Nobel, Stenn Addler, Solveig Aas doorways and cockpit windows. eedless to say being tually, in 1990,areferendum sought ademocracy within
many hours recountinghistime on NigerianJetProvosts brenn (of Fred Olsen), Dr David icolle and especially caughtwithacameraatUliwasanoffencelikelytoattract the islandsandclosertieswith Portugal.
and MiG-17s-and whomaintainedan amazinglydetailed Paul Baxter who helped start the engines of the errant instant arrest. Such is the rarity of some views. Of the
Flying Log Book. Alan Beardmore, Peter Cartcr, Jim Meteor NF.14 G-AX Eat Blackbushe and then unwit manyshotstaken atSaoTomemostoriginatefromJakob Of the main protagonists General Gowon remained in
Whelan,Jim Leahy,TedChatsfieldand Roy Pawson also tingly took agenuine holiday in Faro-much to the con Ringler'sprizedslidecollection.Jakobspentayearonthe power in post-war Nigeria but was finally overthrown on
provided background information to the Federal side. cernofHMCustoms& Excisewhopromptlyarrestedhim islandworkingas FrByrne'sassistant-and ifitmoved,he 29 September 1975. He later settled in the UK. On the
The late Marian Kozubski always insisted that he "did on hisreturn! TheauthorisalsoindebtedtothelateJohn photographed it! So did Keith Sissons (on the Federal otherhandOjukwu,the former Biafran leader,remained
nuzzing extr-r-r-aordinary" but fellow Pole Roman Squire, former Managing-Director of Aer Turas, whose side)andwhosecollectionofNigerianAirForceMiG-17s inexileintheIvoryCoastuntilmid-1982whenhewasqui
Hrycak,apartfrom recountinghisownexploits,talkedso amusing-yet true-stories have provided colour to some and Ilyushin 28s is equally unrivalled. In South Africa, etly allowed back to Nigeria where he entered normal
muchandsohighlyofhisextraordinaryfriend Marian'So incidents. OtherformerassociatesofAerTuras,notably Dave Becker has kindly allowed access to his collection. business life.
did Marian's widow, Sheila Kozubski, who kindly made Capt W.H. 'Bluey' Gardiner, Malcolm Nason, Eamon Theauthorhastried in every instance tolocateand iden
variouspapersavailable. MikeDowningand Mick Peck Powerand FrankSmith addedvital bitsofthestory. Nic tify the rightful copyright owner of each picture and to ':' BruceHilton tellsthestoryofthe Ansons' involvement
ham were especially helpful with details of early move Taaffeofferedvaluableassistanceatdifficulttimesasdid acknowledge accordingly. Inevitably, in an age ofscan in Biafra in the book Highly Irregular (published byThe
mentsat Kano. Bryan Mather, 'Sandy' Burns, Tony Merton-Jones, Paul ningandcopying, there will unknowinglybesomeerrors Macmillan Company1969). TheAnsonsalsoprovidethe
Howard,Paul Wigley, Alan Brough, Dave Cotterell and and omissions-for that both the author and publisher backdropand inspiration forthenovel, The BlindSideby
On the Biafran side acknowledgment is due to Marcel members of the Keegan dynasty, especially Kevin Kee apologise. Some illustrations show a 'Confidential FrancisClifford(publishedbyHodder& Stoughton 1971)
Tschudin(ofBalair)andalsotomanyNordchurchaidair gan.Jim WildeandTony MabelisofBristowHelicopters Source'. In such cases the photographer has specifically
crew. They include Verdun Polley, Eddie Roocroft, Phil addedimportantinformationonthatcompany'sactivities requested anonymity. All may rest in the knowledge that :j: PeterJMarson is the authorofThe Lockheed Conslel
Philip, Amund Klepp, Harold Snelholm, Einer Gud asdid 'Jock' MacCaskel who, within days ofthe Biafran many of their photographs have provided the basis for [alion Series, published by Air Britain (Historians) Ltd
laugsson, Runolfur Sigurdsson and also Bernie Murphy collapse,travelledtotheformerenclavetoinspectvarious David Howley'scolourdrawings. 1982.
who somehow managed to operate on both sides of the wrecks anddamagedaircraft.
conAict-food tooneside;armsto the other! David Nicoll Finally, the author wishes to acknowledge a dear old Note that timesshown within the text aregiven either in
kindly lent the Flying Log-Books and personal papers of The author has also made use ofspecialists within the friend, John Mitchell-Smith, without whose telephone Greenwich MeanTime (orZulu), or Local time(Local).
hislatefather,AlexNicoll. GroundcrewsPhilTownsend, aviation historical association, Air-Britain. My good calljustoverthirtyyearsago,Biafra-totheauthor-would
Ron Blake and Frank Strainge provided adifferent but friend ofmany years, Bob Ruffle, dugdeep into his files still have been just another small and long-forgotten
much-valued perspective on the support aspect and the on Soviet-built aircraft to unravel some of the details African war.
author gratefully acknowledges Malcolm Finnis who relatingtotheFederalNigerianside. JeremyParkin,Ken
madesomeoftheinitial introductions. Measures,TerrySykes,Peter-MichaelGerhardt,Jennifer
Gradidgeand especiallyGeoffRussell all provided valu Michael 1. Draper,
A numberofpilotsoperatingon theFrenchreliefairlift abledetailsontheirchosensubjects. FordetailsofFrench Hampshire, UK, September1999
from Librevillewerealsohelpful,especiallyJean-Renaud aircraftinvolvedtheauthorisindebtedtoJacquesChillon
6 7
FOREWORD
by
Frederick Forsyth
emory fades with the passing years. yet most of us each time areliefplane approached and gave the pilot a
havesome recollections and imagesso firmly blazed into liny 'window' of illuminated runway on which to touch
ourmindsthat wecan neverforget them. down ordie.
INTRODUCTION
So it certainly is for those who. thirty year ago, \ it As they approached the darkened concrete strip in a
nes edtheagonyofasmallself-styled West African state totallyblack Africannight.theycouldhearthemercenary
And acrash in the Cameroons
calledBiafra. Beforethatthirty-monthconflictwith ige pilot flying the igerian bombers on the same wave
ria was over and Biafra had been conquered and re length. jeering at them. daring them to land when the
ab orbedintotheNigerianfederation,somethingcloseto lightsflashed on forafewelusiveseconds.
