The Unsung Pilots of the WWII Ferry Command-DESTINATION ANYWHERE

Before the Unites States was involved in World War II, Allied British Forces had a desperate need for more airplanes to fend off the Nazi attack in Europe. Sending US built planes on ships across the Atlantic to deliver these planes was quickly becoming problematic. By late 1940, the idea to fly or ferry these planes across the North Atlantic came to fruition as the first brave men attempted it. Soon, this ferry system became the norm and it played a pivotal role in the Allied war effort in Europe. On this episode of Destination Anywhere, we take a look at the beginnings of this Royal Ferry Command and a personal tie that I have to it.
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I want to give a special thanks to Mr. Ian Davies for all the work he put into covering this topic and sending documents to my family over the years.
Footage used courtesy of The Moving Image Archive and the Prelinger Archives.
Information Credit: Ocean Bridge: The History of the RAF Ferry Command by Carl A. Christie. Published by Heritage.

[@donhendricks3190]

Well done! And thank you for honoring these brave souls.

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

Thanks, Don! I appreciate the support.

[@AmericasParks]

Really interesting piece of history unknown to most people. Great to honor those brave soldiers, especially a family member!

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

Randy, thanks so much for the support. I really appreciate it!

[@fxmct71]

Thanks Mick. Great stuff! Here's to all of the Marty Wetzels who have made this country great!

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

Thanks so much for that and for taking the time to watch it. I really appreciate it!

[@wvtreasurehunters2319]

Thanks buddy for the great history information

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

As always, I 'm really thankful for the support!

[@AsBobSeesIt]

Another great video. Keep 'em coming, Mickey.

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

Thanks a ton, Bob!

[@georgielancaster1356]

This is a quality offering, as a memorial to your relative. It is just immensely sad it had to include your personal loss... You can waste so much of your life thinking, If only... It's often the little mistake deaths, the pointless deaths, that so upset me. Just now, I thought, "What if your uncle had offered his seat to the wife?" And then you wonder if it really would have changed that war story! Would that plane have been okay? Would your uncle have also been okay, on a later flight... I have read a great book on the ferry flights from Canada, but can't remember the name of book and author.

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

Hi Georgie, Thank you for taking the time to watch. It really is full of 'what ifs" and in many ways it's a fools game. I just kind of accept that things work out the way they are supposed to. That book maybe have been one of my reference materials on this project. Thanks again for watching and leaving your thoughts!

[@lesliemaitland3551]

Terrific video. Thank you! My dad flew both the northern route and the southern. Please considering doing a video on the southern route, which went from Miami, to the Bahamas, across northern South America, to Accra, Khartoum, ending in Cairo. American civilian pilots were on this run as well, including women.

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

Thanks for checking this out and sharing!

[@georgielancaster1356]

I believe the ferry pilots got a far higher pay than the military. Some military were a bit peeved. The ferry pilots could be older, fatter, have eye sight that would fail in military tests... Carry injuries, etc that would knock them out of pilot service, if enlisted in normal air force.

[@lesliemaitland3551]

@@georgielancaster1356 Well what you don't know. My dad was drafted by the National Hockey League in 1940 and enlisted in the RCAF instead. Older? Fatter? Ferry Command was a reward for brutal tours of duty for those who had been on tours over Europe and North Africa. Oh, and those second class pilots flying Ferry Command? A lot of them were women. Who were thrown into combat situations without any training. You should do your homework.

[@lesliemaitland3551]

@@TheMickeyShuffle I could give you the flight route, thanks to my father's flight logs.

[@erlaracing9326]

I was very interested in your short documentary on the Ferry Command as my father served in the Ferry Command until it disbanded after Victory in Europe. I was particularly interested in your mention of the two crashes, one of which killed your great uncle and Arthur Purvis. The reason I mention this is that my mother me told how lucky my father was, on two occasions within a very short time, my father and another man were bumped from the return ferry flight and subsequently both flights ended in disaster. My father's name was Richard Archer (Radio Officer) and the other fellow was Harold Dun (Radio Officer). Is there any way to confirm this?

[@mickeyfranz5560]

Hi Erle, first off, thanks for taking the time to watch this. I was lucky when putting this movie together because a family member of mine had been in touch with a man in Europe who I believe has since passed, that did a lot of research on this subject. He sent us all kinds of articles and reports about the crashes. I'm not sure if I mentioned in the movie but there was a report by a few people that the pilot of the plane that crashed and killed my great uncle, had his wife bumped shortly before take off by the addition of Arthur Purvis. There's some debate that this may have played into the psyche of the overworked pilot leading up to the crash. I'm not sure how true it is but I believe I saw it in multiple sources during research. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any other people being bumped although I wish I could provide some information for you!

[@RCAFhistorian]

May I recommend the Bill Vanderkloot documentary "Flying the Secret Sky: The History of the RAF Ferry Command," the best one I have seen on the subject, available from WGBH Boston? Should you wish to learn even more, you can read my book, "Ocean Bridge: The History of RAF Ferry Command" (University of Toronto Press, 1995; 1997 in paper).

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

Hello Carl, thank you very much for the suggestion on the documentary. Furthermore, I'm honored if you watched my video as your book was the biggest chunk of outside information used in my research. One Friday night about a month ago, I stayed up until 2am in the morning reading it. It was a tremendously informative and comprehensive read which I was thoroughly happy to stumble on. In fact, if you notice in the information section below my video I noted your book as a reference. Thank you very much for all your hard work on this subject! Without it, I wouldn't have been able to form a vision for this subject and video! Also, thank you for honoring this somewhat forgotten achievement with your book!

[@carlchristie7384]

I am ashamed to admit I didn't see the references following your video. Btw, you'd love Bill Vanderkloot's documentary.

[@TheMickeyShuffle]

I will definitely check it out! Thanks so much!

[@geraldleat5970]

You forgot Iceland and Greenland for fuel.

[@barneydenstad2148]

The female WASP ferry flyers are the renown now...(Im not sure if, and what payment they got. military and veteran status they got first in the 70ties) But of course, most ferry flyers were male, organized by the Army. Wasp wasnt allowed to do long transports over open waters, though. Fun fact; the british ATA was more liberal (inlucing equal payment), and they HAD a group of female aviators flying over North Atlantic, including some american women among them. - they called themselves for group 99 or club 99.

[@lesliemaitland3551]

Bravo the Americans.