Page 409 - Sierra Leone to 1961 - The Collection

Air Mail Services

Elders Colonial Airways Service to Bathurst to connect with German Service to Europe

15 June 1939 - Freetown to Suva, Fiji. Backstamped at Sydney (6 Jul) and Suva (27 Jul).

Flown by ECA FB52 from Freetown (16 Jun) and DLH L460 from Bathurst (17 Jun) to Germany (17 Jun).
Flight L460 departed Bathurst 00.47 on 17 June and arrived in Berlin at 23.17 the same day. It was operated
for the first and only time by the FW-200 Holstein and the 19 hours 18 minutes flight from Bathurst to
Frankfurt was a record time.

It should have been flown the next day (18 Jun) from Berlin to Backstamps (75%)
Croydon either by DLH or Imperial Airways and logically it could
then have been placed on Imperial Airways Eastern service SE142,
which departed Southampton 21 June and arrived in Sydney on
the 30th. However, the Sydney backstamp of 6 July indicates it was
flown by the next service (SE143) operated by the S23 Cameronian,
which departed Southampton 24 June and arrived Sydney 6 July.
It was three days late having been delayed at Sourabaya with an oil
cooler problem.

There was no published rate to Fiji, but the Gazette of 20 June 1938 listed 1s 4d to the UK and 2s 6d to
Australia. It would seem that the sender intended to pay the air rate to the UK only, but the post office sent
it by air all the way.