"The ast". claimed Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu Commonwealth, the country had been administered
a million people had died of starvation-a hunger that
Ojukwu, the Military Governor of igeria's Eastern along traditional Crown Colony line. But independent
stemmed directly from the food blockade imposed as a It was crazy, it was hairy. it was impossiblydangerous;
Region, after attending the Aburi Peace Conference in Nigeriahadbeenestablished with almostnoobviouscon
concomitant ofthe war. it hould never have worked. But somehow it did-night
January 1967"can takecareofitselfandshouldtheGov sideration for tribal distribution or language groupings.
afternightafternight.When theplaneslandedandtaxied
ernm nt in Lagos, or the Government in the orth-in Atonestage igeriacouldboasIallea t250differentlan
But there would have been another million children into the welcome darkness by the side ofthe motorway
theirlunaticfrenzy-thinkofattackingtheEa twewould guage.
starvedintooblivionsaveforonething:sohorrifyingwere turned-landing-strip, willing hand hauled the sacks of
not only repulse them but we will certainly be sure that
thepicturesemergingfrom this African warthat thecon milk powderand bundlesofstockfish outofthe fuselages
they woulunever again want to attack the East. As early Independent Nigeria was divided into three distinct
sciences of the West were touched. from the USA and and away into the feeding centre. That done, the pilots
asJuly(1966) Iwasin aposition; I hadall theparaphana Regionswith theNorthconsiderablylargerthan theother
from Europe, from the Catholic and Protestant relief taxiedbacktothetake-offpoint,thelightsflickeredon for
lia with which to set up an alternative government but two. The e Regions largely corresponded with the three
agencies, from the Red Cross and from private donors, afewseconds,and theywere gone;back to the islandsto
then, as now, I have been very much concerned with the main tribes, each of which was fundamentally different
the funds weresupplied to endemergency relieffood to sleepthrough thedayanddo itagain the following night.
amountoflive 10St."1The threat,aswell a theconcerns, from either ofthe other two. The orthern Region con
thedyingchildren.
was real enough but by the time they were uttered ige sisted ofpredominantly the Hallsa tribe, traditionally of
There have been books about the igeria-Biafra war
ria wasdeep in crisis and moving headlong toward mili Muslim faith andverymuch feudal inoutlook.TheWest
But there was amajor problem: Biafra was blockaded before; about the fighting, about the priestsand mi sion
taryconflict. ern Region, primarily the Catholic Yonrba tribe, tended
byland.seaandair. Theonly feasibleway togetsacksof aries who helped on the ground, about the labyrinthine
tobethe nation'straders whilst theChristian Ibo tribe
the relief food into the enclave that Biafra had become political and diplomatic intrigues that went on through
Civil warsareparticularlydista teful and it isoftendif dominant in the Eastern Region-held most of igeria's
wastosetupanair-bridgefrom twooffshorei land.Fer the chancellories of Europe. But Mike Draper has here
ficult to benchmark asingularevent which leadsdirectly civil ervice and public life positions. Independence
nando Poo(Spanish)andSaoTome(Portuguese). concentratedmostlyon theair-bridgeitself:on thecreak
to full-scale war. In the case ofthe igerian ivil War it allowed the differences in igeria's peoples tocome out
ing.patched-upplanesthat flew.andon theoftenoddball
could, to coin an over-used contemporary expression. intotheopenanditwasthis.aboveallelse,\ hich laidthe
And so it was. The Joint Church Aid air operation risk-takers prepared to drive them. This is the story of
have been awarjust waiting to happen. ntil I October foundation for the civil war which brokeout seven years
remainsto thisdayuniquein theannalsofairoperations. howthe strangestair-bridgethe world haseverseen (or.
1960,when NigeriagainedIndependencefrom the British later.
Itwasnon-governmental. Thepilot weremercenariesor in fact. notseen for it flewonlyby night) was put togeth
volunteers. The aircraft were aramshackle collection of erandoperated.
4 Above: Nigeria Aif"'(!vs'fleel lI'as headquarleredal Lagos-Ikeja By sheer force of numbers the North had captured
time-expired or phased-out workhorse of the skie ,
lI'hereIhecompan)'lI1ainlainedanEngineeringBase. ThisIypicalpre overall control of the newly-independent entral Gov
culled from boneyardsalloverthc world. Frederick Forsyth, Hertford, UK, 1999
lI'arviell'sholl'SC-47AIDC-3s5N-AANand5N-AAP,bOlho/whichlI'ere ernmentin Lagosanddespitetheirgreater ophi tication
3Above: ··...Iheai!]JlaneslI'erearamshacklecollecliono/Iime-expired impressedillloNigerianAirForceserviceinAngnsl 1967. InsideIhe
membersoftheWesternand astern Regionswerenever
The 'airport' inside Biafra was no airport at all, but a orphased-ollllI'orkhorseso/Iheskies,cnlledji-oll1boneyardsalloverIhe hangarcanbeseenIhejin0/F-27Friendship5N-AAVwhichlI'asImer
likely to get any control for a long time, at least not
singlestripconverted from asection ofmotorway. Being lI'orld... NodescriplioncouldbellerdescribeIhisline-up0/Flughjalp's hijackedbyEaslemNigeriansoldiersinApril1967inanincidel1lwhich
underconstant threatofnocturnal bombingbytheNige DC-6sandDC-6BsalIheendo/IhelI'OI'ld'sICIIgeslcivilianairlift(Phil jifelledIhepolilicalInrmoilIhalnllill1melyled10civilwar(DaveBecker through a democratic election process. Thi realisation
Philip) Colleclion) led to widespread discontent which, on 15January 1966,
rians,ithadlead-in lightsthatflashedon forafewseconds
8 9
resulted in a number of young Army officer from the stocksofarmsforwhatwa beingseenbymany igerians adventurer-pilot, Lucien H Pickett,was about tou eitto chester rifles. all of which were still stored in Favier's
East launchingacoup again t the Lagos administration. a an inevitablecivil war. run gunsillegallyintoAlgeria. Dutch naval warehouse.
