Wing Commander Dick Summers
Airman who navigated wartime convoys on the trans-africa Takoradi Route and flew in V-bombers
WING COMMANDER DICK SUMMERS, who has died aged 95, flew night operations during the Battle of Britain before flying as one of the pioneers on the newly created Trans-african Ferry Route, which began at Takoradi in the Gold Coast (now Ghana).
After Italy entered the Second World War in June 1940, and the Mediterranean had become a war zone, an alternative route to Egypt had to be found for the delivery of essential aircraft reinforcements. In August 1940 Summers was in a party of RAF crews and maintenance personnel who sailed for the Gold Coast to establish a base at Takoradi. Blenheim bombers and Hurricane fighters were shipped in crates to the West African port where they were re-assembled before beginning the 3,600-mile ferry flight to Egypt via Khartoum. The historian Philip Guedalla observed that “victory in Egypt came by the Takoradi Route”.
Most of the aircraft were single-engine fighters and they were formed into small groups and led by a twin-engine aircraft carrying a navigator. Basic staging posts, manned by small parties of RAF ground crew, were established in northern Nigeria, Chad and Sudan. Summers led his first flight along the route in the autumn of 1940. Over the next two years he flew more than 400 hours as a “convoy leader”. After delivering their aircraft, the ferry crews returned to Takoradi by civil aircraft, often flown by South African airmen.
As well as his ferry flights, Summers flew anti-submarine patrols, photographic reconnaissance sorties and survey flights along the West African coast. On June 26 1941 his Blenheim was forced to land on the beach in Liberia. The crew were interned for three weeks but managed to escape. They commandeered a boat and were picked up by the SS Egyptian.
Over the next few months, while leading air convoys, he survived two more crash landings along the remote route. For his two years’ service with the ferry flight, Summers was awarded the AFM and was commissioned.
Richard Gordon Battenby Summers was born on October 18 1921 in Beverley in East Yorkshire. He was educated at Ermysted’s Grammar School, Skipton. He joined the RAF at 17 and trained as an air observer.
He was assigned to No 219 Squadron equipped with the Blenheim, which was used as a night fighter. During the Battle of Britain he engaged four enemy bombers but the ill-equipped Blenheim was unable to shoot them down. In late July 1940 he joined No 4 Ferry Pilot Pool and was soon on his way to West Africa.
Summers returned to Britain in October 1942 and in the following May joined No 48 Squadron as its bombing leader, flying the Hudson on anti-submarine patrols. The squadron operated from Gibraltar and flew patrols in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
On September 7 his Hudson engaged a Focke-wulf 200 Condor long-range patrol aircraft off the Portuguese coast. He was manning one of the machine guns and claimed hits on the enemy aircraft but the Hudson was hit repeatedly by return fire, seriously wounding the air gunner; he subsequently died.
Five days later, Summers and his crew found a damaged U-boat and, as his logbook records, “finished it off along with others, [and] counted 32 survivors in the sea”. In September 1943 he was rested from operational flying.
He specialised in bombing and served on flying training units and as a staff officer at Coastal Command. He remained in the RAF and, after attending Staff College, was promoted to squadron leader. He left for RAF Eastleigh in Nairobi to command the administration wing, where he served for more than two years during the Mau Mau Emergency.
The strength of the unit increased significantly, including a regular detachment of heavy bombers from the UK. He also had to organise the support for a resident light-attack squadron and other aircraft detachments. His African work force was frequently reduced to meet other security duties, but despite his heavy workload he also managed to fly as the bomb aimer on a number of strikes by Lincoln aircraft. For his services during the Emergency he was appointed OBE.
After a brief period in command of a Canberra jet bomber squadron, he was promoted to command the Boys’ Apprentice Wing at RAF Cosford. He returned to flying duties in command of the Operations Wing on a V-bomber base, where he regularly flew sorties in both the Valiant and the Vulcan.
In 1962 he joined the Nato staffs with responsibility for “nuclear activities” and planning. His USAF general highly commended him at the end of his four-year tour. After two years with the MOD planning staffs, Summers retired from the RAF in October 1968.
For three years he was secretary of the British Leather Manufacturers’ Research Association, before becoming a director of United Builders’ Merchants, a position he held for 10 years.
For his work helping to re-organise and raise funds for the Gloucestershire Branch of St John’s Ambulance, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of St John in 1988. A keen golfer, he was captain of Lilley Brook Golf Club in Cheltenham.
Summers met Jean Carruthers, a serving WAAF, in March 1943. Two months later he received notice of a posting overseas, and four days after that they were married. She died in August 2014. Their son survives him; a daughter predeceased him.
Wg Cdr Dick Summers, born October 18 1921, died May 7 2017