The timing ofthe coup was perfect; it took place on the
dayafter the first Commonwealth Conference to be held Manyattempts were madeto reconcile the differences By October 1965 a Swiss-American cntrcprcncur, Robert Turp had, it seems, refused offers to purchase
outsidethe nitedKingdomended.Among tthosekilled between Ojukwu and Gowon butall failed- until Janu Heinrich Heuer, claimed to the Dutch that he had pur Favier'sstockonanumberofoccasionsbuteventuallydid
were theNigerian Prime Ministerand mostofhis Minis ary 1967,when ameetingwas arranged in Aburi, Ghana chased theaircraftaspartofadeal toestablish anewair agree to store the weapons after Favier had complained
ters, includingthePremiersofthe orthernandWestern and to which all ofthe military governors had agreed to line in the African State of Burundi. Unfortunately for about the high storage costs in Holland. The agreement
Regions. ot unsurprisingly the new leader to emerge attend. Aburi undoubtedly offered a turning point in Heuer the West German police, who wanted him to wa ,however, dependent on Favier securing a Board of
from thecoup, Major-General guiyi-[ron i,anddespite NigerianpoliticsandOjukwusecuredanumberofpoliti answer charge relating to fraud. embezzlement, ar on Tradeimportlicence.Infactalicencehadpreviouslybeen
beingan Ibo. madealltherightpromisesforafutureand cal successesatthemeetingbutassoon ashewasback in and "recruiting for a foreign army" heard of hi arrival issuedbut Favierhadallowed it tolapse. Itwastherefore
table peace. "Tribal loyaltie ". claimed [ron i. "would Lagos, Gowan seemed unwilling to implement most of and managed to have him extradited toGermany before simplyastraightforwardrenewalandwithoutanyrealdif
giveway tonational recon truction." thedeci ionstaken.Ojukwudidnotdisgui ehisirritation theaircraftcouldbeflownout. With Heuerincu todyyet ficulty the transfer of Favier' weapons was legalised by
andeven began to talk ofcivil war. another German-American pilot, Henry'Hank' Warton, the issue of a K Import Licence and the e sential UK
Intryingtodefusethevolatile ituationin 'igeriaIron appearedat Rotterdamshortlyafterwardsandwith ome Import Certificate. Although they were becoming
si dispensed with the traditional offices of President, helpful persuasion from the Burundian Embassyin Paris, increasingly suspicious the Dutch authorities appear to
Prime Mini tel', aswell a the role ofPremier. Instead he The secret build-up of arms managed toconvince the Dutch to lethim flythe De-4M havebeen finallysatisfied.
appointed five military Commanders to govern the four out, 0 tensibly on a test-flight to Frankfurt. The Dutch
RegionsandtheFederal territoryofLago .Amongthose WhenOjukwuannouncedthattheEastcouldtakecare were probably pleased to see the aircraft depart and Several months later, and before any of the weapons
appointment was the namingofayoung igerian Army ofitselfhe did so with theclear knowledge that the Fed allowed Warton to fly it out ofRotterdam,onl9 Decem had been hipped, Favier returned to London in an
battalion commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu eral Military Government in Lagos had began building ber 1965.But Warton did not fly to Frankfurt: in tead he attempt to purchaseaquantityofrecently-reconditioned
Ojukwu as the new Military Governor of the Eastern stock ofarms. What had become known a the 'Apollo flewthe DC-4M tothe mallairfieldat Albenga,in north German MG42 machine-guns from Intor. He also
Region. But afteronlyseven months, on 2 July 1966 armsdeal" (sic) had involved ateam ofindividual led by ern Italy3 requested that Robert Turp arrange for a British-regis
andagainbythebullet-lronsiwasremoved frompower a orthern Army Officer, a Major Sule Apolo, being tered aircraft to deliver them to Favier's igerian client
duringa orthern-Iedcountercoup. despatchedbyLagostoEuropeinordertonegotiatearms Duringthesummerof1966Wartonannouncedthathe (the Eastern Region) at Port Harcourt. Turp claims to
purchases. One of the largest deals allegedly struck by had secured acontract to start a regular run of flowers have rejected both requests and Favier returned to Paris
Only in the East did the second coup fail and where Apolo was for a huge quantity of Italian weapons and from ItalytoGermany. Warton laterclaimed tohavevis toarrangefordeliveryofhisownstocks-ostensiblyfrom
Ojukwu remained firmly in control. But many Ibo east ammunitionwhichwasdeliveredalmostimmediatelyand ited Heuer, who was by then serving ajail sentence in Holland to London for temporarystorage.
erners weI' killed in the counter coup, especially those storedinamilitarywarehouseat Kaduna,northern ige We tGermany,andpaidovercash fortheaircraft,receiv
Iboswho had longsettled in the orthern Region. Ojuk ria. Gowan did admit that such a tran action had taken ingin return all ofthe aircraft'sdocumentation. (Warton Several weeks after refusing Favier's request the infa
wu pleaded for calm but many elected to return to their place but stated that the weapons were for the entire did subsequently learn that there wa some doubt as to mous DC-4M,and tillcarryingthe false Italian marks'1
eastern homeland. At the same time Ojukwu reaffirmed igerian Army including. under normal circumstances. whether Heuerhimselfhad actually paid for the aircraft; ACOA'. landed at Rotterdam's Zestienhoven airport.
hisrefusal toacceptthemilitaryauthorityofLagos.ledby thoseunit basedintheEast. ButOjukwuarguedthat the the previous owner in Britain later claimed that he had inboundfrom Italy,duringtheeveningof8October 1966.
Lt Colonel Yakubu GowansincetheJuly 1966coup. For situation was far from being normal and it was therefore not.) The appearanceofthe DC-4M immediately aroused the
several months the tension worsened throughout ige highly unlikely that any of the [talian arms would be suspicions of the Dutch airport authorities especially as
ria2. issued to the East. As a counter-point Gowon accused Beforehehadachancetostarttheflowercharterflights Warton made no secret that he had been instructed to
Ojukwuofsecretlybuildinguphisownarmsstocksin the Warton claims to have been approached by a German uplift the guns. Only after a Piper Aztec landed from
In the autumn of 1966 the situation changed dramati East. Andsoitwenton.Gowanwas,ofcourse,quitecor gentlemanwho-althoughhedidnotannouncethefactat Genevajustaftermidnighton the morningof9October,
cally and the fragile peace finally snapped in the orth. rectinhisassertionsandtheevidencelateremergedwhen the time-helaterdiscoveredwasactingasamiddle-man with four people aboard-almost certainly including
HaL/sas struck against those Ibos still livingoutside their aCanadair De-4M2, piloted by two well-known Ameri between theFrencharms-dealerPaul Favierandanemis- Favier-was the correct flight documentation able to be
homeland; thousands were killed and mostofthose who can adventurers,crashedwhilsten routetoEastern Nige ary from the Ea tern igeria Government, Christopher produced. The Dutch had little alternative but to allow
survived fled southwards. Many of the more fortunate ria. The twopilotson board had aknown track record of Okigbo. The un-named German made an offer that theaircrafttobeloaded.Therewasamomentofconcern
ones managed to take flights from Kano to Makurdijust runningillegalgunsaround Africa. Ojukwu'ssecretanns involved Warton flyingjustover 1,000gun from Rotter duringtheloadingwhenonecrate felloffafork-lifttruck,
to get out; onlookers at Kano airport witnessed up to80 dealsin Europeno longerremained asecret. dam to Port Harcourt.Eastern igeria. hit theground andscattered gun overthe tarmac. From
Ibosatatime,allwithoutanyluggage,clamberingaboard the airport bar Warton's co-pilot, 'Chuck' Pollock,
45-seater Nigeria Airways' F-27 Friendships ahead of Theaircraftinquestionhadhadachequeredlifebefore The deal involved a mixed hipment of British and watched the loadersgather up the spilled machine-guns;
orthern police armed with horse-Whips. Pan African the arms flight to Eastcrn igcria. Builtoriginally under American weapon that had originally been upplied to hewasalsowatchingtheDutchcustomsmenwatchingthe
Airline's De-6A 5N-AFT was also used for evacuating licencebyCanadairin 1948forTransCanada Airlines,as Holland at the end ofthe Second World War and which loadersand immediatelygrabbed hiscoat,declared him
IbosoutoftheNorth by flying large numbers from Kano CF-TFM,ithadbeensoldtoaBritishchartercompanyin Favier had purchased from an Israeli entrepreneur self"countedoutofthedeal",and walked out.
to Lagosand then on to Port Harcourt. 1961 and later stored at Baginton/Coventry for acouple (named Arazi) duringearly]964. hartlyafterwardspart
ofyears. Despite its registration marks havingbeen can ofthehaul,including500USBrowningmachine-gun had Despite remaining wary of Warton's intentions the
Once again, igeria faced almost certain political dis celled,itwaslaterflown northto ewcastlebutremained been shipped to IntoI' Ltd, one ofthe K's largest inde Dutch had no sound reason to top the depleted crew
integrationandthethreatoffurtherassassinationsdidlit on the ground and was later impounded by the airport pendent armsdealers, run byan ex-British Army Major, fromclimbingaboardandtakingoff.(HadtheRotterdam
tle to instil any confidence in a lasting peace. Rather authority there and sold byauction. Itsnext flight, again Robert Turp. The machine-gun were reconditioned at authoritie been aware that the Italian police had earlier
surprisinglytheHausasandtheIbosdidappeartodi play without any legal documentation, but with a false Pana Turp'souterLondon factoryatBexleyheathand,withfull impoundedtheaircraftowingtosomedoubtovertheair
someoutwardpatiencetowardstheclo eof 1966byplac manian regi tration 'HP-925', was to Limburg, Holland governmentapproval, were re old; the profitwa report craft's ownership then the Dutch may have intervened.
ing some reliance upon the entral Government to sort on9February1965.InHollandtheaircraftreceivedsome edly divided equally between Favier and IntoI' Ltd. By HadtheyalsoknownthatWartonhadjustspiritedtheair
out the chao and to hold together what was by then an rudimentary maintenance before being once again 1966 Favier had become anxious over the balance of craft out of Albenga on the pretence of making a local
extremelyfragileFederation.Butin realitythelullsimply impounded,thistimebythe Dutch at Rotterdamairport. unsold stock, said to consist of 3,600 US Thompson flight to test the state of the aircraft's engines, they
offered an opportunity for both sides to build up their The Dutch authorities had learnt that an American machine-guns and an equal quantity ofold British Lan- undoubtedly would have intervened. Pre umably the
10 11
Rotterdam authoritieswerealsounawarethat the Italian in Chad but the aircraft inadvertently overflew Chad. 5: The crash oj Hank
registration markswere false!) Orvis elson had, whilst Warton wa asleep in the main Warton's DC-4M 'I-ACOA'
fA)
(on II October 1966) could
cabin, maintained asoutherly heading but as their ETA BRITISH EMBASSY
have caused milch embar
Apbrt from Warton, the DC-4M crew included an for Fort Lamy approached nobody on the flight-deck YAOUNDE
rassment to the British Gov
merican Flight Engineer, Elliot Vought and an Italian caught ight of Lake Chad. Eventually Warton returned ernment had anybody (1)82/66) -R-E-cr-"-".c::. ,.~- 4 November, 1966.
~
Loadmaster,PasqualeLaveni,whoalsodoubledasanav totheflight-deckandwhenheenquireda totheaircraft' believedrumoursatthetime AR( CONFIDEN IAL ('..~,,'il,
-9NOV)966 ;-' ()
igator. Warton's co-pilot was Orvis M. elson-one of position elson admitted that they were lost. With fuel (allegedly originating in the ~.(' J..lY.'.....~,O'\-
the most colourful men in the history of American avia runninglowandlight fadingWarton tookovercontrolof US Embassy in the Cam ~K."1.J./~· ,)00"" .,soY
tion. (A former SAirForceand nitedAirLinespilot, the aircraft and elected to continue flying outhwards eroons) that the flight had . ~V "",,0'-a'?'
Orvis ~Ison had formed Transocean Air Lines in 1946, until the fuel position became critical. Inevitably one sTthaerteBdriituishBirAmminbgahsasamd,orUKin. FIJ ~"J -/ ;::;I(II~~~'-- ...\ v~,/,
buildingit upintothe world's largestcontractaircarrier. engine cut. When a second engine failed shortly after Yaounde, Cameroon,kepthis ,Would you please refer to your telegram o. ~52 of ~
When government regulations and financial problems wards Warton decided to make an emergency forced London masters up to date G27arOoucato.ber abo.:ut the arms sIm1ug,.~er61 forced landing near
withdeveloprnents througha
caused Transocean's collapse in the early 1960s, elson landingand cho ewhat appeared to be flat area besidea 2. We now have a copy of-the "Sunday Timesll of 23 October.
somehowarrangedfinancingforanotherventure,Aeron river.s psearticehses.oTjhciolneflildeel;notinaleodjtehse nLoutc,kaiolyf,artheasnwewesknoofwt,hegoBt,otahrrdouogfhTtroadteh'es CI~apmoerrtooLniicaennscaendhas
we are not yet SUbject to any criticism or even suggestions
avesdePanama,andbeganbuildinganotherempire.Suc series, outlines the precise of British involvement in the affair. Indeed, the Camerooniane
eeem to be keeping everything very much to themeelvee. Thie
cess,however,deniedNelson second-timearound4 Fir t reports from the cra hsite indicated that the air breakdown oj/he DC-4M's may change when the trial comes1up, of course.
craft had "sustained irrepairable damage" and that the cargo when i/ crashed in 3. Our informant hae taken another look at the official
northernCameroonandalso report and you may be.interested to know what the Cameroonians
ChristopherOkigbo,theNigerianpoet,hadplannedto crew, consisting of "three Americans and one Italian" eay about the European9'ld of the deal. They think, apparently,
adds ajascinatingpas/script that a Mr.. Ramuseen. from Enel.lJ!~agenAirport, Frankfurt, acted
take the opportunity of hitching a ride back to Eastern werecriticallyinjured.Therewa littledoubtthattheair ae interme'dlaryobetween Sll'V'e'iline and Inter, run by "
(Reproducedbykindpel'luis former French Commieeioner of Police. They go on to eay that
igeriaaboardtheDC-4M butWarton and Nelonjoint craftwa beyondrepair;itbrokeintofoursectionsimme sian oj the Public Record Inter eold the arme to the Nigerian Government (sic) through
a Dutchman named Muller. The arme are lieted ae 24 caeee
ly persuaded him to take a cheduled flight. either diately upon impact and its seven-tonne cargo (of 960 Office) of Lanchester sub-machine guns, each case containing 40
weapons; 13 cases, each·containing 144 maga~inesfor the
Americanwantedtohavetoexplaintoany u piciousair Lanchester sub-machine guns, 2060 magazines for the above. Afurther 188 magazines were found loose and 4 cases
each containing 150 chargettes. The report aleo claime that
port authority why a igerian government official was gun,and600chargette )was catteredalongthemarshy 8 fifth European passenger or crew should or could have been
aboard the aircraft. Papers were found for a man named
aboard an aircraftcarrying1,000machine-guns. riverbank. But, considering the extent ofthe damage to Pollock,whoee name appeared on the flight liet.
the aircraft, the injuries were minimal-Warton escaped '11M ~
At Ze tienhoven airport. Rotterdam. Warton lodgeda withmildconcussionandtheworstinjurysustainedbythe
)t~
flight-planshowingBirminghama thedestination. Asall crewaffected Orvis elson whosufferedabroken leg.
other papers appeared to be in order the aircraft was /
(R.N. Dalee)
allowed to depart exactly on schedule, during the mid
I
afternoon of9October. t 15.56Z Warton reported the
J R.W. Renwick, Eeq.,
aircraft position as abeam Clacton and heading west on Weet &Central Arricll. Department,
/ Foreign Office,
Red One airway. Shortly afterwards 'I-ACOA' entered / London, SaWa1.
the Birmingham air traffic control zone but in tead of G E R /
I
requesting clearance to land, Warton reported that the
I
aircraft' charterer- hown on the (-light-plan as 'Silver
Line irways'-had instructed him by radio to divert to 600
--
Palma airport, in Majorca. Without landing in the UK ....
Warton turned theaircraftaroundand flewsouth.Imme 500 /
diately after landing at Palma the aircraft was quickly
refuelled before taking-off to head further southwards 400 :
i" 6: When the illegally-regis
andoutacrosstheSaharatoHassiMessaoud,an Algerian 300~i..~
teredDC-4M,'I-ACOA"cra
,
oil ba eon theedgeofthedesert. gain theaircrafttook j; shedintheCameroonson II
on more fuel before being parked for a day and night :i'" October 1966it brought the
200'
topover. illegalarmsbuild-upbyEast
ern Nigeria iII/a the open.
1::r~
Hank WartonandOrvisNel
The original plan had been for Warton and Nelson to ,
o[ sonhadtakenofffromROller
hare the flying. In that way whilstone was flyingthe air
damtwodayspreviouslyand
craft the other would rest in the makeshift sleepingarea " in a circuitous route flew
in thecabin galleyarea. Warton had (-lownalmostcontin ( J-' " sowh to Palma and on to
uouslythroughoutthefirstdayhaving(-lownbothsectors. ( I Hassi Messaoud in Algeria.
For the nextsectoritwas to be Nelson's turn at thecon ,.,./'- "' \/r ( Thecrewmissed/heirintend
J edstopat Fort Lamy, Chad
trolsbutwhen 'I-ACONtook-offfrom Hassi Messaoud, ./
( andcan equently ran outoj
(
at07:44on Il October]966itdidsowith Wartonagain in I juel.Allonboardsurvived/he
I
the captain's seat. Then, and shortly after take-off, \ crashandlater, when Biafra
Warton handedovercontrol to elson andclimbed back Calabar 1 declareditselfasanindepen .. .. ,,'";~~~.:.. ,.'.,.~
to thesleepingarea. "- dent state, Warton emerged ~ ~---I'- ~.
I as one ojBiajra's principal
• Yaounde
" supplier' oj arms (Karl
Warton and elson had advised the Algerian authori " Kramer) , ~
ties oftheir next, and final, destination to be Fort Lamy,
12
13
The aircraft had crash-landed some 400kms south of did much to highlightthe armsbuild-up in Eastern Nige
Fort Lamy, beside the Benoue River in the French ria. One British charter airline even contacted the Min
Cameroons. All four crew were taken to a hospital at istryofAviationon24Octobertoannouncethattheyhad
Garoua. the relatively obscure capital of northern beenaskedtotenderforarm flightsbetween Pragueand
ameroons, and about 30kms to the eastofthe pointon Enugu. Two days later, the M.O.A. was aware of other
the Benoue River where the crash had occurred. In the British operators being asked to make arrangements for
meantimetheCameroonian authoritiesbegan to investi flying consignments of Czech anns, ostensibly for
gatethecrash. Dahomey,but known tobedestined for Enugu.6
As one would expect in an incident such as this, there In viewofthe timeawaitingtrial, Warton wasrelea ed
was much speculation and rumour. One story, which fromjail shortly afterthecourt passedjudgement. But it
seems to have originated from the S Embassy in wasnotasimplematterofjustcatchingthenextflightout
Yaounde, identified the crew as American but that they ofthecountry. Itwas to besome while yet before Henry
were "renegades and that the whole operation was Arthur Warton could resume his gun-running activities
mounted bytheBritish". Italsoemerged thatjustbefore but when he did manage to re-organise his operation he
theaircraftabandoneditsattempttolandatBirmingham, did, for a short while, become Biafra's most important
Warton hadaskedBirminghamAirTraffictorequestnew benefactorofclandestinearmsandammunition.
freight instructions from 'Instone Air Transport Ltd of
London EC.3'. It also emerged that Birmingham Air
Traffic had been unable to contact 'Instone'. The Board
of Trade sub equently investigated the company but Notes
could find no connection between In tone and Intor.
Therefore,accordingto theB.OT, the decision todivert 'oteI Lt-ColOjukwu.speakingaftertheAburiPeaceConference,
toMajorca must havebeen Warton' . January1967.
CRISIS AND ACTION
ote2 Although both men were born into different tribes their
a re ult of their attempted flight over the upbringing and military training followed similar traditional patterns.
ameroons without having lodged a flight-plan, Warton Lieutenant-ColonelYakubu'Jack'Gowonwasbornin1935inthe tiddle The Declaration of Secession
BellofNigeria.Thesonofanevangelisl.GowonwasaNortherner.from
and his crew were charged with "illegally flying over
theAngasminoritytribe.yetwasadevoutChristian.Aftersecondaryedu
Cameroon air pace and offlying an aircraftwithout the cationinthenorthernMuslimtownofZaria.hejoinedlheNigerianArmy
proper documentation." They were also charged with andundertookofficertraining.firstlyinGhana.andlaterinthe Katthe Hijacks and seizures the Federal Government should be paid to the Govern
RoyalMilitaryAcademy.Sandhursl.GowonsawservicewiththeI iger
"tran portingarmswithoutauthority". courtinGaroua mentTrea uryin the Eastern Region.
iancontingentinsupportof ForcesintheCongo.beforereturningto
later,on 6January 1967,sentencedall four to amonth in theUKforasecondspellattheArmyStaff ollege.Hehadbeen.inthc General Gowon's apparent reluctance to implementa
jail but in view of the period held awaiting trial all four mindofGeneralAguiyi-Ironsi.thenaturalchoicefortheappointmentof number of principles agreed at the January 1967 Aburi Lagosde cribedtheRevenue Edictasameansoffund
ArmyChiefofStaff.
men were released immediately. Warton was also fined lronsi'sappointmentofLieutenant-ColonelChukwuemekaOdumeg talksdid little to boostconfidencein the Eastern Region. ing Ojukwu's rehabilitation programmc and for securing
200,000francs CFA (£300) while el on was fined just wu OjukwuasMilitaryGovernoroftheEastern Regionhadbrought to Increa ingly, igeria'seasternersbecame ho tagestothe financial support for the increasing number of refugees
LOO,OOOfrancsCFA (£150). prominenceanotherNigerianArmymanwithorficcrtrainingintheUK. inability of Lagos to stabilise tension throughout the stillarrivingintheEast,mostlyfromtheNorth. Itwasnot,
Ojukwu was born in asmall Northern Nigeria town during November
1933. IewasanIboandthesecondsonoftransportmillionaireSirLouis country.Thesituation was further fucllcd whcn,duringa howevcr,seenasaffectingthehugeoil revenuewhich was
Repercussions of the Cameroon incident were wide OdumegwuOjukwu.HiseducationinNigeriaandEnglandwasfollowed, dawn broadcast from the Ea tern cal ital, Enugu on 25 collected in Lagos.
spread.The fraudulentuseofan importlicenceinnocent in 1956, by acceplance to the military officer academy at Eaton Hall, February, Ojuwku warned that if the Aburi agreements
Chester.During1961,andbythenaMajorintheNigerianArmy,Ojukwu
lygranted by the Board ofTradecaused embarrassment spent-asdidGowon-aspellwiththeNigeriandetachmentintheCongo. were not fully implemented by the end of the igerian On 1 pril 1967,the day followingOjukwu's Revenue
in London; Paul Favier's involvement focused attention SubsequentlyherosetotherankofLieutenant-General.lakingontherole financial year-31 March 1967-hewould takeunilateral Edict, the Lagos Government declared the Edict to be
upon hisactivitiesand,despite ongo-Brazzaville'sPres ofMilitaryCommandantofKanoafterthe1966coupwhichbroughtGen action and force them intoeffect. "illegal and unconstitutional"and immediatelyretaliated
eral lronsitopower;latertakingupthepositionofMilitaryGovernorof
ident MassambaDebatclaiming(in aradiobroadcaston theEasternRegion.Ojukwuwasalsoawealthyman.havinginheritedthe by impo ing acomplete diplomatic. economic and mili
24 December I966) that the arms had been destined for rewardsofhisfather'ssuccessfulbusiness. As the deadline approached so an air of expectancy tary blockade against the ast. The ban also included a
theCongo,Eastern igeria'ssecretbuild-upofillicitarms begantoemerge;therewasalsoawidespreadexpectation suspen ion of all scheduled igeria Airway flights into
ote3 ThespellingofHankWarton'snamehasoftenbeenquotedas
suddenlybecameverypublicknowledge. When thecrew Wharton.OnseeingabiographyofhisexperiencesinProplinermagazine that the Eastern Region would break from the Federa the Region, the ban becomingeffective from Tuesday, 4
werebroughttotrial inGaroua itwa allegedthatpaper hisonecomment to theaUlhorwas adislikeofhis namespell with an tion. When the day came Ojukwu called apress confer pri!. Ironically, all scheduled ser ice into, and out of.
relating to the Ibo poet, Christopher Okigbo, were dis 'h'-despitethefactthatmostpublishedreferencesdoincludeil.Muchof ence in Enugu; a special announcement had been the Ea tern Region were operated by Nigeria Airways
thedelailrelatingtotheflightof'I-ACOA'wasoriginallypublishedbythe
covered amongst the wreckage of the DC-4M. This had SundayTimesInsightTeamon23October1966. ommentslaterbythe anticipated, but instead of the expected break, Ojukwu and,apartfrom atwice-weeklythroughservicetoTikoin
even led to some reports that Okigbo was on board the Foreign& CommonwealthOfficejudgedtheInsightreporttobefactual simply announced the first part ofasurvival plan in the theCameroons,allwerepartoftheairline' domesticnet
aircraft when it crashed but that he had managed to Iyeorreel. shape of the Revenue Edict. The new ruling demanded work.Theseschedules,wereflownbytheairline'ssix DC
escape on foot into the Cameroons bush. This was, of otc4 AmericanAviationHistoricalJournal. ummel'1980 that all monies collected in Eastern igeria on behalfof 3 (5N- AK./AAL/A M/AAN/AAP/AAQ) and five
course,purespeculation;Okigbo had not been aboardat F-27 Friend hip 200s (5 - AVIA W/A X/AAY &
Warton's insistence. Ultimately Okigbo was killed in the Notc5 A fullverbaldescriptionoftheevenISleadinguptotheacci- 8Abolle:TheCOllemmenlofEaslernNigeriapurchasedIheHawkerSid AAZ).
fightingin Biafra. dentwasgiventotheauthorbyHankWarton. deley125Srs IB5N-AERduringIheallfllmnof1966andon23Decem
ber1966ilbegallilsdelivelyjlighlfromLlilon. Infacllhejelprogressed
Notc6 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Papers. Public Record At the time ofthe government ban on flights into the
nojill'fherIhanLagosbeforerelurning10IheUKforsrorage. IIisseen
TheSunday Times'Insight'article,on23October1966, OfficeF03711187848 here, al Lnlon, immedialelyaflerils relum. ThecreslonIhefuselage EasternRegion,NigeriaAirwaysstillhadanobligationto
had notonlyproved to havebeenextremelyaccuratebut cheal-lineconrainswhalwaslarer10becomeBiaJi'a'scoalofarmsand fly agroup of passengers who had pre-booked seats for
Ihe 'rising-slln'nalionalinsignia. (IliaBrianCales) thescheduled Enugu toLagos(Flight WT141) serviceon
14 15
Wednesday,5 April-in spite ofthe fact that moneycol teen passengers-who included Nigerians, Americans, was marginally altered, and it was re-registered as 5 unknownin1967.Theflowofcrudefrom fieldsintheEast
lected from thesaleofthese tickets(aswell forotherser British, Irish and [talians-weresearched before taken to AER. But its delivery flight to Enugu, Eastern igeria, and Mid-West had already begun and virtually all ofthe
vicesintheEastern Region)hadnotyetbeenpaidoverto aluxuryEnugu hotel where theyspentthe night9 which began from Luton on 23 December 1966, ended Mid-West oil was shipped out via the Trans- iger
the airline's Lagos headquarters.7 evertheless the sus prematurely after an unscheduled en route landing at pipeline to theBonnyTerminal in the East. Other fields
pension offlightswaslifted forjustonedayonlyto allow During the course of the following morning all of the Lagos.13 were beingdrilled from offshore rigs and the e, together
igeria Airways' DC-3 5N-AAK to be positioned from passengers were returned to Benin by road; the hijacker, with the Mid-West fields, suggested that the extent of
Lagos-[keja to Enugu, probably not routeing on that thought by the Benin airportauthorities to have been an ItwasduringarefuellingstopatAccra,inGhana,when underground reserves were potentially immense. But all
occasion via Port Harcourt. However, and immediately Eastern Nigeriasoldier,remainedin nugu.IO Therewas, the pilot, Trevor Copplestone, was notified that flight ofthese fields were in the Eastern Region, as was ige
after5N-AAK had landed at Enugu the airport authori considerably later, asuggestion that the hijacker had not clearance to Enugu had been cancelled (possibly due to ria'sonlyoil refinerynearPortHarcourt. AsGovernorof
tiesthereimpoundedtheaircraftandarrangedinsteadfor been a soldier but, in fact, the F-27's co-pilot. Other the factthatEnuguwasnotofficiallya'customs'airfield). the Eastern Region, Ojukwu effectively controlled the
anumberofvehicles to convey the passengers as well as reports identified the hijacker as a Nigerian lbo, and The instruction added that the aircraft was to be flown physical flowofoil from sourcetocoastal terminals.17
the DC-3'screwba,ck to Lagos.s which later identified him as Ibikare'Ibi' Allwell Brown, instead to Lagos where further orders would be issued.
an Ibo pilot who was eventually to fly MFl-9Bs with the 5N-AERpliedon toLagosbutafterlandingitseemsthat However hard Ojukwu tried not to involve any direct
Ojukwu's RevenueEdictwas followed,on 17April,by Biafran Air Force.11 Whatever the true factssurrounding the airport authorities there simply refused to allow the conflict with the oil companies orto involve the oil com
the Legal Education Edict and by the Statutory Bodies the hijack were,5N-AAV remained at Enugu and under crew to fly further east. In fact thejetwas surrounded by panies in his dispute with Lagos, there is no doubt that
Edict. The latter was designed to establish a Statutory thetermsofOjukwu'sStatutoryBodiesEdictbecamethe half-a-dozen Land Rovers ofthe Nigerian Army and the thosecompanieswerebecomingincrea inglycaughtwith
Bodies Council in Eastern igeria and as aconsequence propertyofthe EasternState Government. (Asan aside, crewplaced underhousearrest. in asituation thatwasalmostasvolatileasthe veryprod
ten central Government-owned agencics were trans all available official documentation relating to 5 -AAV uctitself.18
ferred to theCouncil'scontrol,amongst which wasNige shows that the Nigerian Certificate of Airworthiness Whether or not Lagos refused to allow Ojukwu to
ria Airways(WAAC)Ltd. expired on n April 1967. The author could find no evi receive his 125 or whether Ojukwu simply declined to It was not just the oil companies who were now
dencethat theC.ofA hadbeen renewed,suggestingthat accept it isstill very much open for conjecture. One pop embroiled in the worsening political situation; a host of
OneeffectoftheStatutoryBodiesEdictwastoenable theaircraft mayhavebeen operating,perhapsrathersur ular theory to emerge at the time suspected the Federal support operator were also involved, including a fairly
Corporationservicestobecontinued throughoutEastern prisingly, withoutavalidcertificate.) Governmentofemployingalocal witchdoctor to place a widespreadhelicoptersupportnetwork.InspiteofEnugu
Nigeria as well as offering a means of paying those Ibo ju-ju curse upon the aircraft, and thus making itvirtually beingtheEastern Regional capital, itwas the oil compa
refugeeswhowereemployedbytheCorporations,includ Shortly after the hijacking of5N-AAV, an attempt to impossibleforOjukwutoaccept! A moreplausibleexpla nies'supportactivity in supplyingthe rigsand fields,who
ingthenationalairline.TheothereffectofOjukwu'snew seize a second F-27 Friendship almost succeeded in nation isputforwardby tieyongAkpan,laterOjukwu's were responsible for making Port Harcourt the busiest
Edictwassimplyto'Iegalise' the Eastern Region govern Ghana.A groupofIbos hadplannedtoboardtheaircraft ChiefSecretaryandHeadoftheCivilService.14Inreflect airport inEa tern Nigeria.
ment'simpoundingofthe DC-35N-AAK which,sinceits forthereturnsectorofascheduledLagostoAccraservice ing upon Ojukwu's state of mind during this period,
enforced grounding on 5 April, had been kept under a but on that occasion details had been apparently leaked Akpan believes that Ojukwu was being intimidated by There were essentially two helicopter operators based
heavily-armedguard at Enugu. andsecurityofficialsat Accraairportfoiledtheattempt.12 close relativeswhoprofessed tobe moreinterested in his at Port Harcourt in support of the igerian oil industry.
personal safety than anythingelse. Akpan described the AeroContractorsCoof igeriaoperatedthroughoutthe
Asiftounderline ncwly-declaredstatutorypowersthe Equally foiled, but for very different reasons, was an 125incidentasprobably"themostridiculousandembar south and east of Nigeria, principally in support of the
Eastern Region made a second assault against igeria attempt by Ojukwu to acquire a Hawker Siddeley 125 rassing act of intimidation" and went on to explain that French oil company, SAFRAEP. Aero Contractors,
Airways when, within only a week of announcing the executivejet.Theaircraft,aSeriesIB/522,hadbeen pur "on its way to the East the pilot, owing to some misun which operated mainly Alouette helicopters, was almost
Statutory Bodies Edict, two armed Ibo men hijacked an chased bythe Eastern igerian government,through the derstanding, landed in Lagos. For this the Governorwas wholly owned (97%) by the Dutch company, Schreiner
F-27 Friendship,5N-AAV,onSunday23 April.The inci Swiss agent Transair Suisse SA, back in the autumn of advised to reject the plane which would have been AirTransportNV.
dentoccurredjustthreeminutesintothescheduledafter 1966. RegisteredinSwitzerlandasHB-VAU,the125had 'bugged' in Lagos.Theassurancesofboth thedealerand
noon Benin-Lagos (WTI23) service when the Pakistani made its first flight at Chester on 19 September 1966 the pilot that nobody in Lagos had got even near the Byfarthelargerofthetwooperatorsofferinglocalsup
captain (reported to have been named Cooper) had his beforebeinghandedovertotheSwissagencyon26Octo plane,whichhadbeenkeptlockedbythepilotallthetime porttotheoil industrywasBristowHelicopters(Nigeria)
headphones forcibly removed at gunpoint. The aircraft ber 1966.Itwasre-soldalmostimmediatelytotheEastern itwasattheairport,did notmakeanyimpression." In the Ltd,alocally-registeredoffshootofthe British company.
was flown to theEastern Capital ofEnugu where thesix- Region government. At the same time its paint scheme event,the125wasflownbacktotheUK,arrivingatLuton Although Bristow's operations were spread across the
on12January1967andwhereitwasplacedintostorage.IS southofNigeriathecompany'smainbaseforbothadmin
9:WhenEaslernNigeriaissued
Justafteritsreturn toLutonMikeKeegan,ownerofKee istrativeand front-lineservicingwork wasPort Harcourt.
ilsRevenueEdiclallscheduled
gan Aviation,spokepublicly,on28 April 1967,ofthesit
Nigeria Airways.f!ighls 10 Ihe
Region ,,.eresuspended, on 4 uation regardingthe125. "There hasbeen sometalk that [t came as no real surprise when Ojukwu finally
April 1967. However Ihe ban when the plane was delivered awitch doctor putamagic announced, in the early hours ofTuesday, May 30 1967
waslifiedforaileday100110\\1 spell on it. 1do not know whether this is true-all I am thattheEasternstateofNigeria wastobecometheInde
DC-35N-AAKlofly10 Enugu interested in atpresentissellingit!"16 pendentStateofBiafrawithimmediateeffect. Enugucel
10colleeragroup ofsIranded
ebrated, Ojukwu was sworn in as Biafra's first Head of
passengers. When Iheaircraft
landed 01 Enugu on 5 April StateandtookatriumphantridearoundEnugutownship.
Oil: Aerial support operations and
1967IheEaslernRegionsill/ply SomeseniorIbosbelievedthatsecessionwasonesteptoo
iII/poundedil andil was larer Biafran secesssion far and sought to escape to the West. Forothers life and
iII/pressedinlo Ihe BiaJr-allAir
work continued almost normally.
Force. (Roger Cararini, via
Lyingsurreptitiouslybehindthepoliticalbickeringand
JenniferM Cradidge)
thegeneraldeterioration ofthedelicatealliancebetween At the time of secession Bristows had eleven heli
EastandtheremainderofNigeria,laidthenation'sgreat copters committed to oil-support work, all technically
estprize-richandsulphur-freeoil deposits. based at Port Harcourt. These involved two Westland
WhirlwindSrs.3, fourHiller360 UH-nEsand five West
The extent of Nigeria's oil resources was still largely land Widgeon (licence-built Sikorsky S-51) helicopter,
17
16